BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Bridgewater State's 19th induction class was officially enshrined in the Bears' Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday night during Homecoming Weekend festivities.
Multi-sport athletes, Paula Habel ’03,
Dave Morwick ’64, and Erika Smith
’04, baseball great, Fred Martin
’98, women’s soccer standout, Kimberly
Rhodes Robinson ’05, and baseball coaching legend,
Rick Smith, were all officially inducted during
the evening's ceremonies.
Paula Habel spent four stellar seasons as a member of the
Bridgewater State women’s lacrosse team and three on the
Bears’ women’s basketball team from 2000 to 2003.
She was a four-time New England Women’s Lacrosse Alliance
(NEWLA) First Team All-Star (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), two-time
NEWLA Offensive Player of the Year (2002, 2003), two-time ECAC
Division III New England Second Team All-Star (2002, 2003) and was
selected to play in the 2003 STX Division III North-South Senior
All-Star Game.
Habel, who captained the BSU women’s lacrosse team from 2001
to 2003, currently ranks second all-time at BSU in assists, third
in scoring and sixth in goals (184). She also ranks 15th
all-time in Division III with 152 assists. Habel helped lead
the Bears to a NEWLA Tournament Championship and NCAA Division III
Tournament bid during her senior season of 2003.
On the hardwood, Paula tallied 152 points, 137 rebounds, 39
assists, 18 steals and 8 blocked shots in 62 career games.
She was also a team captain her junior and senior seasons.
Paula was just recently named as the Bears’ new Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach. Previously she was the head coach at Plymouth State University (2005, 2006), Allegheny College (2008, 2009) and Emerson College (2010). Habel also spent time with the lacrosse program at Division I Ohio University before that program was eliminated by the University.
Dave Morwick was a two-sport athlete at Bridgewater State
competing on the football and baseball teams from 1960 to
1963. He was the starting quarterback as a freshman on the
1960 team which marked the beginning of the present day
program. Dave was the signal caller for the Bears for three
seasons before an injury at the end of his junior season cut short
both his collegiate football and baseball careers.
On the baseball team, Morwick was the starting first baseman his
freshman and sophomore seasons and helped Bridgewater capture the
Southern New England Coastal Conference championship in 1962.
Morwick returned to Bridgewater State in 1967 and spent the next 40
years as an administrator before retiring in 2007. He served
as the Director of Financial Aid, Director of Administrative
Services and finally as Director of Special Projects. Dave
was also the State Union President of the Association of
Professional Administrators (APA) for the nine state universities
for 12 years.
Erika Smith excelled on both the field hockey and women’s
lacrosse fields for the Bears for four seasons from 2000 to
2004. She is presently the head field hockey coach at
Bridgewater State, a position she has held since 2006, and also
skippered the BSU women’s lacrosse program from 2006 to
2011.
Smith, who captained the field hockey team for three seasons, was a
Little East Conference (LEC) First Team All-Star in 2003 and second
team all-star in 2001 and 2002. She was also a three-time
All-MASCAC Field Hockey First Team selection and finished her
career with 13 goals and 16 assists for 42 points over 66
games.
In the sport of women’s lacrosse, Erika was a four-time NEWLA
All-Star capturing first team honors in 2002 and 2004. In
2002, she was also named the league’s Defensive Player of the
Year and was chosen as an ECAC Division III New England
Women’s Lacrosse Second Team All-Star. Smith captained
the team during her senior season of 2004 when she led all of
Division III with 95 ground balls and 7.31 ground balls per
game. In 63 career lacrosse games, she amassed 88 goals and
43 assists for a total of 131 points.
Through her first five seasons as the Bears’ field hockey
coach, Smith has produced an overall record of 52-44 (.542).
She was named the MASCAC Field Hockey Coach of the Year in 2007
when her squad set the program mark with 16 wins and captured the
ECAC Division III New England Tournament championship.
Erika just recently retired as the BSU head women’s lacrosse
coach, but not before making an indelible mark on the
program. She is the program’s all-time winningest coach
with an overall record of 74-32 (.698). This past season she
was named the NEWLA Coach of the Year after guiding her team to a
program record 17 wins. The squad also captured their fourth
straight NEWLA Tournament title since rejoining the Alliance in
2008, and advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the
second straight season.
Arguably the top closer in Bridgewater State baseball history, Fred
Martin graced the baseball diamond for the Bears from 1995 to
1998. He still holds both the BSU career and single-season
marks for saves with 15 overall and 10 in 1998. Fred is also
the Bears’ all-time and single-season record holder for
appearances with 57 overall and 17 in both 1996 and 1998.
In his four seasons at BSU, Martin posted an overall win-loss
record of 12-1 with 105 strikeouts in 116.1 innings of work.
His .923 winning percentage is also a school record. In 1998,
Fred led the MASCAC in saves and tied for second in all of Division
III as he was named to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball
Association (NEIBA) Division III All-New England Second Team and
the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Division III
All-New England Third Team.
During Martin’s career, the BSU baseball team captured three
MASCAC regular season titles (1996, 1997, 1998) and made three NCAA
Division III Tournament Appearances (1996, 1997, 1998). The
Bears won NCAA Division III regional tournament championship and
advanced to the Division III World Series in both 1996 and
1997. The 1996 team posted a third place finish at the World
Series.
A four-year women’s soccer standout at BSU from 2000 to 2003,
Kimberly Rhodes Robinson was selected to the All-MASCAC First Team
in each of her four seasons with the squad and was a three-time
MASCAC Player of the Year (2001, 2002, 2003) as well as the
conference rookie of the year in 2000. Kim twice earned
National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/Adidas
Division III All-New England Second Team honors (2002, 2003) and
was chosen to the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Soccer
Association (NEWISA) All-New England Second Team in 2003.
Rhodes led the MASCAC in goals scored in each of her four seasons
at Bridgewater State and topped the conference in both assists and
scoring (points) in each of her final three seasons with the
Bears. Rhodes still holds BSU women’s soccer program
marks for assists in a game (4 vs. Roger Williams in 2003), season
(12 in 2002) and career (33), and also tied single-game record with
four goals versus UMass Dartmouth in 2002.
Kim, who is second all-time at Bridgewater in goals (55) and points
(143), helped lead the women’s soccer team to back-to-back
MASCAC Tournament championships and NCAA Division III Tournament
appearances in 2002 and 2003.
Rick Smith has enjoyed 18 successful seasons as the Bears’
head baseball coach, which has included nine trips to the NCAA
regional championships and two trips to the NCAA Division III
College World Series in 1996 and 1997. The 1996 team posted a
third place finish at the World Series. His overall record of
449-242-4 (.649) during that period makes him the winningest coach
in Bridgewater State athletics history. In 2009, Coach Smith
became the first BSU baseball coach to reach the 400-win milestone
(an 18-8 win over UMass Dartmouth on April 23rd at Alumni
Park).
In 1996 and again in 2000, Rick was named the American Baseball
Coaches Association (ABCA) New England Division III "Coach of the
Year". He was also selected the MASCAC "Coach of the Year" in
1998 and again in 2000. Bridgewater has won or shared the MASCAC
regular season title nine times during his head coaching
tenure. His teams have also won at least 20 games in 16 of
his 18 seasons at the helm, with two 30-win campaigns in 1996
(31-10) and 2000 (30-9).
The induction of Habel, Morwick, Smith, Martin, Rhodes and Smith
brings the BSU Hall of Fame's total membership to 120.