When she played at Saugerties High School and Westfield State College in the 1990s, opponents couldn’t slow Holly Maines down.

Westfield State has found a way to at least catch her off guard by recently bestowing its highest athletic honor.

The Division III Massachusetts institution will be placing the two-sport star in its Hall of Fame, inducting her with four other members in ceremony on Oct. 22 at Scanlon Banquet Hall.

Now a married mother of two living in Adams, Mass., Holly McGovern is humbled and startled by the enshrinement in her first year of eligibility.

“It was unexpected,” McGovern said, “but it really means a lot to me.”

McGovern starred in both basketball and soccer for the Owls from 1995-99.

The announcement from Westfield described her as one of the school’s finest two-sport athletes. She is the eighth woman to be inducted into its Hall in multiple sports.

She was the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Rookie of the Year in basketball and was a Division III News All-America fifth team choice and a second team All-Northeast region selection her senior year.

In soccer, she was the conference Player of the Year in ‘96 and ‘97.

Eleven years after she left Westfield, McGovern still ranks in the top 10 in a dozen career basketball categories, seven of them in the top five.

She remains the program’s all-time leader in free-throw shooting percentage (.713), steals (313) and assists (626, 200 more than the next best). She’s 10th overall with 1,098 points.

McGovern is in the top four in nine soccer categories and concluded with 38 goals and 28 assists. Her single-season mark of 39 points in ‘96 wasn’t broken until last fall. “When I receive accolades, even in high school, I know it’s because I played with wonderful, talented teammates. I do believe that,” McGovern said.

During her time there, Westfield won one conference title in soccer. The basketball team claimed two MASCAC crowns, made the NCAA Tournament once and the ECACs twice.

“Playing two sports kept me in a more structured environment. It opened me up to a lot of different people,” McGovern said.

“My passion was always for soccer, but there is also nothing like a basketball game. It’s played in such an intimate environment.

“I’ve just been fortunate to have great coaching throughout my career,” she said, citing Rick Berger (basketball) and Donna Coombs (soccer) at Westfield and Jim Barbato (basketball) and Tom Miron (soccer) at Saugerties.

“I had decent ability to play two sports,” she noted.

One of McGovern’s “decent” abilities was incredible footwork that made foes dizzy on the basketball court or the soccer field.

Her change-of-direction and ballhandling made her the area’s premier point guard during her four years on the Saugerties varsity.

She was the Mid-Hudson Athletic League’s Player of the Year in both sports her senior year.

McGovern finished with 1,219 career points for the Sawyers’ basketball team. She was the Freeman’s Player of the Year in 1995, her senior season, leading Saugerties to the MHAL title and the Section 9, Class B championship game. Monticello edged the Sawyers in a 62-60 thriller for the title.

“I have fond memories of playing at Saugerties, especially with Kristen Epping,” she said.

When Westfield Sports Information Director Mickey Curtis gave her the news, McGovern was surprised.

“When he called me, my first thought was that I truly believed that there were people who deserved to go in before me,” she said, noting former basketball teammates Kathy Jekanowski and Amanda Braden, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

“He said it was because of what I had accomplished as a two-sport athlete.”

McGovern described the college environment as a place that “opened up so many doors.” It certainly sent her in a direction she never encountered.

She will be soon starting her sixth season as head women’s basketball coach at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, an opponent of Westfield in the MASCAC.

The Trailblazers are 58-72 under McGovern. They had their best season ever last year, going 18-10 and losing to Amherst in the conference finals.

A hamstring injury that sidelined her for nearly six weeks during her senior soccer season at Westfield opened that coaching door.

“(Coombs) included me in the coaching process. It allowed me to look at the game from a different point of view. She really allowed me to make decisions.”

After graduating in ‘99, McGovern returned to serve as an assistant soccer coach and was on the basketball staff from 2001-04.

“It had been a thought process. A friend took over as basketball coach and he asked me to stay on as assistant. I learned a lot about recruiting from him,” she said.

“It hadn’t been my plan,” said McGovern, who didn’t anticipate a coaching career much less taking up permanent residence in New England when she initially chose Westfield.

It was during her senior year when she also met her future husband, Joe, who lived in Westfield. They now have a daughter, Ryleigh (8) and a son, Joey (4). Both children love sports.

“Our daughter’s involved in soccer, basketball and also gymnastics and our son, who turns five in October, just loves soccer,” said McGovern, who celebrated her 33rd birthday this week.

On the MCLA team is a Saugerties recruit, point guard Hilary Perks, who will be a senior this year. 

“She’s turned out to be a solid leader,” McGovern said. “She doesn’t want to be beaten in practice. In that regard, we’re alike.

“It’s been a steady climb upward, but I think the program is headed in the right direction,”

MCLA has made the conference tournament the last four years.

McGovern’s Trailblazers have won two of 10 games against her alma mater, both at home. She has yet to win at Westfield, which is coached by former teammate Andrea Bertini.

“It is kind of strange, coming back there as the opposing team,” she said.

When McGovern returns to Westfield in two months, she won’t be greeted as a foe.

She’ll be honored for her athletic accomplishments and embraced as one of 104 select members of its Hall of Fame.