Southington's Ward Named to Hall of Fame at Alma Mater

VERNON, CT – John Ward III, considered top be the most accomplished track and field athlete in the weight events in Rockville High School history, has been elected to the RHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

Ward is a 1980 graduate and a Southington resident.

Committee chair Scott Smith (Class of 1988) made the announcement this week.

Ward is the fourth announced 2018 inductee into the RHS Athletic Hall of Fame, following Keith W. Millen ’95, Rachel A. Meth ’99 and Stanley J. “Skip” Olander ’62. Millen played hockey and baseball, Meth softball and Olander basketball and baseball.

The sixth-annual RHS Hall of Fame Social and Induction Ceremonies are scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16 at the high school. A 1 p.m. social will be followed by the 2 p.m.ceremonies. Tickets are priced at $20 and can be reserved by contacting Smith at smithsc33@sbcglobal.net or at 860-604-6618.

After concluding his RHS career by winning the CVC, Class LL and State Open javelin competitions, Ward proceeded to win gold at the MCC New England Relays in the javelin before capturing first place in that event at the AAU/USA Junior Olympic state (200 feet), regional (208 feet) and national meets (215 feet). His winning throw at the nationals at Santa Clara, CA – his best to that point in his career coming on his next-to-last attempt — bested his Oregon counterpart by nearly a foot.

His javelin was lost in Chicago on the flight to that year’s Junior Olympic Nationals and Ward had to practice with a borrowed javelin before his own arrived, according to one account, just 10 minutes before the preliminaries.

Ward received Division I interest at the conclusion of his RHS career – Kansas and Maryland among the schools recruiting him. After redshirting as a freshman at then-Division II Central Connecticut State University following an ulner nerve relocation on his throwing elbow, Ward went on to win the national championship in the javelin as a senior that capped a collegiate career as a three-time All-American with national finishes of first, second and sixth.

As a junior, he qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Los Angeles with a winning javelin throw of 260-2 at the IC4A Championships at Villanova and later received the Gladstone Award as the top male athlete of Central’s senior class.

A Rockville native, Ward participated in multiple events in track & field under Jim Balcome and Harry Geraghty and in soccer as a goalie under Chuck Saimond. Geraghty (2013) and Saimond (2015) are RHS Hall of Fame coaches.

The 6-foot-1 inch, 200 pound Ward threw the javelin for only two years at Rockville. As a junior in the spring of 1979, he won the CVC title and placed sixth in the Class LL meet and in June won the high school division of the MCC Relays with a throw of 176-3.

As a senior in 1980, he repeated as CVC titlist (203-feet), claimed the Class LL title with a final throw of 205-4, the State Open championship and had the best throw by 40 feet among all divisions in the MCC Relays with a meet-record toss of 205-3. That year, he established the current RHS javelin record of 205-8.

Balcome was reported as saying early in Ward’s throwing career that “most didn’t have his power and quickness.”

As a junior in the fall of 1978, Ward was teammates with 2014 RHS Hall of Famer Chris Green ’81 on one of Saimond’s most successful soccer teams – the Rams equaling the program record for wins with a 10-5-4 final record and reaching the third round of the Class LL state tournament.

Inserted as the No. 1 keeper as a senior in 1979, Ward helped backstop a team decimated by graduation to a near-.500 record (7-8-1). With Ward playing behind top defenders Dan Rencurrel and 2017 RHS Hall of Famer Steve Emerson ’81 in 1979, the Rams edged Newington, 2-1, in that season’s season and home-opener. Other highlights that fall included shut wins over Bloomfield and Hartford Public, the latter game a 3-0 home victory that knocked the Owls from the ranks of the unbeaten. Ward concluded his soccer career with a 4-1 home victory over Ellington.

While Ward gained national acclaim in the javelin, he also competed at RHS in the discus, shot, triple jump and sprints. Soon after breaking his RHS and the CVC javelin record in winning the CVC title as a senior in 1980, Ward set an MCC Relays record of 205-3 with a 40-foot victory in the javelin to go along with placing fourth in the shot and fifth in the triple jump.

More than 30 years after leaving RHS, Ward continued to excel on the national level as the No.-1 ranked javelin thrower on the USA Masters level in 2014 and 2015.

Ward is employed at High Class Auto in Canton and resides in Southington with his wife, Lori (Anderson). He has four children.

Photo Courtesy of RHS Hall of Fame

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