Cullowhee, N.C. – Former Catamount baseball all-star and Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Famer Matt Raleigh has been selected for induction into the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame (VSHOF) in its 13th class since its inception in 2011.
 
Raleigh, a top all-around athlete from Swanton, Vt., and Missisquoi Valley Union High School, was a record-setting All-American baseball player for the Catamounts from 1989-1992. Following his highly-successful collegiate career, he had a lengthy minor league playing and coaching career. His years as a minor league hitting instructor in the Marlins system paid off with a World Series ring in 2003 when Florida topped the Yankees.
 
This year's class will be formally inducted at the 2026 Vermont Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Celebration on Saturday, April 25, at the Delta Marriott Burlington Hotel on 1117 Williston Road in South Burlington, Vt. The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., with the induction ceremony following dinner.
 
A second-team All-America selection in 1992, Raleigh was a three-time, first-team All-Southern Conference pick, earning the league's Player of the Year honor in 1992. At Western Carolina, he played for fellow VSHOF inductee Jack Leggett, who was inducted in the Hall's fourth class in 2015.
 
Raleigh led the SoCon in home runs (25), runs scored (77), slugging percentage (.783), and RBI (73) in 1992. He helped the Catamounts to a then-school-record 44 victories, and came one game shy of the College World Series as WCU fell to Florida State twice in the championship of the NCAA South Region II.
 
Also in 1992, Raleigh became the first Catamount to hit at least 20 home runs and steal at least 20 bases in the same season, with his 25 homers ranked second in the nation. He additionally paced the SoCon in home runs in 1991 (19).
 
When he left Western Carolina, Raleigh had set both WCU and SoCon records for career hits (302), career games played (242), career runs scored (251), career home runs (68), career total bases (580, now second) and career runs batted in (239, now fourth). He also set previous WCU season records for runs scored (77 in 1992, now tied for third) and home runs (25 in 1992, now tied for second).
 
Currently, he ranks 11th on the WCU career batting average list (.361), fourth on the WCU career hits list (302), ninth on the WCU career doubles list (56), tied for 14th on the WCU career triples list (8), first on the WCU career home runs list (68), second on the WCU career RBI list (239), tied for 12th on the WCU career stolen bases list (47), and first on the WCU career runs scored list (251).
 
 
As a prep at Missisquoi Valley Union High School, Raleigh was a three-year soccer starter and all-state in ice hockey. On the baseball diamond as a pitcher, shortstop, and top hitter, Raleigh, along with brothers John and Todd, helped lead the Thunderbirds to three consecutive state titles from 1986 to 1988, and he earned the 1988 Vermont Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year.
 
Known for his power at the plate wherever he played, he hit a mammoth, legendary home run in a high school final at Burlington's historic Centennial Field that cleared the old football and soccer press box.
 
After his WCU career, Raleigh was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 14th round of the 1992 MLB Draft and spent 10 years in the minor leagues. He led the Midwest League in 1994 with 34 homers for Burlington (Iowa) and hit 37 for the Binghamton Mets, tops in the AA Eastern League in 1997. He capped his playing career with two seasons in Triple A and a pair of others in the independent minor leagues.
 
In addition to his coaching career in the Marlins' system, he served as the manager of the Double-A Carolina Mudcats in 2008, leading them to a first-place finish. Two future major league star hitters, Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Cabrera, credited Raleigh with helping advance them to the Majors.
 
Raleigh was also a coach for the Maine-Endwell (N.Y.) Little League team that won the 2016 Little League World Series, and the head baseball coach for the Maine-Endwell High School teams that went deep into the NYSAA playoffs, reaching the title game in 2019 and capturing the 2024 Class A state title.
 
Selected to the Western Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004, Raleigh was named to the Southern Conference 100th Anniversary Team in 2021 and was inducted into the Binghamton Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023. Along with his brothers, John and Todd Raleigh – a 2025 inductee into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame – Matt was inducted into the Vermont Principals Association Hall of Fame in 2024. He is the first to be inducted into the VSHOF from Missisquoi Valley Union High.
 
In addition to being the high school coach at Maine-Endwell Central, Raleigh runs an indoor baseball training center in Endwell, N.Y.  His son Brody, a member of the 2016 LLWS Champions, now plays baseball for the Catamounts. 
 
Raleigh is among a Vermont Sports Hall of Fame class that includes lacrosse standout Sarah Dalton Graddock of Cornwall; Susan Dunklee of Barton, who was a three-time Olympic biathlete and a multi- sport standout in high school and college; Saint Michael's College basketball star and longtime high school coach Dick Falkenbush of South Burlington; the first-ever wrestler inducted, Steven Forrest of Bennington, a champion and national team member; track and field star Mary Heitkamp of Orwell; Olympic moguls skiing medalist Hannah Kearney of Norwich, Vt.; and legendary collegiate coaches Mickey Heinecken of Cornwall and Middlebury College and Mike McShane of Norwich University;  Veteran award-winning sportswriter Tom Haley of Proctor is this year's Mal Boright Media Inductee.
 
Catamount baseball continues its preseason practice ahead of the Friday, Feb. 13, opening day as WCU plays seven of its first eight games at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. Official preseason polls and all-conference teams are slated to be released on Thursday, Feb. 5.
 
On Sunday, Feb. 8, Catamount baseball will hold a morning intrasquad scrimmage, followed by the annual "Little Catamounts" youth clinic at Childress Field. WCU opens the season with a three-game series against George Washington, Feb. 13-15 in #CatamountCountry.
 
Season tickets are on sale now through the Catamount Athletics ticket office, located on the first floor of the Ramsey Center, by phone at (828) 227-2401, and online any time at CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets. Tickets start at just $51 for adult general admission or $26 for youth general admission. Additional seating options include reserved field-level chair-back seats and upper-reserved chair-back seats under cover beneath the press box.
 
Single-game tickets will go on sale to the public in the coming days ahead of the season-opening weekend in mid-February.
 
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