Bay State Games Inducts Four Into 2019 Hall of Fame Class

Wayland resident Yvonne Chern, Marblehead native and resident Beth Sopka, Brockton’s Orlando Vandross and Roxbury’s Charlie Titus join past MLB, NBA, NHL and Olympians with Bay State Games ties.

WOBURN – Assistant coach of the 2019 NCCA National Championship Basketball Team, Orlando Vandross, Vice Chancellor of Athletics and Recreation and long-term UMass Boston Men’s Basketball Coach, Charlie Titus, and longtime Badminton Co-Directors Yvonne Chern and Beth Sopka have been selected for induction into the 2019 Bay State Games’ Hall of Fame. All four inductees will receive their award at a pre-game ceremony at Fenway Park on June 24 prior to the Red Sox game against the Chicago White Sox.

The Bay State Games Hall of Fame was created to recognize past participants who have gone on to prestigious and successful athletic careers, as well as former and current coaches, officials, sports organizers, and volunteers who have made significant contributions to the organization throughout its 38-year history.   Past inductees among the over 60 previous honorees include the NBA’s Dana Barros (`06), Tom Thibodeau (’17) and the late Reggie Lewis (`02); WNBA’s Rebecca Lobo (’03), the NHL’s Bill Guerin (`09) and Keith Yandle (14); Major League Baseball’s Carlos Pena (`11) and Rich Hill (`13); Olympians Nancy Kerrigan (`07), Jim Pedro (’04) and Bill Cleary (`14) as well as US Paralympic Gold Medalist Joe Lemar (’15).

Yvonne Chern has served as a co-director of badminton for the Bay State Games tournament for over 15 years. She lives in Wayland, Massachusetts and has been influential in expanding badminton on the East Coast. With her husband, she created the Boston Badminton Club located in Westborough, Massachusetts, which held the first USA Badminton Team trials outside of California. Yvonne serves as the Vice President of both the Northeast Badminton Association, the Massachusetts Badminton Association, and is a former board member of USA Badminton.

Beth Sopka helped initiate badminton into the Bay State Games and has served as a co-director for over 15 years. Sopka lived in Marblehead, Massachusetts where her love for badminton began while playing with her son. In 1996, she started the New England Junior Cup and in 1997 co-founded the North Shore Junior Badminton Association. She’s been President of the Massachusetts Badminton Association for nearly 20 years as well as Vice President of the Northeast Badminton Association since 2016.

Orlando Vandross grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts and competed in the Bay State Games playing basketball. Vandross played for Brockton High School and was inducted to their Hall of Fame in 2003. After playing throughout college at American International College in Springfield, he coached the 1996 Bay State Games Coastal Region Men’s Basketball team. He moved on to coach at Boston University and UNC Charlotte until 2015. Vandross now is an Assistant Coach for the University of Virginia’s Men’s Basketball team, which won their first NCAA National Championship title in 2019.

Charlie Titus has been on the board of directors for Bay State Games for over 25 years where he has made significant contributions by hosting events at UMass Boston facilities since the mid 1980’s. He currently lives and grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He played basketball at Boston Technical High School and at Saint Michael’s College, where he was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999. Titus was the first and only head coach of the UMass Boston Men’s Basketball team until 2015 when he took over as Vice Chancellor of Athletics and Recreation. Titus was recently inducted to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame for his honorable contributions.


For more information on the Hall of Fame, go to www.baystategames.org/hall-of-fame