Klamath Union honored their 2023 Pelican Hall of Fame class with a luncheon at Waffle Hut & Eatery Friday.
Inductees present at the luncheon were former swimming and track coach Sharon Brite, former basketball and track athlete Cheryl Hoff Mercer and former volleyball, basketball and track athlete Katey Choukalos Limb.
In his opening remarks, Klamath Union athletic director Tyler Baker held up the inductees as role models for the current generation of Pelicans athletes.
“You’ve had the talent, but you also made the intentional decision to compete as well,” Baker said. “I appreciate that, and I hope that our current generation can appreciate…all the hard work and time and effort it takes to be a top athlete. You can’t do it on talent alone.”
Brite, who coached at Klamath Union from 1968 to 1972 and is credited with pioneering girls sports there prior to Title IX, became the fourth member of her family to be inducted into the Pelican Hall of Fame, joining husband Bill and daughters Allison and Heather.
“Regardless of this honor being bestowed upon me, it was really the girls,” Brite said. “They stepped up, got it done, and were excellent role models.”
Brite recounted how appreciative some current Klamath Union athletes were of the trailblazing efforts made by the athletes she coached when she addressed the student body Thursday. She also highlighted a quote one of her former coaches frequently used–and she herself later adopted–to advocate for athletes playing multiple sports: “no one can predict how high you can soar until you spread your wings.”
“I am also a believer in being in as many sports as you are interested in because you never know what’s going to really grab you,” Brite said.
Brite said she was proud to see how much support for girls’ and women’s sports has grown since Title IX was implemented in 1972.
“I have a granddaughter that just had a big soccer game before we came down here, and the boys were there rooting up a storm,” Brite said. “That just filled my heart to see that, because that wasn’t the case back in the day.”
Mercer, who broke multiple school records in track before going on to run cross country and play basketball in college after graduating in 1977, said her coaches at Klamath Union were the greatest role models she ever had.
“Being on those teams was probably life-changing for me,” Mercer said. “To have a group of…various entities that wanted to support you.”
Mercer expressed how much joy she feels watching her grandchildren compete and coaching middle school cross country runners.
“I never thought I wanted to be anywhere near a middle school again…worst years of my life,” Mercer said. “But I love it when they come to me to report their times and tell me…they took two minutes off their mile time from the beginning of the year.”
Limb, who set numerous school records in weightlifting while earning all-conference honors in four sports and went on to run track at Nevada after graduating in 2009, recalled how she got into weightlifting after suffering a stroke during her freshman year.
“I got really, really sick, I lost a bunch of weight, I went cross eyed,” Limb said. “I had a weightlifting teacher at the time who told me about muscle memory, and she told me that if I went back into the weight room and lifted after school, it would all come back and it would help me recover.”
Limb said she quit the basketball team so she could spend that time weightlifting. With that level of dedication, it wasn’t long before she saw results.
“I ended up getting even stronger than I was before,” Limb said.
Realizing that strength training was her passion, Limb found a way to make a career out of it; she now works at Lost River, where she teaches weightlifting, health, and sports medicine.
Baker also took time to recognize the inductees who weren’t able to attend the luncheon: former football, basketball and baseball player Dave Hummel, former baseball player Tim Jones, former football, basketball and track athlete Deon McLaughlin and former soccer, cross country and track athlete Alisha Luna.
Hummel, who graduated in 1970, earned first team all-conference honors in baseball and basketball, helped lead the Pelicans baseball team to two state championship appearances and the Pelicans basketball team to a third-place finish at the state tournament.
Jones, who graduated in 1979, put up a 14-1 record and 0.96 ERA en route to earning first team all-state honors in his senior season. He had previously been inducted into the Pelican Hall of Fame as a member of the 1979 baseball team.
McLaughlin, who graduated in 2010, came back from a serious leg injury in his sophomore year to set school records in the long jump (23’ 9.5”) and triple jump (49’ 3”). He also recorded 32 dunks during his senior season of basketball, including one that broke the safety wire at Henley.
Luna, who graduated in 2013, only lost two races during her high school career. She led the Klamath Union girls cross country team to two state runner-up finishes while capturing two individual state titles. In track, she was a two-time state champion in the 3,000 meters, giving her a total of four individual state championships at Klamath Union–tied for the most in school history.
The Pelican Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will also be recognized before the Pelicans’ homecoming football game at Modoc Field Friday.
