A love fest for Sequim and its athletic heroes ran a little long, but a banquet tent packed full of supporters didn’t seem to mind.

Ten athletes and one team got the royal treatment in a first-time fete as the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class on Sept. 13 at The Cedars at Dungeness.

“This is the first time I’ve been back to Sequim in seven years,” said Erica Wheeler, an Olympic Games competitor and holder of a U.S. high school javelin record.

“I’m reminded of how special it is.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Matt Dryke, a three-time Olympic Games competitor and gold medal winner, thanks the crowd at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event on Sept. 14.

The inaugural class includes: Matt Dryke (Sequim High class of 1977), a gold medalist in skeet shooting at the 1984 Olympic Games; Cliff Echternkamp (class of 1963, basketball, baseball and football standout); Summer Jackson (class of 2005), state 3A swimmer of the year who holds numerous school records; coach/athletic director Rick Kaps; his son Ryan Kaps (class of 1989), all-state basketball star; Chuck Lehman (class of 1953), a three-sport prep star who also was key to starting Sequim little League; Bruce Randall (class of 1950), a three sport start in football, basketball and baseball; Joe Rantz, a gold medalist in men’s crew at the 1936 Olympic Games; Bill Ward (class of 1948), professional football player; Wheeler (class of 1985), a track and field standout junior national record holder in the javelin; and, the 2011 fastpitch softball team that went 28-0 on its way to winning the class 2A state championship.

J.D. Angiuli, one of 21 members on the Sequim High School Hall of Fame board, emceed the event that included a live and silent auction and catered dinner, with a slideshow of athletes along with some game footage from a 1950’s-era SHS football game. Funds raised go to support Sequim High School sports, band and cheerleader programs, Hall representatives noted.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / J.D. Angiuli leads the live auction at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event on Sept. 14.

The committee to form a Hall of Fame grew out of a meeting between committee members Derrin Doty, Kevin Kennedy and Ron Sather after meeting with Bruce Skinner, who chairs the Port Angeles Hall of Fame. (Port Angeles’ own Hall of Fame formed in 2017 and inducted its first class in April 2018.)

Over the past year, Sequim’s Hall of Fame board members culled down a list of prospects for the Hall’s initial inductees, seeking to honor athletes from each decade.

“It was a pretty awesome journey,” said Doty, the Hall of Fame committee’s president.

Honorees each received a plaque detailing the honor, and their names will be listed on a large plaque to be placed at the Sequim High gymnasium.

Successive Hall events will include fewer inductees, board members noted.

Hometown honors

Ryan Kaps — who racked up league MVPs his freshman, junior and senior seasons, was named co-MVP of the state tournament (and earned an all-state honor) in 1987-88, and was named the Naismith Award Winner as Washington State Player of the Year as a senior in 1988-89 — was on hand to accept his induction plaque, as well as accept the award for his late father.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Ryan Kaps, right, accepts his 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame honors from Hall president Derrin Doty on Sept. 14.

Ryan Kaps compiled numerous school and regional records including points and postseason scoring, went on to play basketball at the University of Washington and at Weber State University.

“I felt like I was in a 14-year program,” he said, noting the family moved to Sequim when he was about 4.

Kaps passed credit for his on-the-court success to others.

“Anything I achieved individually was really a credit to the teammates and the coaches that I had.”

Rick Kaps, a coach and athletic director whose name adorns the Sequim High School gymnasium, presided over an unparalleled era of SHS boys basketball, from 1976-1989. Four of his teams made it to the state tournament, with three earning back-to-back-to-back district titles (1986-89). The apex was the 1987-88 season, when Sequim — led by his son — finished second in the state. The team finished 25-1 overall, and Kaps was awarded the Washington state basketball Coach of the Year.

Kaps died of cancer at age 55 in February 1998; the gymnasium on the SHS campus now bears his name.

“When you went out to practice, he commanded attention and discipline, Angiuli recalled. “There was something about Rick that made us want to win.”

Unbeaten and unmatched for a full season, the 2011 Sequim High School fastpitch softball team went 28-0 and won the class 2A state title for the first team championship in school history.

While the unblemished record indicates the Wolves ran roughshod over opponents, that was only true until they reached the state tourney, where they won three games by a total of four runs — including a 2-1 classic over Ellensburg in the title game.

The lineup had star power throughout, including two-time Olympic League MVP Lea Hopson, Cindy Miller, Madison Zbaraschuk, Hannah Grubb, Bailey Rhodefer, Alexas Besand, Columbia Haupt and Zbaraschuk’s younger sister, Rylleigh. On the mound, the Wolves featured a dominant duo of Demiree Briones, who wound up 22-0 on the season, and Makayla Bentz, then a freshman who would wind up a league MVP three seasons later.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Rylleigh Zbaraschuk, left, and Makayla Payne (Bentz) share a moment at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event on Saturday. The pair were teammates on the undefeated 2011 fastpitch team that took the 2A title and earned SHS’s first team sports title.

On Saturday, players took time to shower praise to their coaches: Joel Lewis, head coach for that one and only title season, key assistant Mike McFarlen, who wound up leading SHS to five consecutive state tourney appearances right after that season, and Mel Hendrickson, who led the Wolves up to the season prior to the championship run.

Jackson, now an associate professor at Cal State-East Bay’s Department of Criminal Justice in Hayward, California, thanked the crowd and organizers for honoring all the inductees.

“I always felt like Sequim supported me,” she said at Saturday’s festivities.

Jackson was already an accomplished swimmer by her senior year, when she earned a pair of All-America honors in the fall of 2004 with her class 3A state meet victories in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly, earning the state 3A Swimmer of the Year honor and helping the Wolves earn their top team finish (sixth) in program history.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Summer Jackson accepts her 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame honor at The Cedars at Dungeness on Sept. 14.

By the time she finished her prep career, Jackson held seven of the program’s eight individual swim records (50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 100 fly, 100 breaststroke, 200 individual medley) and as a member of two of the school’s three best relays (200 medley, 400 free). In all, she won three individual state titles and 10 medals (top-eight) at state meets.

A 50-meter breaststroke junior national champion in 2003, Jackson swam at Division I University of Arkansas and worked on post-doctorate studies at the University of Arkansas’ Terrorism Research Center.

“I was very surprised; it’s a huge honor obviously,” Jackson said of the induction. “There are a ton of amazing coaches and athletes from Sequim; the fact that I’m in that mix, I’m very humbled by it,” she said.

Jackson was joined at the event by mother Patty — a 23-year veteran of the Sequim School District — along with Linda Bingler (Moats), her SHS coach.

Legacies over the decades

Echternkamp was a three-sport star (basketball, baseball, football), Cliff Echternkamp — a class of 1964 Sequim High grad — stood out particularly on the hardwood, earning two first team all-Olympic League A team basketball honors (1963, 1964), averaging 16.3 points per game as a junior and a league-best 23 points per contest in 1964. He was a strong rebounder and defensive player, and helped the Wolves to the 1963 state tournament.

On the baseball diamond, Echternkamp was a three-year letterman and took part in three no-hitters in 1963, and, playing just one year for SHS’s football team, he was picked for the all-Olympic League’s first team as an offensive end. A lifelong Sequim resident, he also won several local tennis tournaments and bowled competitively for more than 10 years.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Cliff Echternkamp, a three-sport standout at Sequim High (class of 1963), accepts his 2024 Hall of Fame award.

On Saturday, Echternkamp accepted his Hall of Fame plaque, noting that he goes through a scrapbook with his athletic highlights every couple of years.

“This is the last one,” he said.

Lehman excelled in baseball, basketball and football. He graduated from Sequim High School in 1953 and attended Washington State University to play football, but his career was short lived due to a serious knee injury while playing his freshman year and returned home to join the family business.

And as an adult, he refereed SHS basketball games for 15 years. He was instrumental in establishing Little League football and Babe Ruth baseball programs, often serving as a coach. He was also a constant advocate and driving force for youth sports in Sequim.

Lehman died in June 2014, at the age of 80 at his home in Sequim.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell /Melinda Lehman Dewey accepts the 2014 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame plaque for her father Chuck Lehman, from Hall president Derrin Doty, at the event, held at The Cedars at Dungeness golf course on Sept. 14.

His daughter, Melinda Lehman Dewey, accepted the award on his behalf, recounting the time her father helped spearhead an effort in the mid-1970s to raised money to fund all Sequim schools sports and extracurricular activities that would have been cut that year due to levy failures.

Randall was another three-sport star at Sequim high (football, basketball and baseball) before reaching new heights in college after a stint with the Armed Forces.

A U.S. Navy veteran serving from 1950-54, he earned three letters in those sports at Western Washington College of Education (soon to become Western Washington University).

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Jan Randall Crollard accepts the 2014 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame plaque for her father Bruce Randall, from Hall president Derrin Doty, at the event, held at The Cedars at Dungeness golf course on Sept. 14.

He was named WWU Athlete of the Year in 1955 and 1957 — the first two-time selection and only until 1990 — and was named to the WWU Hall of Fame in 1976.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from Western in 1957, Randall coached and taught at Sequim, Ferndale and Sehome (Bellingham) high schools; he coached the Ferndale High football team to a 9-1 record in 1963. Randall died at age 84 in November 2016 in Arizona.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Family and friends of Bruce Randall celebrate his induction into the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame on Sept. 14.

“He wanted to pursue his education,” his daughter Jan Randall Crollard said in accepting the honor on her father’s behalf. “He did all this while being married and raising family.”

Ward was the first local player to play professional football. Despite being an undersized offensive guard (6 feet, 230 pounds), he stood out as a prep player and at both Washington State University (1941-42) and the University of Washington (1943) before graduating to military service and then the NFL.

Bill Ward, Wikipedia/Los Angeles Daily News / Bill Ward, a Sequim High Class of 1948 and professional football player, was inducted into the inaugural Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame class on Sept. 14.

Ward played for pro football teams in Washington D.C. (1946-47) and Detroit (1947-49), starting 23 of 24 games in the final two seasons with Detroit’s Lions. He died at age 71 in 1992 in Bellingham.

International stage

The Hall recognized three Olympic Games competitors, including Joe Rantz — now known worldwide for his central role in Daniel James Brown’s best-selling “The Boys in the Boat.” Chris Willman, Rantz’s grandson, was on hand to accept the award for Rantz, who died in 2007 at the age of 93.

Rantz was part of the University of Washington’s eight-man crew to win the gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games, often referred to as “Hitler’s Olympics.” Left by his family to fend for himself in Sequim at age 15, Rantz managed to survive thanks to a hard work ethic and generosity of numerous Sequim families before moving to Seattle to live with his brother.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Chris Willman accepts a 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame plaque on behalf of his grandfather Joe Rantz, who along with the 1936 University of Washington eight-man crew team won gold at the 1936 Olympic Games.

Following the Olympic Games victory, Rantz married his Sequim High School sweetheart, Joyce Simdars. He went on to earn a chemical engineering degree and worked for Boeing.

Matt Dryke, the sharpshooting ace who earned a trio of Olympic Game berths — and would have had a fourth, save for the 1980 Games boycott — won gold in skeet shooting at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.

Raised on a 40-acre piece of property that Chuck, his father, turned into Sunnydell Shooting Grounds, a training facility, Dryke became a two-time world champion in skeet shooting (1983 and 1986) and a nine-time U.S. Champion, among his numerous honors.

“I did get around the world a couple of times,” Dryke said Saturday. “Believe me, Sequim is the best place to be.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Dave Blake, a Sequim native and longtime former Sequim School Board director, speaks at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event at The Cedars at Dungeness golf course on Sept. 14.

Dryke was on hand Saturday night with family — his wife Yvonne, a pistol shooter from Peru, and daughter Ellen — and thanked the Hall for the honor.

The 1985 USA Junior Champion and the 1990 Olympic Festival Champion, Wheeler competed at Stanford University after her high school days and vied for top honors at the 1996 Olympic Games, 1997 World Championships and 2003 Pan American Games. She was U.S. Champion in 2003, and runner-up in 1997 and 2001, and placed third at nationals in 1993, 1995 and 2002.

“The administration, my coaches absolutely changed the trajectory of my future, and I’m forever grateful for that,” she said Saturday.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Erica Wheeler, an Olympic Games competitor and high school record holder in the javelin, credits her coaches and parents for leading her to a career in coaching at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event Saturday evening.

Wheeler credited her parents for allowing her to try multiple sports.

She said she had aspirations and dreams of being an Olympian but thought it would come in swimming or volleyball.

“I never imagined it would be in javelin,” she said.

Wheeler turned her aptitude for world-level javelin throws into a career in coaching, working as an assistant coach at the The Ohio State University and at Cal State-Chico, coaching the throwers, and as a throws coach for the U.S. Paralympic team.

Backing the athletics

Sequim Schools superintendent Regan Nickels said she’s been impressed in her two-plus years here with how much the community comes out to support its youth. She invited the crowd to check out improved facilities on Sequim school campuses, including a gym floor refurbished in 2023 and a renovated track oat the school stadium that reopened this summer.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Attendees of Saturday’s Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event enjoy some reverie in recounting Sequim High memories.

Dave Blake, a Sequim native, Hall of Fame board member and a school board director for three decades, noted in a keynote speech at the Sept. 13 event, “I found it was a great place to grow up. Some things don’t change.”

The board that serves Sequim’s Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization, includes chairman Doty and co-chairs Kennedy and Sather, secretary Tammy Gitchel-Wooldridge, treasurer Karin Williams Cummins, and board members Tom Agostine, J.D. Angiuli, Chris Banchero, Dave Blake, Don Daniels, Brandon Funston, Art Green, Troy Herridge, Larry Hill, Candy Kardonsky-Burkhardt, Shawn Langston, Tom Lowe, Lori Taylor and Mark Textor.

For more about Sequim’s Hall of Fame, email to SequimAthleticHOF@gmail.com, or write to: PO Box 730 Sequim, WA 98382.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Kevin Kennedy, one of the key organizers of the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event, holds a helmet signed by former University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Live auction items at the 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event on Sept. 14 included signed jerseys from Julio Rodriguez and DK Metcalf.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / The 2024 Sequim Athletic Hall of Fame event on Sept. 14 included a live and silent auction, with funds going to support Sequim School District athletic expenses.