Canton Central Catholic hall of famer Margaret Peters has died
Article excerpt
Margaret Peters starred as an athlete at Central Catholic and Youngstown State before a long career as a teacher and coach at Jackson High School.
Margaret Peters will always be a benchmark for future generations of athletes at Central Catholic High School.
The former Crusaders basketball and track and field star, whose impact on Stark County later continued as a teacher and coach at Jackson High School, died on Monday, July 6, at age 63. Peters’ nephew Kyle Dureska said she died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
A 1981 graduate, Peters’ athletic accomplishments earned her induction into Central’s inaugural hall of fame class. She earned 11 varsity letters and set numerous records along the way.
Peters scored 1,123 points in basketball and led the Crusaders to a Class AA state runner-up finish during her senior year. She scored 18 points in Central's 60-42 state semifinal win over Cincinnati Reading before scoring 16 in the state final, a 52-45 loss to Claymont. It remained Central’s only state tournament appearance until this past season.
In track and field, Peters was the long jump state champion as a sophomore and runner-up as a senior. She was a state qualifier in the 400 meters all four years and finished runner-up once.
Peters’ athletic accomplishments at Central helped her earn a basketball scholarship to Youngstown State. She averaged a career-best 12.1 points as a sophomore at YSU and finished her career with 1,104 points. She also totaled 533 assists, 407 rebounds and 249 steals in 100 career games. She was elected to Youngstown State’s hall of fame in 1994.
Peters returned to Central to teach biology and chemistry and serve as an assistant basketball and track and field coach. She became the girls basketball head coach at Jackson and was 174-112 over 13 seasons from 1988-2001. She taught biology, chemistry and honors chemistry for 28 years at Jackson.
Peters' late brother Dan was a former basketball head coach at Walsh and Youngstown State. He also served as an assistant at Cincinnati, Ohio State and Akron.
The Canton Repository sports department can be contacted via email at sports@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton Central Catholic hall of famer Margaret Peters has died