![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/nged1gq94c7ixeu0.gif\")
<\/p>\nLodi, CA…Bret Harte’s Rich Cathcart was inducted as part of the SJS Hall of Fame Class of 2018. The Sac-Joaquin Section held an induction banquet and ceremony on Sunday, October 21 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. This group of 12 includes many of the most influential athletes, coaches, administrators, officials and member of the media in Section history. Bret Harte’s Rich Cathcart returned to his alma mater as a coach and served as the school\u2019s athletic director from 1995 to 2014. During his time at Bret Harte, he coached football and boys basketball and he founded the boys and girls golf teams as well. The boys golf team began in 1986 and girls golf followed in 1999. He\u2019s coached teams to divisional Section championships in boys basketball and boys and girls golf. He\u2019s been the Mother Lode League Commissioner since 2010.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This class ranged from World Series champions to all- Americans to national champions. They were successful from the 1930s to the present time. The list of 12 inductees into the 2018 class of the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame includes many of the best and brightest athletes, coaches, administrators, officials and media members to ever grace a field within the Central Valley. The four athletes range from John Vukovich, Amador High Class of 1965, to J.P. Howell, Jesuit High Class of 2001. The three coaches include Turlock\u2019s Joe Debely, who coached the Bulldogs football and wrestling teams from the 1930s into the 1950s, and Merced\u2019s Mark Speckman, who was at the helm for a mythical state champion and some of the best teams to ever come out of the Sac-Joaquin Section. The inductees were decided through a lengthy process that included months of research and three separate committees.<\/p>\n
The induction banquet and ceremony took place on Sunday, October 21 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. Anybody with questions is urged to call Section Assistant Commissioner Will DeBoard at 209-334-5900, ext. 21. This is the Section\u2019s fifth Hall of Fame class. The inaugural class in 2010 had 56 members, the 2012 group had 43 inductees, 2014 had 32 and the 2016 class had 17 honorees. This class makes a total of 165 Hall of Fame inductees. <\/p>\n
We toasted this group in October, and now, let\u2019s celebrate the Sac-Joaquin
\nSection Hall of Fame Class of 2018:<\/p>\n
ATHLETES (4)
\nLANCE BRIGGS, ELK GROVE (Football): Briggs was a superstar on both offense and
\ndefense for one of the top football teams in Section history. As a senior in 1998, the
\nThundering Herd rolled to a 77-22 victory over Atwater in the SJS Division I
\nchampionship game. Was also part of Elk Grove\u2019s 1997 Section title squad. He went to
\nthe University of Arizona, where he was a two-time first-team all-Pac-10 linebacker. He
\nplayed 12 years for the Chicago Bears in the NFL, where he made seven Pro Bowl
\nrosters and was named all-Pro three times.<\/p>\n
J.P. HOWELL, JESUIT (Baseball): Howell is considered one of the most dominant
\npitchers in Section history. His senior year in 2001, he went 10-0 with a 0.09 ERA and
\n137 strikeouts while leading the Marauders to the Section Division I title. He also set a
\nSection playoff record his junior year by striking out 47 in 22 innings. He moved on to
\nthe University of Texas, where he went 25-4 in his two seasons with the Longhorns,
\nearning first-team all-American honors. He compiled a 36-30 record in a 12-year Major
\nLeague Baseball career, playing for four different teams.<\/p>\n
CHANIQUA (ROSS) BUTSCHER, LAGUNA CREEK (Track and Field): Ross won the
\nSection championship in both the shot put and discus for all four years each; she\u2019s the
\nonly track and field competitor in Section history to win championships in two different
\nevents four times. She won CIF state titles in the discus in 1996 and 1997. She moved
\non to UCLA, where she won two Pac-10 championships (2001 and 2002) and she was
\nthe NCAA discus champion in 2002.<\/p>\n
JOHN VUKOVICH, AMADOR (Football, Basktball, Baseball): The late Vukovich is
\nthe most storied athlete to ever come out of Amador High School. He played football,
\nbasketball and baseball well, but he really shined in football and baseball. He earned an
\nimpressive double when he was named the CalHiSports state small schools basketball
\nplayer of the year in 1963 and he was the CalHi state small schools football player in
\n1964. He had a 12-year Major League Baseball career that included winning two World
\nSeries rings (1975 Cincinnati Reds, 1980 Philadelphia Phillies) and he was a coach with
\nthe Phillies from 1988-2004.<\/p>\n
OFFICIALS (2)
\nMONTY MULLER: Muller was a standout wrestler at La Sierra High, American River
\nCollege and San Francisco State before transitioning into the officiating world. He has
\nworked as a high school wrestling official for the last 40 years, working 18 state
\nchampionships. He was the commissioner of wrestling officiials in the Sac-Joaquin
\nSection and, for the last 21 years, has been a partner with Jorgensen Sports Service,
\nwhich assigns officials in all sports for the northern half of the SJS.<\/p>\n
DENNIS WALLACE: The late Wallace officiated football in the southern half of the Sac-
\nJoaquin Section for the last 25 years. He also was a high school soccer official for three
\nyears. He spent the last 15 years of his officiating career as a crew chief. He worked
\nplayoff games every year and he was on the field for four Section championship games.
\nHe was also the referee for 11 North\/South Rotary All-Star games. He served multiple
\nterms on the NCOA South football officials board as well. Wallace, a Stanislaus County
\nSheriff\u2019s deputy, was killed in the line of duty in 2016.<\/p>\n
MEDIA (1)
\nMIKE RAY: Ray graduated from Colfax High School in 1969 \u2013 he was the school\u2019s
\nAthlete of the Year \u2013 and even as a high school athlete was already writing for the
\nColfax Record. He was the sports editor for the Record from 1970-1985 and from 1989
\nto the present. He was also the sports editor of the Grass Valley Union from 1975-1985.
\nHe has covered three generations of high school athletes for the Colfax Record.<\/p>\n
COACHES (3)
\nJOE DEBELY, TURLOCK (Football): The late Debely was a longtime football and wrestling
\ncoach at Turlock High. He coached the football team from 1933-1941 and from 1946-53; that
\ngap was because he served in the US Navy during World War II. His teams won seven league
\nchampionships, and in 1948 and 1949 they finished the year at a perfect 10-0. Turlock High\u2019s
\nstadium is named after him as well. Debely was also involved with the Sac-Joaquin Section
\nduring its formative years; he came up with the name \u201cSac-Joaquin Section.\u201d<\/p>\n
RON PUCCI, COLFAX (Boys Basketball): Pucci coached boys basketball at Colfax for
\n19 years in three separate stints. He coached from 1979-89, from 1996-2001 and from
\n2004-2009. His teams compiled a 371-191 record in that time, winning seven league
\nchampionships, three Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV titles (2004, 2006 and 2007) and
\nthey advanced to the CIF Northern California Division IV championship game in 1999.<\/p>\n
MARK SPECKMAN, LIVINGSTON\/MERCED\/GOLDEN VALLEY (Football):
\nSpeckman coached at Livingston (1981-1983), Merced (1986-1993) and Golden Valley
\n(1994), compiling a 113-48-3 record. It was at Merced where Speckman\u2019s teams were
\nat their best. Those teams played in five Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championships,
\nwinning two of them. The 1990 team was the mythical overall state champion, ranked
\nNo. 1 by CalHiSports.<\/p>\n
ADMINISTRATORS AND BENEFACTORS (2)<\/p>\n
RICH CATHCART: Cathcart returned to his alma mater as a coach and served as the
\nschool\u2019s athletic director from 1995 to 2014. During his time at Bret Harte, he coached
\nfootball and boys basketball and he founded the boys and girls golf teams as well. The
\nboys golf team began in 1986 and girls golf followed in 1999. He\u2019s coached teams to
\ndivisional Section championships in boys basketball and boys and girls golf. He\u2019s been
\nthe Mother Lode League Commissioner since 2010.<\/p>\n
JOHN WILLIAMS: Williams served a stint as the Sierra Valley Conference
\ncommissioner before being hired as the Sac-Joaquin Section\u2019s first assistant
\ncommissioner, in 2001. He worked at the Section office during a period of growth and
\nmassive playoff expansion, of which he played a key role in making the postseason look
\nthe way it does today. He also developed the Section\u2019s history and record books and
\nserved on the CIF State Editorial Committee for many years. He is back as the SVC
\nCommissioner, having served in that role since 2015.
\n# # #
\nCIF Sac-Joaquin Section oversees high school athletics for 198 schools and 225,000
\nstudents. Its geographic boundaries stretch from Merced in the south, Grass Valley in the
\nNorth, Napa to the west and the Nevada state line to the east. The Section is the second
\nlargest of California\u2019s 10 athletic sections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lodi, CA…Bret Harte’s Rich Cathcart was inducted as part of the SJS Hall of Fame Class of 2018. The Sac-Joaquin Section held an induction banquet and ceremony on Sunday, October 21 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. This group of 12 includes many of the most influential athletes, coaches, administrators, officials and member of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,21,20,4,18,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels-camp","category-arnold","category-copperopolis","category-featured","category-life-style","category-murphys","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/nged1gq94c7ixeu0.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}