Two Black Knights are among the Section IV Hall of Fame Class of 2026, former Windsor three-sport athlete Nathan Wrighter, and former football coach Dan Hodack.

“I’m honored to be noticed for my time in Windsor. It’s an honor to be a member with everyone else who is there,” said Wrighter.
Wrighter earned 13 varsity letters at Windsor, five for golf, four for basketball, and four for baseball. He was an STAC East Division All-Star in each sport. After graduating from Windsor Central High School, he played baseball for Bryant University, where he ranks sixth on the school’s all-time list for pitching appearances.

“It was definitely a change going from a small school to a college. Bryant wasn’t a huge college, but it was a big change. Also, being at a small school, it made me want to work harder to be the best in the area or the team. I know others who went to college from the area may have had more talent, but it made me want to work harder,” said Wrighter.

During his four-year career at Bryant University, his team won two regular-season Northeast Conference championships, one NEC postseason championship and appeared in one NCAA Tournament.

“Perseverance is the number one lesson the coaches taught to me through baseball and golf. In golf, you’re never going to do great every time. In baseball to be considered good hitting, if you fail 7 out of 10 times, you’re doing pretty well,” said Wrighter.

Wrighter is now a project manager of research and development at NYSEG in Kirkwood, where he lives with his wife and daughter.  

“After I went to college, I moved back home. My now wife is from Windsor. We’ve been dating since high school. We went to separate colleges but both came back. After college, it worked that we both came back home, got married, and bought a house. We couldn’t leave, our families were here,” said Wrighter.

Hodack was a math teacher and spent 22 years as head football coach at WCHS. He also coached indoor and outdoor track. Some of his best success came when the Black Knights won five sectional championships in the 1990s.
“That was quite an accomplishment at that time. We were quite proud of that. The young men really put forth an effort. It wasn’t just me. It was a combination of players, their devotion, and my coaching staff,” said Hodack.
Hodack earned the Press & Sun Bulletin’s Coach of the Year award in 1996.

“That’s an earned award that reflects on the coaching staff, and volunteer coaches. I had an outstanding crew of volunteer coaches,” said Hodack.
 
Many of Hodack’s best memories of his time as head football coach are beyond the games themselves.
“It’s all of the great people in the community, the things we did with the team. We had the camp at the high school during the preseason, we ran team meals every game that we had. If it was a home game, we would have breakfast if it was an afternoon game. If it was an evening game, we would have dinner before the game. That’s a tradition that we carried on. And that brought together our team. The moms and dads participated in that. That really brought together a sense of team unity,” said Hodack.

The Section IV Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at a ceremony at the Holiday Inn Arena on April 25th.