The Wenatchee Valley College Athletic Booster Club presents the Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet, “A Knight to Remember V,” on Saturday, June 5, at the WVC Café in Van Tassell Center on the Wenatchee campus. The evening includes a social hour at 5 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m., and an induction ceremony at 7:15 p.m.
The 2010 WVC Hall of Fame inductees include football coach Don Coryell and the 1955 football team; skiing coach Bob Johnson and the 1958 and 1959 ski teams; Donna Regan, women’s basketball and track; Lori Benson Reatherford, softball; and Jim and Albert Hampton, community boosters. The ceremony also includes the presentation of the Apple Valley Honda Academic Scholarship.
Cost is $35 per person; seating is limited. Guests should RSVP the WVC Athletics department at 509.682.6886 by May 27.
Notes on the Inductees:
1955 football team: Coryell’s only year at Wenatchee produced an unbeaten season, blemished just by a tie with Grays Harbor in the mud at Aberdeen in the final game. The Knights received a bid to play in the Potato Bowl at Bakersfield, Calif. Host Bakersfield College won the game and Coryell went on to San Diego State and then the National Football League, where he coached at St. Louis and then San Diego. The ’55 team blended Canadian, Hawaiian and local talent. North Central Washington players included WVC Hall of Famer Gene Jessup, Al Seyster, Don Oldfather and Dan Dow (Wenatchee High), Byron Ennis (Okanogan), Joe and Roy Bell (Manson), Glenn Speaks (Twisp), Roland Todd, Elmer Bailey, Dale Sparber and Ben Stewart (Cashmere) and Tony Notaras (Ephrata). Coryell, who came to the Knights from the University of British Columbia, also coached the ski and tennis teams during the 1955-56 school year.
1957-58 and 1958-59 ski teams: Johnson, who along with Coryell, honed their skiing skills in the Army’s 10th Mountain Troop during World War II, coached two championship teams. Aided by several Norweigans, the Knights, competing against mostly four-year schools, dominated the Northwest four-way meets (cross country, jumping and two alpine events). Wenatchee finished unbeaten in 11 meets the two seasons. Team members during the two seasons included Dag Helgestad, Hallvord Grosvold, Larry Simoneau, Jerry Matthews, Terry Welander, Keith Martin (Entiat), Torbjorn Yggeseth, Christopher Selbeck, Asbjorn Nordheim and Jim Brennan (Leavenworth).
Yggeseth went on to jump in two Winter Olympic Games for Norway and was an International Ski Federation official from 1982 to 2004. He died in January. Brennan was a 1960 national ski jumping champion and is a member of the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. In 1959, the Knights finished second to powerhouse University of Denver in the winter carnival meet outside Reno, Nev.
Donna Regan played on two championship basketball teams for WVC Hall of Fame Coach Jim Sollars, averaging 7.8 points in 1977-78 and 10.5 points and 9.9 rebounds the next season. She finished with 505 career points. An all-around fine athlete who later was a dominant recreation league softball player and Three Lakes golfer, Regan finished first in the 1978 community college state meet in the discus and was sixth in the shot put. In 1979, she repeated as discus champion with a state- and school-record toss of 143 feet, 10 inches. She was also second in the high jump and sixth in the shot. At the University of Idaho, she played for future Stanford basketball coach Tara Vandiver and also competed in track. She is a member of the Wenatchee High School Hall of Fame.
Lori Benson, according to her coach, WVC Hall of Famer John Kalahar, was the first superstar softball player at the school and is still tied for career homers with 23. In her first at-bat in 1985, she hit a grand slam and went on to bat .396 while playing shortstop. The Wenatchee High grad made the all-conference team as the Lady Knights finished with 21-16 record after a slow start.
Then in 1986, Benson switched to third base with the arrival of sparkplug shortstop Chris Honeysett and the Knights rolled to a 30-11 record and shared the conference title with Grays Harbor. Benson adjusted well to her new position, earning second-team all-conference and the team finished second in the state tournament.
