Northwest Notes Aug. 16, 2024

Six individuals, Friesz's 1988 football team to be Inducted into Idaho Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame

MOSCOW — Tara VanDerveer, the all-time winningest basketball coach in NCAA history who began her head coaching career at Idaho in 1978, highlights a group of six individuals and one team which will be inducted into the Idaho Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame next month.

Also included in the class are three-time Big Sky tennis MVP Marianna Petrei, two-time First-Team All-Big Sky soccer player Kavita Battan (Cowan), WAC golf champion and individual NCAA championship qualifier Leilanie Kim (Rorrer), sprint record holder Patrick Williams, and former all-time leading basketball scorer and Vandal baseball player Chuck White.

Joining the individual honorees is the 1988 NCAA Division 1-AA semifinalist Idaho football team.

The honorees will be officially inducted at a ceremony Friday, Sept. 13 at the Best Western Plus University Inn. VanDerveer, who has retired as Stanford coach, will not be able be able to attend because of prior engagements, but plans are in the works to bring her to Moscow to honor her later in the year arranged around a women's basketball game.

Tickets for the induction ceremony are on sale now. Tickets cost $100 and include a no-host cocktail social at 6 p.m. with a dinner and program to follow at 7:15 p.m.

The honorees will be recognized on the field during the Vandal Football game on Sept. 14 against UAlbany.

To attend the dinner: https://tinyurl.com/mrf3rcj8

VanDerveer was hired by Kathy Clark as the first full-time coach in Idaho women's basketball history, and coached the Vandals from 1978-80. The first four seasons in Vandal women's hoops saw just one winning season with a combined record of 26-48. VanDerveer immediately turned the program around. She led Idaho to a 17-8 record in year one and a 25-6 record in year two, including a trip to the AIAW Division II Nationals (the precursor to the NCAA).

After just two seasons, she was hired as the head coach at Ohio State in 1980 where she coached for five seasons before taking over the head coaching position at Stanford in 1985. The rest is history. 1,203 career NCAA wins, three national championships, 13 final four appearances, five National Coach of the Year honors and an Olympic gold medal (1996).

After VanDerveer left Moscow, the Vandals went on to play in three straight AIAW DII Nationals, advanced to the 1985 NCAA Tournament and win the 1986 WNIT Championship under Pat Dobratz.

Battan was a star player on Idaho's first two Big Sky Championship teams. She was a two-time First-Team All-Big Sky honoree and earned All-Tournament team and Second-Team All-Region honors in 2015.

Her name still peppers the Idaho record book, where she sits in the top five in career goals, single-season goals, career points, single-season points, career and single-season game-winning goals.

She represented the USA in the World University Games in 2017 where she scored a goal against Mexico in the consolation semifinal.

Battan was the first Vandal soccer player to play professional soccer. She played for Swedish Division I Club Skövde KIK in the spring of 2018.

She now resides in the Vancouver, Wash., area where she works in real estate and married former Idaho football player and Vandal football radio analyst Trent Cowan.

Kim won a WAC individual championship and was just the second Vandal ever to advance to the NCAA Championship.

Kim was the 2014 WAC Player of the Year and WAC Individual Champion. In 2015, she finished T4th at the Big Sky Championship to earn a trip to the NCAA Regional in South Bend, Ind. In tough conditions at the NCAA regional, she closed with a third-round 70 to finish in eighth place to earn a spot at the NCAA Championship. She remains the only player in Big Sky Conference history to advance out of the NCAA Regional to the final site.

Petrei never lost a regular-season Big Sky Conference match, going 42-0 in four seasons with every match played at the No. 1 spot for the Vandals.

In 2018, she became the only Vandal to ever play in the NCAA singles championship where she won her first-round match to advance to the round of 32.

With Petrei at the No. 1 singles spot, Idaho won three consecutive Big Sky Tournament titles. Her overall dual record was 70-11 in four years. 

White finished his Idaho basketball career as the leading scorer in Vandal history with 1,319 career points, despite the lack of a 3-point line. His record stood for another 13 years before Steve Weist surpassed him in 1976. He also held the single-season scoring record and the single-game mark as well.

His senior year, with teammate Gus Johnson, White and the Vandals went 20-6 on the year in the final season before the start of the Big Sky Conference.

In baseball, White batted .284 his senior season. He was eventually drafted by the NBA's San Francisco Warriors and the MLB's Baltimore Orioles.

White coached for 45 years in the Alaska high school ranks where he racked up 921 career wins and 18 state championships with a .802 winning percentage. He eventually coached future Vandal football standout Mao Tosi. He coached at Adams State College from 2010-15.

White passed away in 2019 at age 78. 

Williams, a native of Jamaica, holds the school record in the 55-meter (indoor) and the 100-meter dash (outdoor) and is second on the all-time list in the 200-meter in both the outdoor and indoor record books. He also holds the Big Sky Conference 100-meter record and is in the top 10 all-time list for the 55-meter dash and 200-meter dash indoor list.

In 1990, he made his biggest splash, making the final in the 100-meter and the 200-meter. He faced some of the best sprinters in the world and finished eighth in both races. Both finals included future Olympic silver medalist Frank Fredericks, and future Olympic bronze medalist and NFL wide receiver Michael Bates. The 200-meter final was won by four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson.

He was an 11-time Big Sky Champion, including eight individual championships. He continued running in his home country of Jamaica until 1992.

One of only two teams to advance to the FCS (I-AA) semifinals, the 1988 Vandal team included future NFL players John Friesz (Coeur d'Alene High), Mark Schlereth and Marvin Washington and were led by head coach Keith Gilbertson.

The Vandals lost an early-season game at Montana, but went on to rattle off nine consecutive wins, including a 38-19 first-round playoff win over Montana at the Kibbie Dome. The Vandals finished 7-1 to tie the Grizzlies for the Big Sky Championship. Idaho was the No. 1 seed in the I-AA Championship.

The Vandals picked up a 38-30 win over Northwestern State in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Furman on the road in the semifinals, without Friesz and seven other starters who were injured.

Idaho finished the season with an 11-2 record, tied for the highest win total in school history and the first Vandal team ever to win more than nine.

WSU volleyball home match vs. Pepperdine moved to air on ESPNU

Washington State Volleyball has announced that their home match against Pepperdine will now be played on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. 

Pepperdine has earned a bid to each of the last four NCAA tournaments, while the Cougs have appeared in eight straight.

Washington State is set to open its 2024 season on Aug. 30 against Wyoming at the Omaha Invite in Nebraska.

Former Lakeland High star Katy Ryan is a senior right-side hitter for WSU.