Inductees honored at BBCC Hall of Fame banquet

By Connor Vanderweyst, Columbia Basin Herald

Hall of Fame
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Former Big Bend coach Carey Carlson (front) speaks to the crowd while athletic director Mark Poth (second from right), her husband Chris Carlson and members of the 1998-99 Big Bend women’s basketball team listens.

 

MOSES LAKE — Members of Big Bend’s 2010-11 men’s basketball team milled around the stage inside the campus’s ATEC building, unaware of exactly where to stand or position themselves.

“It’s amazing they won a game, isn’t it?” athletic director and coach of that year’s team Mark Poth quipped.

The 2010-11 iteration of the Runnin’ Vikes won more than a game that season. In fact, they reached the NWAC Final Four and were Eastern Region champions. That team, along with the 1998-99 women’s basketball team, women’s basketball player Jessica Metz, baseball player Dylan Signorelli, and men’s basketball players Hayes Garrity and Blake Skidmore were all inducted into the Big Bend Hall of Fame Friday at the third annual banquet.

“Congratulations to all of our hall of famers — well deserved, well earned,” Big Bend President Terry Leas said. “Certainly have made Big Bend Community College proud, so thank you.”

The 1998-99 women’s basketball team was the first to grace the stage. That group of Vikings was the first women’s team to win an Eastern Region championship. The team was coached by married couple Carey and Chris Carlson.

“She said ‘I do’ after he (Chris) said she was the head coach,” Poth joked.

Carey Carlson commended her former players for their determination and drive to succeed as student-athletes.

“As a coach, often the biggest indicator of a tremendous team is when you realize that you’re learning just as much from them as they are learning from you,” she said. “Chris and I were lucky enough to see their characteristics of resiliency, grit and enthusiasm played out before our very eyes every day in practice and in the games.”

To read the entire story, visit the Columbia Basin Herald website.