By Mark Carpenter-
The weather played havoc with some of the events at the Jan. 19 Coach Young Classic at North Adams High School, but one part of the “show that must go on” was the induction of the newest members of the NAHS Athletic Hall of Fame. There we two inductees in this year’s class, multi-sport star Troy Storer and popular and recently retired soccer coach Dave D’Avignon.
Storer was a basketball, track, and baseball standout at North Adams in the late 90’s with a long list of accomplishments that made him Hall of Fame worthy. On the baseball diamond, Storer was named First Team All-Southern Hills League in 1996 and 1997 and duplicated that performance on the school’s track team. At one time, he held the school records in the Shot Put, Discus, and as part of the 4 x 100 relay team, but his greatest feats came on the hardwood.
A member of Coach Dave Young’s 1996 Final Four squad, Storer tallied 1,018 points in his high school career and at one time held the school’s single-game scoring record with 40 points. In 1995 he was named Second Team All-League and in 1996 Second Team All-State.
The following season (1997) was a big one, as Storer racked up the following accomplishments: District Player of the Year, SHL Player of the Year, First Team All-State, All-SHL First Team, and participate in the Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game as well as the McDonald’s Ohio North-South All-Star Game.
“It’s really an honor and humbling,” said Storer of his HOF induction. “I’ve always loved coming back her and it’s really comforting when I do come back to see the same old faces that were in the stands when I was playing. The relationships that I built when I was younger are special. It’s been awhile since I have seen a lot of these people but we seem to just pick up right where we left off. That’s the best part of growing up in this community.”
Simply put, coach Dave D’Avignon helped put North Adams soccer back on the map in southeast Ohio, coaching soccer at the school for 12 years- four years with the boys (2007-2010) and nine years with the girls (2010-2018).
In his career, he won sectional championships with the boys in 2007 and with the girls in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, also taking the girls’ team to the district finals in 2016 and 2017. Coach “D” was also the 2017 recipient of the Southeast District Coach’s Service Award.
Coach D’Avignon took over a boys program that was winless in 2006 and immediately won a sectional championship the next season and built the girls program into a southeast Ohio powerhouse, placing seven players on All-State teams from 2013-2018 and totaling 277 wins in his 34 years total as a varsity head coach, 114 of those coming at North Adams- 85 with the girls and 29 with the boys.
