NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Six names synonymous with athletic greatness will see their names etched into Hampton Roads immortality in November.
LaShawn Merritt, Brandon Elliott, David Six, Mimi Smith, Sugar Rodgers and the late Darryl Cummings make up the 2024 class of the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame.
Cummings learned to play tennis on the courts at Norfolk’s Northside Park and went on to a highly influential coaching career in his hometown. He coached the Old Dominion University women’s team for 20 years and men’s for 17, winning a total of 563 matches. Six All-Americans and two players who would go on to compete at Wimbledon would come through his programs. Cummings also coached at Norfolk State and Virginia Wesleyan.
Brandon Elliott has developed a nationally prominent softball program at Virginia Wesleyan. Elliott has led the Marlins to 12 NCAA Division III tournaments, winning national championships in 2017, 2018 and 2021. His record in 16 years at Wesleyan is 582-142-1, and he has coached 10 players to All-America honors. Before coaching, he played baseball at VWU for four years, helping the Marlins to two ODAC titles.
Portsmouth native LaShawn Merritt ran times in the 400 and 200 meters that remain among the fastest in U.S. history. Merritt won the gold medal in the 400 at the 2008 Olympics and also took gold in the 4x400 relay in 2008 and 2016. Merritt, a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, won eight more gold medals at the Track and Field World Championships between 2005-15. Since his retirement in 2017, he has begun coaching and giving clinics in Hampton Roads and around the country.
Sugar Rodgers rose from humble roots in Suffolk to basketball stardom at Georgetown University and in the WNBA. Rodgers was a standout at Kings Fork High School and for the Suffolk Aces, for whom she was named MVP of the 2007 AAU Nike Nationals. At Georgetown, she scored a school-record 2,518 points and was named first-team All-Big East four times. She played eight years in the WNBA, winning a league title with the Minnesota Lynx. She is currently an assistant coach at the College of William & Mary.
Coach David Six had unprecedented success with the women’s basketball program at Hampton University, developing a MEAC program that competed with, and frequently beat, teams from the power conferences in the sport. Six finished his career at HU with a record of 264-188, with five MEAC tournament titles. Before coming to HU, he coached the girls basketball team at Hampton High School, winning 380 games, going to the state Final Four five times, and winning state championships in 2001 and 2007.
Mimi Smith rose to field hockey prominence at Old Dominion University on her way to an international career. Smith was named the NCAA’s national player of the year in 1999. She was a two-time All-American and led Old Dominion to the national championship in 1998. Smith played on the U.S. national team from 1999-2004. As a senior at ODU she was named the top defensive player in the CAA. She is currently an assistant coach at the College of William and Mary.
The class will officially be inducted into the Hampton Roads Hall of Fame on November 13 during a ceremony in the Big Blue Room at Chartway Arena.
