In 2014, Phil Heyn achieved his goal in creating the Revere district’s first method that honors the school’s athletic alumni called Revere’s Athletic Hall of Fame. The Revere Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony now occurs annually, and Heyn organizes and runs the ceremony. This year, Heyn got to become part of the ceremony not just as a contributor, but as an Athletic Hall of Fame inductee.

Revere students come and go each year, and some—like Heyn—stay to contribute to the community and school they once attended. This year, seven alumni and the 1966 Football Team had the opportunity to return to the high school not as student athletes, but as recognized members of Revere’s athletic department and community. The RAA and Heyn hosted this year’s induction ceremony on October 3 during one of the Varsity football team’s home games, and all recognized alumni walked across the field and accepted their induction awards. These alumni include Phil Heyn for both football, baseball, and his roles as an athlete, coach and Revere contributor; Pete Nance for basketball; Alexandra (Poitinger) Pulizari for golf, swimming and lacrosse; Natalie (Robson) Cristiano for tennis; Nick Gallo for soccer; Sara (Ilko) Fredericks for softball; and KJ Creamer for basketball (both as an athlete and as a coach). 

Phil Heyn — 1996

Today, students know Phil Heyn as a history teacher, coach and active participant in the Revere community. In the years leading up to 1996, however, Heyn roamed the Revere High School (RHS) halls not as a teacher nor coach nor contributor, but instead as a student. 

Heyn played both baseball and football during his high school years. After graduating and some back and forth, Heyn ultimately settled on going to college at Ohio Wesleyan to both play football and study history, and he returned to Revere to teach as a history teacher in the early 2000s.

In this time, Heyn returned to both the Revere football field and the Revere baseball field, coaching the teams before giving up baseball after twelve years. Today, Heyn still coaches football at Revere, and he served as the head coach from 2010-2012. Aside from his athletic career, Heyn actively participates in the athletics department in numerous ways, most notably by creating Revere’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014 and working as president of the FAA.

Pete Nance — 2018

Revere inducted two of the three Nance children into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016 and 2019. This year, Revere inducted the third and final Nance into the program, and his name now sits engraved in the 2025 Revere Athletic Hall of Fame sign: Pete Nance.

A Revere alumnus and 2018 graduate, Pete Nance played for the RHS Varsity basketball team in all four years of his high school career, leaving a lasting impact on the basketball program with 1,347 points, 983 rebounds and 340 blocks under his name. The RAA describes Pete as having “led the Minutemen to their first district championship in school history,” and he “had arguably the most distinguished basketball career[] in Revere History.” He earned the Ohio Division II Player of the Year, USA TODAY First-team All-state and Touchdown Club of Great Akron Boys Basketball Player of the Year awards, and he was a finalist for the Ohio Mr. Basketball Award before he began his college career. Last year, Revere paid tribute to the Nance siblings by retiring jersey number 22.

Pete then began his collegiate career with Northwestern University, but not before Rivals rated Pete Nance the 67 recruit in the nation, ESPN.com rated him 79 and 247Sports rated him 85. In his senior year at Northwestern, he earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honors before transferring and playing a graduate year at the University of North Carolina. Over the course of his collegiate career, Nance compiled 1,324 points, 759 rebounds, 138 three-pointers, 238 assists, and 122 blocks over 137 games. He started 105 five of them, and he scored in the double-figred 69 times with 14 double-doubles.

In 2023, Pete began his professional career in basketball, playing for the Cleveland Charge of the National Basketball Association (NBA) G League. He played for both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Philadelphia 76ers before, in early 2025, signing a contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Pete could not attend his induction into Revere’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Instead, his sister and his parents accepted his induction award on his behalf.

Alexandra Poitinger — 2012

In 2012, Alexandra Poitinger walked across the graduation stage after competing in golf, lacrosse and swimming during her Revere career. According to the RAA, she was a two-year letterwinner and qualified for sectional and district play in golf. At Revere, she “made her biggest mark” in swimming where she was an All-League performer and four-time state qualifier. When she graduated, she did it with school records in both the 300 and 500 free and three relay events, and she earned the coach’s award twice while helping the team win the Suburban League Championship her senior year after she won the 200 and 500 freestyles and was part of the winning 200 medley and 400 medley relays.

After graduating from Revere, Poitinger continued her swimming career at Bowling Green State University, earning the Academic All-MAC recipient three times and held three Top 10 times for the university in the 500, 1000, and 1650 Free Styles. 

Natalie (Robson) Cristiano — 2011

From childhood to adulthood, Natalie Robson—now Natalie Cristiano—dedicated her life to tennis. Focusing on singles matches throughout her career, the RAA described Cristiano as a “star for the Minutemen on the tennis court.” Her love for the sport began at around age five, and she focused on travel tennis in the earlier stages of her life.

“I started when I was a really little girl. . . . I started [at] like five, and I started travelling across the country when I was about six or seven. Tennis was my entire life [up until] college,” Cristiano said.

For Cristiano, her tennis career generally centered around her singles play. In general, athletes play on teams, but Cristiano’s focus on singles play throughout her career impacted her high school experience. Having to choose between high school tennis or dedicated tournaments for her solo career, Cristiano ultimately settled on high school tennis—a decision she does not regret.

“According to [the United States Tennis Association]’s rules, you weren’t allowed to play high school tennis as well as playing tournaments, so [I had] to pick one or the other. . . . A lot of us chose to do high school tennis, and I’m so glad I made [the same] choice. . . . I got to be kind of a normal kid for the first time, and it was really fun,” Cristiano said.

In her high school tennis career, Cristiano went to states in a doubles team with her teammate Brittany Miller. Despite typically playing solo games, Cristiano had fun playing alongside another at the state level, and the memories that came along with that experience stuck with Cristiano as her fondest memory.

“I went to states as a double team with Brittany Miller. . . . [That was] such a fun run [because] I was primarily a singles player, but we decided to play doubles together that year, and I believe we won the sectional and the district. . . . Getting to go [play] and to stay together was exciting, too, and the fanfare around that [game] when we made it to [states] . . . was a really cool experience. I think they decorated our car, and we had like a hallway pep rally. . . . That was probably my fondest memory—just being able to do something with a teammate,” Cristiano said. 

In college, Cristiano played tennis for the University of Connecticut where she eventually met her husband. She played tennis for all four years of her collegiate career, and the school named her captain her senior year; after graduation, however, other aspects of her life became her focus above tennis.

“Once I graduated from college, it [was] such a weird feeling. [Tennis was] something [I] did for my entire life, then all of a sudden it’s gone. . . . Division I tennis is a full-time job itself, so [I did not] have good opportunities to do internships or anything like that because [I was] focused on training and preparing for the season; so I decided I needed some addition experience, . . . and I pursue[d] a graduate degree at Boston University,” Cristiano said. 

Today, Cristiano aims to recreationally play the game in her free time. She continues staying active in other ways, and Cristiano finds time to sometimes walk down and play tennis on her local court alongside her two young daughters. 

Nick Gallo — 2011

Spending his childhood on the field, Nick Gallo knew how to hold himself when kicking a soccer ball around. Starting the sport at age three, Gallo latched onto soccer, and he began playing for a local soccer association before going on to play soccer for St. Hillary up until his fifth grade year. Throughout his entire career, Gallo also played soccer for Everest Soccer Club where he travelled throughout the United States to play games. In fifth grade, Gallo switched to playing soccer with Revere until he graduated. 

“I tried every [sport], but it seemed I loved soccer the most,” Gallo said.

Before joining Revere in his sixth grade year, Gallo had to choose between Revere and another school. Ultimately, though, Revere’s head soccer coach at the time and a teacher at the district’s high school Sandor Jakab ultimately successfully led Gallo down the Minuteman path. Jakab coached a youth soccer program Gallo played in.

“I started playing club when I was little. [Coach Jakab] was my coach, and that’s kind of who dragged my family towards Revere as I got older. Coming from a private school background, it was always going to be Walsh or Revere for me, but [I] ultimately ended up choosing Revere because of Coach Jakab,” Gallo said.

Revere teacher and soccer coach Sandor Jakab knew the Gallo family through the local soccer programs, and Jakab ultimately encouraged Gallo to come play for and eventually attend Revere. 

“I had coached him since he was eight [or] nine years old. . . . [He] was captain of the soccer team his senior year,” Jakab said.

Having played for Revere for several years throughout his soccer career, Gallo stated how he felt about his Revere life. As a Minuteman, Gallo became a “standout” in the game and received several titles throughout his high school career. He was a four-year letter winner for the Minutemen, he received two first-team All-Suburban League selections, earned All-District honors twice, was named first-team All-Ohio, received a High School All-American title, and (according to the RAA) “led Revere to a 2010 State Championship runner-up finish.” He ended his Revere career with eighteen goals and a school-record forty-four assists for eighty total career points.

“Playing at Revere was one of the [most] fun[] times of my life. I’m still friends with a lot of the guys I played with from middle school through high school; it’s a great community,” Gallo said.

For seven years, Gallo played with Revere; out of those seven years, Gallo’s senior year stood out the most. In his senior year, Revere played Highland High School, the number one seed in the district, in the second round of games. Revere was ranked number two, which made the game all the more exciting; Gallo described the events that occurred and his team’s feelings surrounding that game.

“[The] number one seed in [the] district . . . was Highland. . . . We were the number two seed that year in the district. . . . Normally, you wouldn’t play [two top-ranked] high [schools] until the district final, but we ultimately decided we wanted to play [Highland] in the second round. That was something crazy. . . . I remember [it] being a huge deal that we decided to go on their side of the bracket and play them right away. That was one of the [most] fun[] games I’ve ever played in. . . . We went down to nothing within the first five minutes, and ended up coming back and winning. That really just gave us another level of confidence, and from there, we ran with it,” Gallo said.

Gallo went on to play soccer for Baldwin-Wallace after graduation. He played for five years during his collegiate career, but had to medically retire his fourth and fifth years.

“I played for five years at Baldwin-Wallace for college. I end[ed] up medically retiring; I injured myself my fourth year and red shirted, and then my fifth year [I] came back, and I got the same injury again in the first or second game of the year,” Gallo said.

Today, Gallo still makes time to play soccer whenever he can. In fact, Gallo sets aside time weekly to play the game with the Men’s League at Pinnacle Sports, and he also made an appearance at Revere’s alumni soccer game back in late July.

Sara (Ilko) Fredericks — 2005

With her eyes fixed on the ball her son threw, Revere alum Sara Fredericks had a baseball mitt in her hand—and it was then she received a call from Phil Heyn. With her son by her side, Fredericks learned she was nominated to be part of Revere’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Fredericks grew up in the Revere community from first grade until her graduation in 2005. Even before she started playing for Revere, Fredericks found her love for softball at a young age after trying out different sports. Growing up surrounded by athletic family members, Fredericks played other sports, but she took a liking to softball in particular.

“I don’t know a time when I wasn’t playing softball. I was an active kid; I pretty much grew up playing all the sports, doing all the things—even through high school. I danced my whole life, I did basketball my whole life, I did soccer for a while; but softball was the one thing that I continued [with] through college. . . . [Softball] was just the sport that I loved most,” Fredericks said. 

When Fredericks discovered the RAA inducted her into Revere’s Athletic Hall of Fame, she was playing catch with her son. Not long after, Fredericks told the rest of her family the news, which she found especially cool. To Fredericks, this induction shocked her while also creating an opportunity for her children to see their mother’s athletic accomplishments.

“It was actually like a shock for me. It’s one thing to be young and a professional athlete, but then to just [receive this induction] . . . was pretty neat. . . . It was kind of a surreal moment, because now that I’m a mom, my kids don’t necessarily know that I played sports,” Fredericks said.

As a “standout on the softball diamond” according to the RAA, Fredericks was a four-year letterwinner, a four-year scholar athlete and a four-year captain. In three of her four years at the high school level, Fredericks received several All-Suburban League titles (honorable mention, first, and second in that order between her freshman and senior years). She, according to the RAA, “led the program to two league titles” in her junior and senior years for the first time in thirty years. She was the team MVP in 2004, won the Coach’s Award in 2005, and won the Ohio High School Athletic Association Archie Griffin Sportsmanship Award in 2005. 

Despite these accolades, for Fredericks, the most notable part of her Revere career did not lie in the achievements or awards she acquired. The most significant part of Revere continued to stand beside her beyond 2005: her husband. Having met her husband Brandon Fredericks in the district, Fredericks views their relationship as the most notable memory from her time at Revere.

“The biggest [memory from Revere] is that I met my husband there, and I am so grateful. . . . The first time I saw him I was like ‘Who is that kid?’ And something in my gut just told me ‘That’s it. That’s him.’ Oddly enough, we’ve been together now since 2004, and I still feel that way. . . . He’s still my best friend, and we have so much fun every day,” said Fredericks.

Fredericks’s induction opened the doors for her and her family to relive the time she and Brandon spent at Revere. This induction and the acknowledgement of the work Fredericks put into her athletics throughout her high school and college years made Brandon feel, as he stated, happy for his wife.

”[I am] so incredibly happy for her in so many ways. Sports, athletic [or] team, . . . defined her first half of her life, and she achieved so many great milestones. . . . More importantly, reaching this height puts her in a class of her own—one which she worked incredibly hard for. . . . It was so cool to see her light up [after] getting the call, have that special night, [and] to have her name cemented in the greats of this school,” Brandon said.

Coming back to Revere felt like “rushing back to a simpler time” according to Brandon. Returning to the school encouraged Brandon to reflect on the time he and his wife spent in the district, and one aspect about how Fredericks thought about and played the softball.

“Sara was always meticulous about her practice, her habits, how she played the game, her routine. However, if you asked her what their record was, . . . who [they] play[ed] next, . . . [or] how their team was doing in the standings, [she would answer] “I don’t know.” I always found that odd until I really reflected on that and saw that she shares so many traits [in common with] the top athletes you read about at the top levels. [They] don’t care about who is next or what the score is or how much they are winning—they just care about the next pitch. Singular focus. And that is why [Fredericks] was in a class above all else. In so many ways, [she] was playing chess while the rest . . . played checkers,” Brandon said.

After graduating from Revere, Fredericks went on to play softball for Ursuline College, continuing her professional softball career while studying to become a nurse. Fredericks described that the Ursuline College’s coach recruited her during her senior year, but after her freshman year, that coach left. As a result, while adjusting to a new leader, their team did not win as much as Revere did, but Fredericks still found excitement in playing the sport she loved.

“I went to Ursuline College. . . . I was trying to find both a nursing program [and somewhere] I could play softball, so Ursuline ended up being the best fit. I saw softball was a little bit different in college, only because I was recruited by a really good coach who I loved, and then after my freshman year, she left. . . . So we got a different coach in, so while adjusting to all of that, we struggled a little bit. . . . I don’t necessarily look at it with the on-top-of-the-world feelings that I did when I left Revere because we were winning and we were doing so awesome, but I still loved the game. We still loved being there. We didn’t win as often, but, you know, we were still playing a game that we loved. So we were fortunate,” Fredericks said.

Today, after working as a pediatric nurse for over a decade, Fredericks decided to take a break from work to focus on raising her three young children. Still making time to involve herself in sports, Fredericks now has the luxury of doing so with the central parts of her life, her kids.

KJ Creamer — 2003

In his one-year career as a Revere student, KJ Creamer made a mark in the district as “standout on the court” according to the RAA. After leaving Revere to continue his basketball career in college, Creamer returned to the district not as a student, but instead as a coach.

During his senior year of high school, Creamer moved from Akron to the Revere area. Though Revere was his last stop in his high school career, he made an impact, ultimately “helping lead” the 2003 basketball team to a second-place finish in the Suburban League that year, a “turnaround” for the Minutemen.

Prior to Revere, Creamer played several sports, including football. Though Creamer played football well, he ultimately had to focus on basketball. Surrounded by other athletes in his community, Creamer played the game throughout his childhood, leading to his eventual shift into a basketball coach in his professional life.

“I was always overall a good athlete, so I was always, always into sports. My mom and dad both played college basketball, so basketball [was] just always something that I knew my mom pushed me to do. I was actually better in football, but I got hurt in football, so I just decided to focus everything on basketball. . . . Basketball has always been a part of me and I love it. I have close friends, family members who all play sports, play basketball, . . . [so] it’s always been something I [did].

In the community he grew up in, Creamer learned to play basketball and take the sport seriously as a result of his peers’ dedication to the sport. For instance, Creamer grew up playing basketball in the same community as LeBron James, someone who would go on to play basketball professionally in the NBA. 

“[In] middle school, I actually played LeBron James on the same team; we got serious because LeBron was even that good back in those days [in] Akron, so growing up with LeBron and that group of guys, we were serious about sports and serious about basketball, even at a super early [age]. I was like twelve years old,” Creamer said.

After moving into the Revere community his senior year of high school, Creamer was not the only new member of the basketball program. Today, Dean Rahas serves as RHS’s Head Boys Basketball Coach, and he first joined the district in 2002, the same year Creamer came to Revere. When Rahas took over the program, Revere’s basketball program did not play as well as they do today; in fact, in the two seasons prior to Rahas and Creamer’s entrance into Revere, the Minutemen had a 3-39 record. Creamer described the program as he recalls it when he first joined.

“The program itself was kind of low at the time. They had won like three games in the past two years, so we didn’t have high hopes of where we would be for the year, but we ended up having a  great year,” Creamer said. 

In his senior year, Creamer averaged twenty points and ten rebounds per game. By the end of the season, the Minutemen—having won just three games over the previous two years—won fifteen games, leading to a second-place finish in the Suburban League. Creamer was recognized as the Cleveland Plain Dealer Player of the Week, was named special mention All-Ohio, was 1st team All-District, and was 1st team All-Suburban according to the RAA. Over his high school career, he made one-thousand points and five-hundred rebounds. 

When Creamer first joined the Minutemen, he stated he was already an established player. When he showed off his moves for the first time, Creamer detailed Rahas’s reaction and how different the program had already been from previous years.

“I was already kind of established [when I came to Revere]. I was a good player in the area for basketball, and I transferred then, but Dean [Rahas] had never met me. . . . [When] I went to the first open gym, I was always dunking back then, [and] I remember Dean [Rahas]’s eyes: [they] were huge. . . . We won [fifteen] games that year. The most wins in Revere history for the basketball program since 1966, and [the] community came together. The gym was packed, so that was awesome,” Creamer said.

After graduating high school, Creamer went on to play basketball at Southern New Hampshire University. Creamer stated he had fun playing basketball with the university, but ultimately returned to Ohio and back to Revere. Creamer names Rahas as the reason for his return to Revere as well as his decision to coach high school basketball. Creamer, after starting as a coach for the first time, had “no idea” what he was doing, but Rahas “brought [him] onto the staff” and “help[ed] [him] grow as a coach.” Rahas, Creamer stated, was someone he “confided in” when it came to basketball, and he knew Rahas would “give [him] good information” and “good guidance on where to go and what to do.” 

Back in his senior year of high school, Creamer recalls the most memorable part of his Revere career: his first game. The support and encouragement within the community stood out to Creamer, and that community engagement continues on to this day. Additionally, in that game, Creamer recalls the support from his community members that visited from outside of Revere as well as his performance. After losing so much in previous years, the personal scores Creamer had stood out to him. 

“I love that Revere, for the [sports] games, . . . were packed. I love the support from the community, [and] I remember my first game at Revere. The band [was] playing, and it got me so excited because I’d never played a basketball game where the band was present. . . . It was so fun, [and] it’s one of my greatest experiences at Revere, and [in] my first game, I had like thirty-seven points and like thirteen rebounds. . . . No one thought that we would be good, so when in that game [I had] thirty-seven points and thirteen rebounds on my first game at Revere, [it] was definitely a special moment for me. And that game, actually, LeBron . . . and all the guys from his high school team actually came to that game [be]cause everyone wanted to see the first game,” Creamer said. 

Today, Creamer works as the RHS Head Junior Varsity Boys Basketball Coach and the RHS Assistant Boys Basketball Coach. Instead of working below his former coach, Creamer works with Rahas to continue developing the Revere basketball program as he enters, according to him, his tenth season as a coach in the Revere Basketball Program. 

1996 Football Team

Throughout Revere’s extensive and multi-generational long history, one team stood out to community members in specific: the 1966 RHS Football Team.

As the only undefeated football team in school history (finishing 9-0), the “Big Red” outscored opponents 225-99 before competing and winning the school’s first “outright” Suburban League football title as well as the 1966 Class AA state poll. Several news outlets reported on the team’s success, and several students received first team All-Suburban League and several others received Honorable Mentions. 

At the time, head coach Fred Ost—who won the 1966 Summit County Football Coach of the Year award as a result of the team’s success—made an impact at Revere over the course of his career. He coached several sports over his 28 year-long Revere career, coaching as the head football coach, Junior Varsity basketball coach and Varsity track coach. Fred received several other titles including the Crown Conference Coach of the Year (1970-1971), and the Greater Cleveland Coach of the Year (1970-1971) before coaching in the City-County All-Star game in 1977. Fred also served as a teacher and later the Athletic Director and Assistant Principal at Revere for eleven years out of the 28 years he worked in the district, engraving himself as a notable coach and contributor. To honor him, Revere awarded him the RAA’s Distinguished Educator Award and, in 2010, named the Revere Football Captain’s Award after him. Revere inducted him personally into the Athletic Hall of Fame, and he accepted his induction alongside his family in 2017. Finally, in 2025, Revere inducted his star, undefeated team into the Athletic Hall of Fame too.

Fred passed away in 2020. His son, Dave Ost, went to Revere during the time Fred worked as part of Revere’s administrative team. Dave described the connection between Fred’s coaching and the way Dave grew up as well as Fred’s personality when he was assistant principal.

“He had applied a lot of the same values and principles that he used in coaching to how he lived his life and parented [me]. . . . He was overall pretty laid-back when he was the assistant principal, [and] he was in charge of the discipline,” Dave said.

Though Dave could not attend the football team’s induction ceremony, he acknowledged the weight of recognizing the team and his father once again, even after Fred’s passing.

“I know my dad was very honored by [Revere’s methods in honoring him]. It [is] just very touching that something he put so much time into [recognized him],” Dave said.

Revere’s 1966 Football Team cemented itself as a significant team in Revere history already due to its success, and now the 2025 Athletic Hall of Fame sign demonstrates that fact on the walls of RHS. 

Over the last eleven years, Revere has recognized and honored several athletes through its Athletic Hall of Fame. The annual tradition will continue to name and recognize more athletes in the coming years, but for now, the focus lies on these seven alumni and the 1966 Football Team.