Bill Riley (top left) is joined by (clockwise) Haley Sherman, Corey Cross and Hayley Waterman (blue shirt).
We’re bringing the generations together.
The four athletes who comprise the 38th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame are two guys from the early ’70s and two women from the 2000s.
But, regardless of when they played, they all left a sizable impact on their alma mater.
So, with that, we’d like to welcome Bill Riley, Haley Sherman, Corey Cross and Hayley Waterman to these hallowed digital walls.
After this, you’ll find them up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab, where they and their accomplishments will live on as long as Coupeville Sports does.
Our first two inductees, Riley and Cross, were two of the five athletes named by legendary Coupeville High School coach Bob Barker when I asked him who were the best he had seen here in Cow Town.
The other three?
That’s for me to know and you to wonder until I get around to writing that article.
For now, we want to talk about Cross, whose name still looms large over his hometown.
He was a 10-time letter winner (four in baseball, three each in football and basketball), 12 if you count rugby (which I previously was not aware had ever been a sport at CHS … back to the research desk!) and his name heads up the list of Male Athlete of the Year winners.
Cross actually won the honor twice, in 1970-1971 and 1971-1972, setting the standard for all who have come after him.
But what makes him truly worthy of induction is not just the awards. It’s the way people respond when you bring his name up in conversation.
Jaws drop. Eyes bug. Words like “incredible athlete” and “the best I’ve ever seen” come tumbling out.
Every single time.
Riley, a superb two-sport star for CHS (football and basketball), gets some of that same treatment, especially from his former coaches.
A First-Team All-League selection during his time on the hardwood, it’s there that I’ve actually been able to track some stats down, and they are still as impressive 40+ years down the road.
In ’71-’72 Riley averaged 18.7 points and 14.8 rebounds a game, then he turned that up a notch or two the next season, banging away for 23.9 and 14.4 a night.
As I’ve worked my way through years and years of Wolf athletic history, the only hoops player who I’ve found with a higher single-season scoring average than Riley’s 23.9 was Jeff Stone and his immortal 27 a game from ’69-’70.
So, pretty dang good company.
Our third inductee, Sherman, is our youngest, but there’s no need to wait for time to pass.
Haley was an impact player in both volleyball and softball, helping carry a very-thin Wolf diamond squad to the state tourney in her senior season in 2014.
Despite playing through an ankle injury she suffered at districts, The Shermanator was a standout on defense (gunnin’ down fools from left field) and at the plate, as CHS broke a 12-year dry spell, making its second-ever appearance at the big dance in the fast-pitch era.
A hard worker with a superb sense of humor, Haley was always one of the most radiant athletes we had, a true daughter of the prairie who made her large fan section (she’s basically related to 89% of the town) very proud.
Making people proud came naturally to our fourth inductee.
Waterman doesn’t have the showy stats some of the others had, but that’s largely because she took one for the team. Game after game.
In the early days of girls’ soccer at CHS, wins were few and far between. Really, really far between.
But if it wasn’t for talented booters like Hayley, who sacrificed to build the program, it wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today, at a point where the Wolves are fighting for league titles and making repeat visits to the playoffs.
Waterman was a wild woman on the pitch, and remains one of the most incredible people I have ever known off the field.
Long before she went on to study cellular and molecular biology in college and then start doing lab work that I can’t understand even when she tries to explain it in simple terms, Hayley was brilliant.
In high school, she did every extracurricular thing you could think of (all at the same time), shepherded all her brothers and sisters (including future soccer star Paige) and still found time to be indispensable at Videoville.
It was there and later at David’s DVD Den, where she was half of The Wonder Twins with Kate Harbour, that she achieved true greatness.
The afternoon where the two created an entire fake section of DVD’s, all crafted to look like “The Brown Bunny,” a film that had scandalized our boss, just for a brief laugh, is just the tip of their shenanigans.
I have had some God awful jobs in my life, but the 15 years I spent managing video stores will always balance out the crud, and the Wonder Twins are, hands down, the best part of those years.
Sports hall of fames? Nice, sure.
But in the true Hall o’ Fame of life, Hayley and Kate will always be my first inductees.
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