Swimming coach Dave Ploch, who led the Old Town High School boys to prominence with 13 straight Class B state championships, will be one of three inductees into the Maine Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame later this month.

Ploch, who coached the then-Indians for 14 years before retiring in 1997, will be joined by Portland native Rocco Aceto, who qualified for the Olympic trials in 1984 and 1988, and Hannah Turlish of Lewiston, who may have been the first Maine girl to qualify for a national ranking by U.S. Swimming.

Ploch, Aceto and Turlish will be inducted April 28 during the Maine Swimming awards banquet at the Augusta Civic Center.

This is the seventh class of inductees into the Hall of Fame.

A science teacher at Old Town High, the 43-year-old Ploch also led the team to two Penobscot Valley Conference titles during an era in which the Bangor boys won 16 conference crowns. Ploch also won six state Coach of the Year awards.

“I think that these are nice honors that you get, but when you coach or do whatever it is that you’re doing, it’s certainly not something I thought about,” he said. “[The state titles were] a combination of the efforts of several people.”

Ploch’s run of 13 consecutive state titles shares the state high school swimming record with the late Harold Paulson’s Portland High squads which won state titles from 1946 to 1958.

The Bethesda, Md., native also coached the Old Town girls for seven years, during which the team was the Class B state runner-up in 1983 and 1986.

Aceto attended Lincoln Middle School in Portland before going to the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., where he was a prep All-American.

“I guess I’m starting to show my age,” joked Aceto, who is now the aquatics director and head boys and girls swimming coach at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, Fla.

He went on to North Carolina State University, winning 1986 50-yard freestyle title at the ACC Championships, and has coached age-group programs in Texas as well as the Westbrook Seals in Maine. Aceto has also coached at Auburn University and Washington State.

Aceto, who said he maintains strong ties to Maine – his wife, Mia (Olore) Aceto is from Presque Isle – keeps an eye on swimmers from his home state.

“I’ve seen Maine kids like Ian Crocker progress,” Aceto said of the 2000 Olympic gold medalist who is also from Portland.

Turlish was a dominant age-group swimmer from Lewiston in the 1980s. She attended Hebron Academy before earning prep All-America honors at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa. She swam for the University of North Carolina from 1988 to 1991 and was named honorable mention All-America in the 1988-89 season.

The April 28 dinner will also honor the Maine Swimming Coach of the Year and Volunteer of the Year as well as the top eight point-scorers in each age group. The evening starts with a social hour from 5 to 6 followed by dinner. The awards presentation will be held from 7 to 9.

Tickets will be $20 per person and $7.50 for children under six years old. Reservations and payment must be made by April 15. Walk-ins will not be accepted. Checks must be made out to Maine Swimming, Inc. Send to Laura Branch, 37 Shaker Road, Gray, Maine, 04039. For more information email branch@securespeed.net.