By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Break out the ice packs and the Ben Gay, tip your chair back and be ready to swap some stories about who are some of Sitka High School’s top athletes.
Tonight, 24 former Wolves will get a shout out in the Sitka Sports Legends Banquet, hosted by Sitka Youth Sports, and in conjunction with the 48th Annual Alaska CHARR (Caberet, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association).
Athletes honored will be noted not just for their high school accolades but for what they accomplished after graduation as well.
“Doors will open at 6 p.m. and we will have a reception until 7,” Sitka Youth Sports president Ed Conway said. “Hors d’oeuvres and the whole nine yards. It will be interesting. These are restaurant people and we, the baseball team, we cook the food and we serve it.”
HONORING LEGENDS – Sitka Youth Sports president Ed Conway holds a poster of Paul Haavig, one of 24 Sitka sports icons, that he was hanging in the Centennial Hall ballroom for tonight’s Sports Legends Banquet at 6 p.m. The dinner, with an auction and live entertainment, is part of the 48th Annual CHARR Convention. The proceeds benefit Sitka Youth Sports. See story Page 8. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
The team members will be outfitted in their jersey tops, but the night will belong to all those who have donned jerseys in the past.
Conway’s criteria for picking the honorees was not meant to slight anyone but to remember a few who, in his opinion, deserved another toast.
“I placed team above individual where I could,” Conway said. “Team state championships to me are harder to come by, and I placed more emphasis on 4A than I did 3A, because I believe it’s just harder to win a 4A state title. And when I have to measure people, like say Paul Haavig playing 4A basketball and not winning a state title, he is still up there.”
Haavig’s Wolves lost the 1975 region title to Wrangell, at Mt. Edgecumbe, when many of the southeast schools played in the same classification and Haavig was ranked the number one player in the state. Haavig, teammate John Hanson and Wrangell’s Fred Angermann were all-state tournament selections the following week.
“And it wasn’t just all high school,” he said.
Conway noted Kelsea Johnson (2008), a state champ in the long and triple jumps, who attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and finished seventh in the nation in the heptathlon; and Bob Calhoun (1985), coming from a time of no high school baseball, walking on to the Linfield College team and being a four-year starter on a squad that produced three-time New York Yankees World Series champion Scott Brosius.
“To me that’s an accomplishment,” Conway said. “A kid from Sitka walked on and was a stud.”
Also being honored are Megan Reid (2014), a two-time state softball player and basketball player, who won two national rowing championships at Western Washington University; the 1954 Sitka state basketball champions and players Sam Martin, the godfather of basketball, and Willis Osbakken; Matt Way (2005), considered to be the No. 2 ranked southpaw pitcher in Alaska history; E.B. Crow (2006), ’06 Louisville Slugger Player of the Year; Bryn Calhoun (2007), ’07 LSPY; Ross Venneberg (2009), ’08 LSPY, 2009 Gatorade player of the year and accomplished musician; Erickson Fish (2014), state baseball champ; Karen Krupa (1989), all-state volleyball and basketball; Sidney Riggs (2015), 12 letters earned, first girls high school state basketball title; Zosha Krupa (2017), finalist 3A player of the year; Tatum Bayne (2018), state track, softball, basketball titles.
Also, Hailey Denkinger (2016), softball, basketball titles; Stefania Potrzuski (2013), four state softball titles; Robby Jarvill (1997), best age group swimmer Sitka produced; Jessica Davis (2019), five individual state titles and a season left; Skylar Moore (2017), swim titles; Bill Steinbach, big time Little League coach, started high school program; Keith Perkins (1978), a man-about-town-field-and-courts, official, announcer and ambassador.
Also, Woody Widmark, official, umpire, coached the most state baseball championships in local history; Mike and Pete Hagan, pioneers of the adult softball league; George Wathen (2005), 16 high school letters; Derek Hirai (2001), dominated the world of jump rope; and Louis Belley (2014), Alaska male swimmer of the year.
“We just want to give some people recognition, again,” Conway said. “We really don’t have a hall of fame. I can tell you, everybody we are putting up here on this wall would be in our hall of fame, eventually at some time.”
Conway acknowledged that the evening deals with Sitka High School alums and it’s not a snub on Mt. Edgecumbe High School or Sheldon Jackson College, citing the many sports figures from those two institutions that have impacted the community and the state.
“I would have loved to have Archie Young here,” Conway said. “As far as I’m concerned he is the best coach in the state, and he’s in the state hall of fame as a player.”
Attendees will be feted with prime rib served by members of the Sitka baseball team and entertained by the musical stylings of Joe Montagna’s band SlackTide. City attorney Brian Hanson will emcee the event, which includes an auction with goods that include prints (an Ernest Robertson painting among them), luggage, jewelry, and various donated items.
Conway said he has a couple of favorite athletes over his tenure of living in Sitka.
“For the guys, it’s Matt Way,” he said. “I am a little skewed because he was like a nephew to me, and he was a baseball guy.”
Way also won two state titles in swimming, one as a baseball player in 2005, and one as a state baseball coach in 2017. He played four season at Washington State, making the All Pac 10 First Team, and was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies.
“As far as the girls go, there are a lot too,” he said. “Kelsea Johnson is kind of the person that really sticks out in the way of just a pure athlete. She was good.”
The event doors open at 6 p.m., reception, dinner, auction and
