Hall High School Sports Hall of Fame to Induct Inaugural Members
Class of 2010 Includes Six Individuals and One Team
by Mike Struna (HHS) & Erik Hall (News Tribune)
March 05, 2010
The Hall High School Sports Hall of Fame Committee met on March 4, 2010 and selected the first class of inductees into the HHS Sports Hall of Fame. The inductees will be honored at the HHS All-Sports Banquet on May 15, 2010.
The Committee is proud to announce the Hall of Fame inaugural class -
COACHES
Rollie Morris
Richard Nesti
Gary Vicini
ATHLETES
D.J. Glynn
Shawn Jeppson
FRIENDS OF HALL
Gene Merkel
TEAMS
The 1995 Football State Championship Team
Hall to induct seven in inaugural Hall of Fame class
Erik Hall- News Tribune (March 6, 2010)
Hall High School announced Friday the first class being inducted into the Hall Athletic Hall of Fame. There was one problem.
Hall has had too much athletic success.
Hall athletics have achieved so much that they had to break the bylaws for the hall of fame and expand the inaugural induction class to seven selections. Six individuals and the 1995 Hall state championship football team will be inducted into Hall’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 15. The ceremony will be part of the all-sports banquet.
The six individuals are divided into three categories — coaches, athletes and friends of Hall. Three coaches going in the first year are Rollie Morris, Richard Nesti and Gary Vicini. The first two athletes headed to the Hall of Fame are D.J. Glynn and Shawn Jeppson. Entering the Hall of Fame as a friend of Hall is Gene Merkel.
Hall of Fame bylaws stated that there would be a maximum of six selections each year, but Glynn and Jeppson tied for the sixth spot. The selection committee decided to break the bylaws and include them both.
“The two athletes were tied for sixth so the committee had a discussion and voted to waive the bylaw the first year,” said Hall superintendent Mike Struna, the selection committee chairperson. “We hated to induct six and have one carry over. They thought the group selected, they all needed to go in the first year. They waived that (bylaw). They made it seven for the initial class.” Struna was the chairperson for the selection committee, but he did not vote.
The 11 people that voted to select the hall of fame members were Hall administrators Gary Barrera and Tony Valente; Hall board members Jack Boroski and Sue Nolasco; Hall staff members Jason Bland, Mike Filippini and Nick Hanck; and community members Debbie Baltikauski, Mike Morris, John Mussatti and Barb Stank.
The committee selected the inductees Thursday at a meeting.
“They did a great job,” Struna said of the committee. “The first class, it is the foundation and the rock. There will be a lot of other great people inducted in upcoming years. They hit the nail on the head with the first class.”
Rollie Morris and Richard Nesti are both being inducted posthumously.
Morris coached at Hall from 1963-93. His main successes came coaching cross country and track and field, but he also spent some time coaching boys basketball, girls bowling and football. Morris coached 17 individual state medalists and three all-state relays in track, and four times he coached cross country runners to all-state status. Morris also guided the 1979 boys cross country team to fourth place at state and the 1978 boys track and field team finished seventh at state. The Hall track is named for Morris.
Nesti has the Hall football stadium named in his honor after he coached Hall football for 26 full seasons, won more than 200 games and won the 1931 state title. Nesti worked at Hall a total of 40 years (1928-68) as teacher, coach and athletic director. Nesti also spent time coaching baseball, boys basketball and boys track and field at Hall.
Merkel was a high school senior when Nesti’s tenure as football coach ended midway through the 1955 season. Merkel is a 1956 Hall graduate, and he has only missed five Hall football games — home or away — since the start of the 1951 season. Merkel was a member of the Hall school board from April 1978 through Nov. 1993, and he was Hall school board president from 1984-93. He continues to be active at Hall as a member of the Hall Education Foundation. “It’s one of the highest honors I’ve ever had,” Merkel said. “I think it’s a very elite group, and I’m really proud to be among those people. For me not being an athlete and not being a coach, it’s just a great honor to be recognized for what I’ve done for the school.”
Part of what Merkel did for the school was hire Gary Vicini as head football coach in 1984.
Vicini coached Hall football for 25 years from 1984-2008. He compiled a record of 195-80 during that stretch, which included winning state titles in 1995 and 2001. Vicini also coached baseball from 1977-93 and won three regional titles. He coached softball from 1995-2002, and Vicini took over the girls track program from 2003-09, which included coaching Kendall Rush to a triple jump state title in 2009.
“It makes me feel old,” Vicini said. “I’m very happy and honored. Obviously, going in the first class is something special. Hall has a long history of great athletes and outstanding teams going way, way back long before I ever arrived in Spring Valley. I feel honored and humbled by the fact that they thought that much of my coaching career.” This is the second hall of fame for Vicini, who was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2004.
Jeppson is headed to hall of fame No. 2 as well. Jeppson was a 2008 inductee to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and now he is headed for induction to his alma mater’s hall of fame. Jeppson could not be reached for comment.
Jeppson is Hall’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball with 1,829 points, and he led the Red Devils to the Class A boys basketball state championship game in 1996-97 and 1997-98. Jeppson also quarterbacked the football team to the state title game in 1996.
Glynn graduated a year after Jeppson, and Glynn went out in style. He won four state titles at the 1999 Class A Boys State Track and Field Meet. He won his state titles in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and high jump. “It’s a big honor. I’m excited about it,” said Glynn who was in Missouri when reached by phone Friday. “I guess it hasn’t really sunk in. I called my wife and told her I got inducted into the Hall High School Hall of Fame. She said, ‘That’s really cool.’ My wife is starting to catch on to all the stuff that happened years ago.”
Vicini coached both Jeppson and Glynn in football, and he’s glad to see the pair enter the hall of fame. “It’s a great honor for D.J. and Shawn,” Vicini said. “I think those are two really great selections there by the committee.”
Vicini will also have an entire team of his players enter the hall of fame. Vicini coached the 1995 Hall football team to a 13-1 record and the Class 3A football state title.
“It makes you proud,” said Eric R. Bryant, a player on the 1995 football team. “There were a lot of special guys on our team that made a lot of commitment, and it was a lot of fun.”
Hall beat DuQuoin 38-32 in the 1995 state championship game. “That was our first championship, and those kids are great kids,” Vicini said of the 1995 team. “It’s going to be a great honor for those guys.”
Erik Hall can be reached at 223-3200, ext. 195, or at sports@newstrib.com.
