Albany, NY—The Sage Colleges' Department of Athletics proudly announces the 2018 Hall of Fame induction class. Entering the Sage Athletic Hall of Fame will be Judith Davidson Vogt (Princeton, NJ) of Russell Sage College, Sage College of Albany men's volleyball player Kyle Ray (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads), and Junior College of Albany men's basketball player, Greg Plummer (Brooklyn, NY/Transit Tech). In addition to these three outstanding honorees, Sage is continuing a tradition for the second year of honoring a "Team of Distinction." Honored this year is the 2013 Sage Men's Volleyball Team.
This year's event will take place on Friday, October 12 on the Russell Sage College campus in Troy. Tickets are available for $50/person, which includes cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., followed a dinner at 6 p.m. and the induction ceremony to follow the buffet dinner. The event will take place on the Russell Sage College campus in the Bush Memorial Center.
There will be a video stream of the ceremony if you can not attend.
With this year's induction, the Hall of Fame which started in 1993, boasts 39 members.
A 1965 graduate of Russell Sage College, Judith Davidson Vogt has distinguished herself throughout her career and has made an impact on countless numbers of people with love and expertise in the sport of tennis. A former teacher at Trenton State College and Rutgers University, she also coached softball, basketball, field hockey, volleyball and track and field. A member of the Mercer County (NJ) Hall of Fame, she also earned her Masters' Degree in Guidance and Counselling from Millersville University and a Masters' Degree in Health and Physical Education from TSC. While at Trenton State, she coached the track and field program and led the women's basketball to a state championship title.
She also worked in the Department of Human Kinetics at Rutgers College, before it became Douglass College in the early 1970's. While at Douglass, she also served as Athletic Director and created and coached the sports of volleyball and basketball. In addition to her success with those teams, she also served as the head coach for the college's softball team and led them to an undefeated season and was the program's winningest coach as well at Rutgers.
A certified tennis professional, she holds certification from the USPTA and the PTR and is the co-owner of the prestigious Princeton Racquet Club. A coordinator of the Middle States Tennis Association, she has won numerous tennis championships, but has not limited her success to just the courts. She is an accomplished golfer and a former semi-pro softball player. A past president of the New Jersey Tennis Association, she is also active in her community having served on the boards of directors for the Princeton Republicans, the United Way, and the Middle State Tennis Association.
A licensed real estate agent, she is also a member of the Cherry Valley Country Club, and the proud parent of two children and a grandmother to four grandchildren.
Greg Plummer (now of San Diego, CA) excelled on the hardwood for Junior College of Albany from 2001-2003. In just two seasons, he helped to rewrite the program's record book. He led the 2003 team to the Sabre Classic Championship with a victory over Champlain College 84-81 and earned MVP honors for his play.
Voted the Most Improved Player in 2002-2003, he finished his time as a Sabre No. 2 all-time in scoring with 1,042 points, No. 2 in rebounding with 523 boards, while also adding 75 three-pointers and laying claim to numerous other marks. He holds the single-game rebounding record with 26 boards against Jamestown (11/9/02), while also standing 8th in single-game rebounding with 18 in a match-up with JCC-Cattaraugus (11/23/02).
In his second season at JCA he added 629 points and had a 21.7 ppg per game average. He ranks second in a season in scoring, while his points per game average is fourth. He also set the single-season rebounding mark with 315 rebounds in 2002-2003. His 61 blocks in a season stands third best, while his career three-pointers is sixth highest among JCA players.
After JCA, he earned his bachelor's degree in business management from Eckerd College in May of 2005 and continued his athletic endeavors as well. He would continue his basketball career for the next decade playing in various international Professional Basketball Leagues and was also drafted into the NBA Development League 2007. In 2011, Plummer was awarded the NYC NIKE Player of the Year and selected to play with NYC Team NIKE in 2012 to compete in Paris, London, and the World Basketball Festival in Washington, D.C.
Plummer has also given back to the game of basketball and coached internationally, as well as working to educate athletes at numerous youth camps and clinics. From 2011-2015, he was a lead organizer for the Big and Little Skills Academy (BLSA) at Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, NY. BLSA is an organization designed to educate inner city youth about the importance of physical fitness, nutrition and excellence in the classroom. That involvement with numerous students of the game, helped him to pursue a career in education.
As a National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) Certified Personal Trainer at Equinox Tribeca, Plummer worked with and educated athletes on all levels from beginner to professional in addition to working as an independent Skills and Development Coach. Officially retiring from the basketball game in 2014, he recently relocated to San Diego, CA with his wife Ashley and son, Gregory III.
Kyle Ray joined The Sage Colleges in 2009 to become a member of the very first Sage Men's Volleyball team and graduated from SCA in 2013 with a degree in Computer Science. He was a four-time captain and the team's first four-time letterwinner. He now works for the Ad Platforms Product Design team at Oath, Inc. and resides in New York City.
As a senior during the 2013 season, Ray had 1,304 setting assists on his way to establishing the program's career record at 2,910 setting assists. Ray also held the career service aces mark (98), the record for most sets played (397) and most career matches played (115) during his time as a Gator. Over his career, he ranked No. 5 in career points (513.5) and No. 3 in total blocks (105).
Ray had many accomplishments over his collegiate career both as an academic and as an athletic.
Due to his efforts in the classroom, Ray received multiple Dean's List honorable mentions and collected four selections to both Sage's Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll and the Skyline Conference Scholar-Athlete Team. He was also inducted into Sage's Athletic Honor Society and was a member of the CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large First Team in 2013.
For his success on the volleyball court, Ray was honored as Gator of the Year his first year at Sage; as a sophomore, he was honored as the Male Athlete of the Year at the annual athletic award banquet; and as a senior, he was featured by the NCAA Champion Magazine in an article written by Brian Burnsed, earned Skyline Conference and ECAC Division III Men's North All-Star First Team honors and once again was named the Gator of the Year.
Since graduating from The Sage Colleges, Ray has continued to be active in his community and to give back. Dedicating his time to organizations such as Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless in Albany, NY and, most recently, the Edie Windsor SAGE Center in New York City, he strives to make a better community space for people of the LGBTQ+ community. He recently traveled to Paris, France to participate in the 2018 Gay Games as a volleyball player in order to help promote equality for queer players in sport.
Ray was a tri-captain - alongside Dylan Krowicki and Spencer Hilland - of the 2013 Sage Men's Volleyball Team that achieved unparalleled success under the guidance of Head Coach Sandy Augstein-Collins, which posted a school record 30-win season. The team went 30-7 on the year with a pair of championship tournament appearances, advancing to the Skyline Conference Championship match for the first time in school history. Falling to Kean in the finals, the Sage Men's Volleyball team took home the Skyline Conference Runner-up trophy but their successes throughout the season parlayed into a berth to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament - a tournament which the Gators would host on their home court. In the tournament to end their successful season, Sage posted two 3-1 victories over Daniel Webster College in the semifinals and Wentworth Institute of Technology in the finals to win the ECAC North Division III Championship.
Among the many honors earned by Sage on the record-setting season, Augstein-Collins was named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year; rookie Andy Fishman was saluted as the league's Rookie of the Year and earned Second Team honors with his teammates Hilland and Krowicki; Ray was named to the First Team at setter; and the ECAC Tournament MVP honors went to Hilland. Fishman capped the year as the NCAA's ace leader having averaged 0.83 aces per set, racking up 96 aces on the season; and senior Ryan Kramer was honored as a CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team pick, the ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete of the Year and as the Valedictorian for The Sage Colleges class of 2013 at the SCA graduation.
Additional support for the Gators on their championship season came from juniors Robert Ainsworth, Cory Gransbury, Zachary Kuhn, Justin Pruiksma, Connor Thompson and sophomore Matthew DeGeyter.
Please RSVP by October 5 by contacting the athletic department office, athletics@sage.edu. For additional questions, please contact Director of Athletics, Sandy Augstein-Collins at augsts@sage.edu