| School: Marshall | Graduation Year: 1993 |
Year Inducted: 2022
Sports Played: Football, Baseball
High School Honors: 3 Football letters, 2nd team All-PIL as Junior, 1st team All-PIL as Senior. Played on 2 Co-Champion teams; awarded the Norman Bolt character award as a Senior.
3 Baseball letters, 2nd team All-PIL as Junior, 1st team All-PIL as Senior; Honorable Mention All-State catcher as a Senior.
Post High School Career: Played 4 years of collegiate baseball, 2 at Clackamas Community College and 2 at Western Oregon. Hit .387 with 38 RBIs to lead CCC to its first NWACC playoff berth as a sophomore.
Coached Baseball and Softball 20 years in the PIL; as Head Baseball Coach, first at Marshall, then at Cleveland each for 5 years. Served 12 years on the Cleveland Youth Baseball/ Softball board. Has taught Special Education for the Portland Public School district the last 16 years, starting at Marshall.
Commentary:
Knowing how important athletics were to me growing up and the impact they had on my life I had never thought of a time or place without them. Going through the pandemic the last couple of years has reminded me how important athletics can be on the development of our youth. Discipline, work ethic, camaraderie, pride in community, these are just a few things that come to my mind when thinking about the impact of athletics on both myself and our youth.
As a young kid and like many other kids, my teachers thought I had too much energy and expressed it in many of the wrong ways, this resulted in many notes home and being sent home from school on several occasions as well. Through athletics I learned many of the characteristics I talked about, this helped me excel both on and off the field and in the classroom.
Not only did athletics have a big impact on me, the coaches I had throughout did as well. In middle school Mike Metoxen coached basketball, football and baseball. Mike would come to my house to pick me up for practice when my parents couldn’t get me there and would do this for many others as well. To this day I remember many of Mike’s words of wisdom, and with a little tweaking most are still relevant today.
In high school our coaches would coach multiple sports as well, and if they weren’t coaching your particular sport that season they made sure to make it out to a couple of games. I remember coach Stan Scott and Monte Rurey yelling at me on the football field in the fall and then in the spring having them cheer on our baseball team down in Arizona. My coaches were more than just coaches, they were mentors and eventually many became friends, with Monte helping build my house and Stan coming to watch my kids play sports and calling to let me know how Alabama football was doing. There was also coach Tim Taylor, he was my freshman football coach and my Varsity baseball coach, we butted heads a couple of times early on, but always figured things out. I remember Tim taking the risk and taking our Marshall baseball teams on road trips- first out of the city, then out of state, and we even went out of the country (that story is for another time). Tim and I continue to be friends and one of the main reasons I got into coaching. I have many great memories through athletics, with coaching my kids being at the top. I continue to coach today and use many of the same things I learned from athletics in the classroom as I teach, hoping to give students and athletes the same opportunities and experiences I had through athletics.