Fifteenth Annual Marin County High School Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Banquet
Saturday, November 2, 2002 Embassy Suites Hotel San Rafael
Marin Athletic Foundation Board of Directors
Advisory Board
Glen E. Robinson, President Sharon Adams Joe Ayoob Sandy Boyd Jeff Brusati Carney J. Campion Judith Colton Mike Convis William L. Cope Michael Daly Gary Frugoli John S. Graham Ned Griffith John Heilmann Marion Higgins Thomas Knopf Rick Lafranchi Vicki McDill Richard Nave Robert E. Spain
Peter Arrigoni Mary Jane Burke Joan Capurro Eugene Clahan Kit M. Cole Dan Coleman William Daniels Mario Ghilotti John Govi Carolyn Horan William Isetta Jim King Walter Kosta Kenneth MacDonald Matt MacPhee Terrel Mason Marie McCarthy Peter Mitchell Robert Teasdale Sharon Valentino Jamie Williams
Executive Director: Peggie Daly
Hall of Fame Banquet Committee Bill Brody Jeff Brusati Don Collins Dewey Forry Mario Ghilotti
Vicki McDill Hank Moroski Rich Nave Phil Roark Glen E. Robinson Susie Woodall
The purpose of the Marin Athletic Foundation is to support and insure a full range of quality sports programs for all students at MCAL high schools. MAF funding supports athletics at Branson, Drake, Marin Catholic, Novato, Redwood, San Marin, San Rafael, Tamalpais, Terra Linda and Tomales. Individual, business and organization donations are vital in MAF’s fundraising efforts. Tax-decuctible contributions may be sent to: Marin Athletic Foundation 250 Locust Avenue San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 454-2247.
Program 6:00 p.m. Reception
7:00 p.m. Grand Entrance of Inductees
7:30 p.m. Dinner Welcome and Introductions Glen E. Robinson President, MAF Board of Directors Introduction of Inductees Don Collins, Master of Ceremonies Presentation of Plaques
2002 Inductees Athlete Buddy Biancalana-Redwood - 1978 Ken Cooney - Novato - 1978 Sue Corder - Novato - 1981 Gigi Geoffrion - Drake - 1982 Lori Saia-Odisio - Drake - 1978 Charles Scott - Terra Linda - 1982
Senior Athlete Jack Parsons - Tamalpais - 1943
Coaches James Naugle - San Marin Marlin Olsen - Novato
Special Recognition Rich Woodall The Marin High School Athletic Hall of Fame, established by the Marin Athletic Foundation, recognizes and honors athletes who distinguished themselves in Marin County high school sports. It also gives recognition to coaches and others who made significant contributions to high school athletics in Marin County. The annual induction banquet is held in the fall.
Acknowledgments Marin Athletic Foundation gratefully acknowledges:
Major Sponsor
Supporters Mrs. Arnold Nutting, in memeory of Arnold Nutting Special thanks to The Marin Athletic Foundation also extends special thanks to Geoff Lepper of the Marin Independent Journal for the program preparation and to the Marin County Office of Education and Burns Florist for their assistance and support.
Photographer Ralph Duncan is the official photographer of the Marin Athletic Foundation. Each of the inductees or a representative will receive, courtesy of MAF, a photograph from the ceremonies.
Buddy Biancalana Athlete — Redwood 1978 Buddy Biancalana garnered national attention as the Kansas City Royals’ clutch-hitting shortstop in the 1985 World Series. Few of those fans knew that baseball might not even have been his best sport. “My brother-in-law told me he thought I was a better basketball player than baseball,” said Biancalana, 42. “I loved basketball. My father really loved watching me play.” A bad back helped convince Biancalana to give up both basketball and football after a couple of years, but he still starred on the diamond. A fouryear varsity baseball player and three-time All-MCAL winner, Biancalana was a junior with the 1977 Giants, who won the mythical national championship. He was All-California his last two years, earning All-American honors as a senior. After being selected by the Royals in the first round — a fact he attributes to his coach, fellow Hall of Famer Al Endriss — Biancalana debuted in the majors in 1982 and spent six seasons with the Royals and Houston Astros. He has managed the Class A Charleston Riverdogs, a Tampa Bay Devil Rays affiliate, since 2001. He lives in St. Petersburg, Fla. with Kerri, his wife of three years, and 15-year-old son Bryn.
Ken Cooney Athlete — Novato 1978 Ken Cooney was a 6-foot-4 forward with size 15 feet and hands deft enough to score 19.1 points per game and lead the league in rebounding as a senior. But he might best be remembered for his mouth. “I was especially aggressive, verbally, with the officials,” Cooney said. “I can’t say I ever gave it up, but I got more diplomatic.” Cooney, who also participated in football, baseball and tennis, was tactful enough to earn first-team All-MCAL basketball honors as a junior, and topped that with All-MCAL, All-Bay Area and All-Northern California awards the following season. The Hornets were MCAL champions both years. Cooney played two years of basketball at the University of San Diego, then finished up with two years at Sonoma State. With the Cossacks, Cooney led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and shooting percentage, eventually earning induction into the Sonoma State Hall of Fame in 1998. Cooney, who lives in Milwaukie, Ore., is a claims supervisor for Geico Insurance. He married wife Lisa in 1997 and has three children: daughters Kirstin (17) and Elli (3) and son Dylan (11). The family plans to adopt another daughter, Tatyana (8), next month.
Sue Corder Athlete — Novato 1981 Sue Corder’s fate was sealed long before she ever picked up her first ball or bat. “When you grow up with four brothers who were all jocks,” said Corder, who was the only girl and the baby of the family, “... there were no options. It was sports or that was it.” Corder first came to prominence as a 12-year-old, when she became the first girl to play in the Novato Little League. She would eventually earn three All-MCAL mentions in both volleyball and softball at Novato, but shone most brightly in basketball, where she started for the Hornets varsity while attending ninth-grade classes at San Jose Junior High. She averaged 11.5 points per game that season, a mere hint of the deluge to come. By the time Corder’s four varsity seasons were finished, she would total 1,008 points in MCAL games, which made her the first player to reach four figures in that category, and 1,549 points overall. Corder played four years of basketball at USF, leaving as the school’s second-highest all-time female scorer. The 39-year-old, who lives in Rohnert Park, works as a sales representative for General Mills.
Gigi Geoffrion Athlete — Drake 1982 Starring in multiple sports is standard for Hall of Famers, but Gigi Geoffrion took that notion to an entirely new plane, receiving AllMCAL distinction in five disciplines: Basketball, cross country, soccer, softball and track. Of course, that wasn’t the only outrageous statistic to which Geoffrion can lay claim. There’s also five undefeated MCAL championship teams (two in varsity basketball, two in varsity cross country, one in frosh/soph basketball), six team MVP awards, and four consecutive years named top athlete in her class. The most unlikely of her All-MCAL awards might have been in soccer, which she hadn’t played for four years before taking it up again as a senior. “My mom kept every single article,” Geoffrion said. “I didn’t even remember I made All-MCAL in soccer and softball until I pulled out this box of old IJs.” Though Geoffrion succeeded in all sports, she was best known for her exploits on the basketball court, where she was the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1982 squad that earned a Division II state championship. Geoffrion, 38, played three seasons of basketball at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. She currently lives in Livermore and is director of quality assurance at Genealogy.com.
Lori Saia Odisio Athlete — Drake 1978 Lori Saia, as she was known in her Pirate days, had been unbeatable over 880 yards as a senior, winning the MCAL, NCS Redwood Empire and NCS Meet of Champions titles at that distance. But a blunder in the State Meet qualifying heats left her shut out of the final and disconsolate. But there was still a final to run with Drake’s mile relay team. Saia and her teammates took home third-place honors, beating their arch-rivals from Berkeley in the process. “Track is a really individual sport, but that emphasized to me how important it was to be a team,” Saia said. “Those girls, they came through.” Saia — who had also won MCAL and Redwood Empire titles the previous year — earned All-California and All-American accolades. In addition to her track exploits, Saia was an All-MCAL performer in cross country and basketball as a senior. She received a track scholarship at Cal, graduated in 1983 and married Andrew Odisio a year later. The pair live in San Rafael with their three children: Erin (16), Theresa (14) and Connor (10). Saia is a real estate broker with the Marin firm Frank Howard Allen Realtors.
Charles Scott Athlete — Terra Linda 1982 How good was this three-sport threat? Good enough that the nohitter Charles Scott threw against Redwood his senior year ranks no higher than third on his list of personal high-school highlights. The top two: Cementing a win over Redwood in the MCAL baseball playoffs as a junior with a diving catch before a standingroom-only crowd at Albert Park, and launching a home run at the same venue in that year’s NCS playoffs that cleared not only the center-field fence but also the snack shack that serves the softball diamond. “If I saw a kid do that now,” said Scott, who works as the regional scouting supervisor for the Arizona Diamondbacks after a nine-year minor-league career, “I’d pull out my wallet and give it to him.” Scott was a unanimous first-team All-MCAL selection in baseball and basketball as a senior; he was honorable mention in football despite injuries limiting him to three games. He accepted a baseball scholarship at Arizona State, where he roomed with Barry Bonds. He lives in Novato with Marcy, his high school sweetheart and wife of 13 years, and their three children: Tyler (9), Dominque (7), Mariah (2).
Jack Parsons Senior athlete — Tamalpais 1943 Twice a year, Jack Parsons gets together with 30 or so other former Tam athletes from his era to have lunch and reminisce about the days when they were Indians, riding electrified trains from home to campus and back again. This year, there will be a third such gettogether as some of those same folks gather to help Parsons celebrate his induction. Parsons played four sports at Tam — football, basketball, baseball and tennis — starring in the first three, although he can’t say which he was best at. “I don’t know,” he explained, “you’ll have to ask my friends that. I liked them all.” Parsons captained the baseball and basketball teams and was AllNorth Bay League during his final baseball season. He received Tam’s All-Star Award at his graduation in February 1943. Three months later, he was in the Navy, serving as an Armed Guard — manning a gun placement on an oil tanker — for three years. After his discharge, he played two years of football at College of Marin. Now 78, Parsons has retired with his wife of 29 years, Rosemary. The Rohnert Park residents have a combined five children and 12 grandchildren.
James Naugle Coach — San Marin If James Naugle’s shoulder had been a little stronger, San Marin’s wrestling program probably would have been much weaker. Recurring shoulder dislocations forced Naugle — a 1966 Novato High product who wrestled two years at College of Marin and a year at Sonoma State — into coaching before he had even graduated from college. Naugle joined the San Marin wrestling program during its second year of existence, 1970, and oversaw its rapid ascent. The Mustangs’ lengthy domination began soon after, and San Marin would eventually compile a 70-match winning streak, plus 13 straight MCAL championships. Naugle’s own wrestling career started inauspiciously; he was 1-30 as a freshman at Novato. But Naugle learned quickly, winning the 168-pound MCAL title as a senior, and one of his favorite moments as Mustangs’ coach was when he helped a similarly unsuccessful wrestler pick up his only career win during San Marin’s first championship season. “Those are the things you really remember,” said Naugle, who also coached football, swimming, gymnastics and girls volleyball. Retired from coaching since 1988, the 54-year-old Naugle and his wife of six years, Terri, run the Chevalle Ranch in Novato, where they raise, train and sell Tennessee walking horses.
Marlin Olsen Coach — Novato Even at the age of 73, Marlin Olsen sees no need to stop doing what he’s loved for more than four decades now. Asked if he’d ever consider retirement from mentoring younger kids, he replied, “No, I don’t think so.” A surprise offer to coach the Hornets’ football team in 1959 started a 23-year career at Novato, coaching not just football, but also basketball, baseball and golf. Olsen was surprised by his selection to the Hall of Fame because a majority of his career was spent as an assistant and not the head coach. “Amazement,” he said of his reaction. “I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d ever get this honor. Usually, it’s given to a head coach who’s won astronomical numbers of championships and everything.” In addition to Novato, Olsen has worked at Marin Catholic, San Rafael and Casa Grande. He also spent 18 years as an assistant to the College of Marin football team, a run that ended in 1998. And now, Olsen is back where he started — he’s been the offensive coordinator for Novato’s junior varsity the last two years. Olsen and his wife of 20 years, Beverly, live in Petaluma and share seven children and 11 grandchildren.
Rich Woodall Special recognition With his distinctive beard and ever-present shorts, Rich Woodall has been a ubiquitous presence on the Marin sports scene for more than three decades. The 1967 graduate of Marin Catholic was an All-MCAL football player and also participated in track before moving on to College of Marin and Chico State. Since then, he’s coached, at various times, football, basketball, track and volleyball for 22 years at Novato and Marin Catholic, and another 18 at COM. He has also been a tireless volunteer for the MCAL and NCS. “Championships are nice, winning seasons are nice, but when you see kids able to compete because a field’s set up or there’s an administrator on site, that’s great,” Woodall said. Currently, Woodall is teaching physical education at Marin Catholic, working as an assistant athletic director, serving as an NCS representative for football, baseball and softball, teaching first-aid classes for coaches and helping the MCAL run all of its playoff contests. Woodall will join his wife, Susie — a 2000 inductee — in the Hall of Fame, although his fashion statements are a little different than hers. “If I had a suit with short pants,” Woodall joked about the induction banquet, “I’d wear short pants.”
-- Compiled by Geoff Lepper, Marin Independent Journal