HALL OF FAME 2006

HALL OF FAME-CLASS OF 2006
Prince & Middleton Lead
TWELVE NEW HALL OF FAMERS
(Jeffrey Jen Searchlight-9/21/06) Between the two of them, Jim Middleton and Don Prince have been coaching or teaching at Shasta College for more than 60 years. The two headline a class of 12 to be inducted into the Shasta College athletic Hall of Fame next month. The others to be enshrined during the Oct. 13-14 weekend include basketball standout Billy Speer, football players Jesse Loeffler and Mike Franco, softball players Katie Rossiter-Wood and Sharon Morales, volleyball players Carly Beck and Laura Reeves, diving record-holder Crystal Marks, and the tennis siblings Jason James and Heather James-Patterson. Middleton becomes the fourth Middleton entering the Knights' hall, following in the footsteps of brothers Rob and Bruce and wife, Mary, whom he coached in the 1970s. Jim Middleton played men's tennis for two years in 1964-1965 before starting out as an assistant women's coach for Shasta College in 1969. He then ran the tennis program for 12 years until it was briefly cut in 1982. Tennis was brought back two years later, but Middleton had already moved on to track and cross country, where he served as an assistant for 13 years to current Shasta College President Gary Lewis. After Lewis stepped down, Middleton ran the cross country program from 1995 to 2000. "I enjoyed it," Middleton said. "It's what I wanted to do. I made up my mind in seventh-grade that I would be a P.E. teacher and a coach. It was a great job, and I loved every minute of it." Prince has an equally long coaching career with the Knights. He ran the Shasta swimming program from 1975-1981 before it was discontinued, and then coached it from 1998-2002 after it was resurrected. He also coached water polo when it was a school sport, and has stints in women's basketball, softball and football on his resume. "Oh yeah, I also coached the archery club," Prince added. Among the others is Speer who played basketball for the Knights from 1999-2001 and teamed with Demetrius Jackson to carry Shasta to within one game of the state Elite Eight in 2000-2001. Speer, an Enterprise graduate, went on to play two years at Cal State Bakersfield. Crystal Marks still owns all of the school diving records after competing from 1999-2001 in two sports. In addition to her diving, Marks also had the state's best pole vault mark during the 2001 track and field season. Jesse Loeffler and Mike Franco were both all-conference football players for the Knights and played in the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Loeffler was a guard who went on to Northern Michigan, while Franco was a standout fullback. Sharon Morales was a two-time all-Golden Valley Conference and all-state shortstop in 1998-1999. She was a second-team JC All-American in 1999. Katie Rossiter-Wood was an all-GVC player in 1998 who was the league batting champion that season and the team captain of the first Knights squad to make the state softball tournament that year. Laura Reeves was an outside hitter in 1996-1997 for the Knights in volleyball. She is a Red Bluff product and was the 1997 league MVP, while Carly Beck was a two-time all-conference setter from 1997-1998 before moving on to UC Davis. Jason James was the Bay Valley Conference men's singles and doubles champion in 1998 and was a two-time all-league pick. He qualified for the state tournament in both singles in doubles in 1998 and 1999. His sister Heather James-Patterson was the 1999 Bay Valley Conference women's singles champion in 1999 and was also a two-time all-league pick. The college will hold an induction dinner Oct. 13 at Win-River Casino. The reception and social begins at 5:30 p.m., with dinner starting at 7 p.m. Tickets for the dinner are $20 and reservations can be made at the Knights athletic office at 225-4797. Then, the inductees will be introduced at halftime of Shasta's home game with Sacramento City at 6 p.m. Oct. 14. Reporter Jeffrey Jen can be reached at 225-8228 or jjen@redding.com.

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