FAME Legends to be honored at banquet on Saturday

The Northern California Sports Association will host its 47th annual Hall of Fame and Scholarship dinner on Saturday night at the Marysville Elks Lodge.

Seven individuals and a team will be inducted this year, and among those new members, three – Thea Post, Dave Rottman and Hap Richie – have local ties and graduated from Yuba-Sutter area high schools to begin their Hall-of-Fame careers.

Here’s a look at those who will be honored on Saturday night.

THEA POST A 1979 graduate of Sutter High, Post played varsity volleyball, basketball and softball all four years and one year each in tennis and field hockey for the Huskies.

She was the Butte View League and Westside League MVP in volleyball during her time at Sutter to earn a scholarship to UC Davis, where she played for four years as the Aggies’ setter.

At UC Davis, she was a team captain, all-conference selection and the team MVP during the 1983 season while leading the Aggies to the Northern California Athletic Conference co-championship.

After graduating from Davis and earning her Master’s degree at Cal Poly, Post took over Yuba College’s volleyball program from her mother, Carol Jean Bordsen, in 1986 and guided the 49ers to some of the best seasons in program history.

She coached the 49ers for 20 years, and over that time, compiled a record of 160-60 while winning six Bay Valley Conference championships and earning 15 playoff berths.

Post saw seven of her players earn a spot on the all-state team and 51 named to the academic allconference team. In 2001, the 49ers finished fifth in the state for the best finish in program history.

Still a professor at Yuba College, Post has coached the North Valley Juniors club volleyball team for the past 10 years and has taken three of her teams to the Junior Olympics.

She is already a member of the Yuba College Athletic Hall of Fame and the UC Davis Athletic Hall of Fame.

DAVE ROTTMAN A 1968 Marysville High graduate, Rottman still holds school records for the Indians by striking out 19 batters in a game on two occasions.

He then went on to Yuba College and set 17 school records for the 49ers, seven of which still stand today, including most career victories (22), most strikeouts in a game (20), most strikeouts in a season (160), most strikeouts in a career (269), most complete games (26), most postseason wins (two) and most postseason innings (25 ⁄

Rottman also won the batting title and the pitching title two straight years at Yuba, earning team MVP honors twice. In 1970, he led the state in strikeouts with 160 to earn a spot on the all-state team.

He followed that up by batting .320 at Chico State, where he played center field due to a dead arm.

Already a member of the Yuba College Hall of Fame, Rottman played in the Canadian Baseball League for six years and was twice selected to the All-Canadian Team. He has records in Canada that still stand today.

HAP RICHIE Honored posthumously, Richie was a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball at Marysville High, graduating in 1958. He is often mentioned along with Loren Hawley and Joe Rose as one of the best athletes to ever don an Indian uniform, and was named the Sierra Foothill League Athlete of the Year in 1957.

Richie signed a professional baseball contract upon graduating from Marysville and played five years the minors with the Milwaukee Braves, Los Angeles Angels, Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees, reaching the Triple-A level as a first baseman and outfielder.

He clubbed 15 home runs and had 78 RBIs in his best year in Triple-A, batting .320 and .319 in his two seasons before retiring.

Richie returned home and played semi-pro baseball with the old Marysville Giants and was one of the team’s two top hitters along with major leaguer Ray Webster.

Richie passed away in 2016 at the age of 77.

ANDY PONCIANO Ponciano graduated from Willows in 1955 and was a standout in football and baseball for the Honkers.

Hey played three years of varsity football at running back and was a team captain, team MVP and named to the All-Westside League team.

In baseball, he played four years as the starting catcher on Willows’ varsity team and never batted below .370. He was also the team’s captain, team MVP and named to the All-Westside League team on the diamond, and was selected to the KFBK-Sacramento Bee All-Star Camp for two consecutive years.

Ponciano started at catcher at Yuba College in the 1956 and 1957 seasons, and played six years for the Willows Cardinals semipro team in the Valley League. He also played fastpitch softball, re-established the softball leagues and fields in Willows and caught fast-pitch legend Gary Burton from Corning.

He umpired local high school baseball games until he moved to Vancouver, Wash., and gained the community’s interest and funding to develop a local America Legion team.

DAN HAWKINS Currently the head football coach at UC Davis, Hawkins grew up in the tiny town of Bieber and was a standout in football, basketball, baseball and track at Big Valley High.

As a fullback/linebacker, Hawkins was an All-Ever- green League selection and played in the Lions All-Star Game. In basketball, he was named to the All-Superior California Team.

He then attended College of the Siskiyous in Weed and was an All-Golden Valley Conference selection at fullback before moving on to play at UC Davis alongside future NFL quarterback Ken O’Brien. The Aggies reached the 1982 NCAA Division II championship game in 1982, where they lost to Southwest Texas State.

Hawkins then embarked on a lengthy coaching career at several schools and is best known for an outstanding record at Boise State, where he went a 37-3 and was named the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year twice. Hawkins also hired Yuba City’s Chris Petersen away from Oregon and recommended Petersen to succeed him at Boise State.

DON BATIE A five-sport athlete in high school in Artesia, N.M., Batie received a football scholarship to Oklahoma State, but chose to run tack at the University of New Mexico instead.

He also played two years of soccer, preparing for a lengthy coaching career in the sport. He spent two years teaching and coaching soccer at College of Santa Fe before embarking on a 40-year career at Chico State from 1967-2007.

Batie was the head soccer coach for 32 years and track coach for nine years at Chico State, winning 14 conference titles, earning 10 NCAA appearances and five regional championships with the Wildcats’ soccer team. Under his watch, Chico finished third in the nation three times.

He ranks fifth all-time for Division I, II and III college coaches in winning percentage, and his 326 career wins rank second all-time in Division II, earning a spot in the Chico State Hall of Fame.

Batie also served as a head coach in the North American Soccer League with the San Antonio Thunder for two years, with the highlight being a 1-0 victory over the great Pele and his New York Cosmos.

ED SOUZA Also honored posthumously, Souza grew up in Hawaii and was the first athlete to clock in at 9.9 seconds in the 100-yard dash on the islands.

During a stint in the U.S. Army in 1946 and 47, Souza played on the Army baseball team and pitched in the Pacific Championships against Japan, Guam and the Philippines, throwing a no-hitter in the tournament.

He then played football and baseball at Chico State from 1948-50, where he was a standout athlete in both sports. After playing at Chico State, Souza became a star pitcher in fast-pitch softball in Chico from 195585 before going into coaching and officiating.

Souza officiated basketball, baseball and football at the high school and collegiate levels as well as ASA softball for more 35 years, mostly in Northern California.

He helped young pitchers from around the region with their mechanics and trained young officials in all three sports for nearly 40 years.

Souza passed away in 2016 at the age of 90.

RAY CRAWFORD Already a member of the Dixon High School Hall of Fame (2012), Shasta College Athletic Hall of Fame (1991) and UC Davis Aggies Athletic Hall of Fame (1980), Crawford will be honored again for his standout career as an athlete and coach.

At Dixon High from 195457, he was a four-sport standout in football, basketball, baseball and track, earning 10 varsity letters and leading his teams to four Yolo County Athletic League titles.

Crawford played football, basketball and baseball at Shasta College, twice earning All-Golden Valley Conference honors as a quarterback and was named a Junior College All-American in 1958.

He played all three sports at UC Davis, leading the Aggies’ basketball team in scoring twice and taking home All-Far Western Conference honors two times. He also played seven positions for the baseball team and was selected as the AllUniversity of California Athlete of the Year for Davis in 1962.

Crawford then embarked on a successful coaching and teaching career at Dixon, Monte Vista and Lassen high schools before retiring from coaching in 1976. 1963 WEED HIGH FOOTBALL TEAM Undefeated at 9-0 and part of a 27-game winning streak, the San Francisco Examiner named the Cougars the No. 1 team in Superior California (from Sacramento to the Oregon border) after they outscored their opponents 296-49 during the 1963 season.

Coached by the legendary Mort Kaer, four players on the team were named to the 1964 Optimist All-Star Game. Seven players were also named to the Siskiyou County AllLeague Team, and eventually three of those players earned Division-I football scholarships to Oregon, Oregon State and USC.

With an enrollment of only 301 students, Weed is believed to be the smallest top-ranked school ever in Superior California.