Eric Dickerson highlights Sportsmen of Stanislaus Club’s 48th OAA dinner this week
Stanislaus County’s top athletes of 2014 cover the spectrum – football, basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
They’ll gather at the Sportsmen of Stanislaus Club on Wednesday night at the 48th Outstanding Athlete Awards Dinner, the county’s sports version of the Academy Awards.
Winners will be announced in the high school and open divisions, along with many other awards and recognition of great sports feats of 2014.
The evening’s special guest is Eric Dickerson, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and one of the NFL’s best-ever running backs. Dickerson, an All-American at Southern Methodist, rushed for more than 13,000 yards during his 11-year NFL career. His 2,105-yard performance in 1984 remains a season record. Also scheduled to attend is former standout NFL receiver Roy Green.
One of the surprise announcements of the night is the Jay Pattee Award for public service to the sports community.
The media reception kicks off festivities at 5:30 p.m., followed by social hour at 6:30 and the dinner and program at 7. Tickets are available, although a large crowd is expected. Call (209) 578-5801.
The special awards:
Darell Phillips – The coaches award goes to Norm Antinetti, the respected former coach and athletic director at Oakdale High School and later commissioner of the Valley Oak League in a career spanning 54 years.
Hall of Fame – The first of two inductees is Brent Bohlender, who’s already a member of the U.S. Water Polo and Sac-Joaquin Section halls of fame. Bohlender guided his teams to nearly 1,700 victories in water polo and swimming competitions. He set a national high school record by leading his water polo teams to 128 straight wins between 1996 and 2000. His name graces the swimming facility at Johansen High.
The second inductee is Doug Burke, who led the Beyer water polo team to four section championships between 1972 and ’75. He was named a high school All-American and attended Stanford, where he was a three-time All-American and a member of two national-title teams. Burke, a member of the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame, was a member of the 1980 and ’84 Olympic water polo teams and earned a silver medal in 1984.
Team awards – Central Catholic’s third consecutive state football title, along with Modesto Christian’s first girls state title, in basketball, will be recognized.
Tom Mellis – Gregori senior Tyler Janitz, a high school finalist, receives the $2,500 scholarship for the award which remembers one of the SOS founders.
The high school boys finalists:
Brett Cumberland (baseball) – Cumberland, now a freshman and starting catcher at Cal, batted .410 for Turlock and was ranked second in the state with 48 runs scored. He batted leadoff for Turlock, the Central California Conference champion which marched to the Section D-I South winners’ bracket final. He was named The Bee’s Player of the Year.
Tyler Janitz (football, basketball, baseball) – Janitz batted a team-leading .442 as a junior with 21 runs scored and 17 RBIs for a team that tied for the Modesto Metro Conference title. In football as a senior, he was a do-everything standout who rushed, caught passes, returned kickoffs and punts and booted 35 extra points. He was the team MVP and an All-MMC choice in basketball.
Nate Phillips (football) – Phillips, a senior at Modesto, was a multi-purpose quarterback who threw for 2,166 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushed for 1,337 yards and seven TDs for the 9-2 Panthers, runner-up in the MMC and beaten by Downey in one of the best games played in the city in many years.
Justin Rice (football) – Rice, a junior at Central Catholic, was pressed into duty at running back due to injuries. He responded by rushing for 2,146 yards and 30 touchdowns for the Raiders, who won the section D-IV title and small-schools state title for the third year in a row. He was named first-team All-State by MaxPreps.
Israel Saavedra (wrestling) – Saavedra, a junior at Modesto, won his second straight state title, this time as a sophomore 120-pounder. He finished 45-2 and – for the second year in a row – rallied in the final minute for a dramatic title-clinching win in Bakersfield. Trailing Vacaville’s Gionn Peralta 4-1, Saavedra won 5-4 with a takedown with five seconds left.
The high school girls finalists:
Hannah Chappell (track) – Chappell, a junior at Oakdale, overcame season-long injuries last spring to place second in the state in the discus with a throw of 147 feet, 11 inches. That was the best finish by an Oakdale athlete at the state meet. She placed fourth in the state as a freshman and already has annexed two Section Masters titles.
Danielle Friedrich (basketball, softball) – Friedrich, a sophomore at Central Catholic, averaged a Stanislaus County-leading 19.7 points a game as a freshman and grabbed 5.6 rebounds as the Raiders reached the Section D-V semifinals and NorCals. As a starting third baseman for the softball team, she batted .275 with 11 RBIs.
Maddy Halteman (volleyball) – Halteman, a senior at Pitman, was the star setter for a Pride team (44-2) that won section and NorCal Division I titles and reached the state final. She totaled 944 assists (25th in the state). She will continue on scholarship at Fresno State.
Shelby Stender (water polo) – Stender, a senior at Oakdale, totaled 68 goals and 57 steals for the Mustangs, who claimed a Section Division II title for the second straight season. The Mustangs reached the section final four years in a row with Stender, a three-time Bee Player of the Year who will attend UC San Diego.
Lindsey Vander Weide (volleyball) – Vander Weide, a 6-3 senior at Pitman, became one of the state’s most lethal outside hitters. The Bee’s Volleyball Player of the Year topped the Pride with 471 kills (16th in the state) and had 260 digs for the state finalists. She was a third-team All-American and Gatorade Player of the Year nominee. Her next stop is Oregon.
The open division men’s finalists:
Anthony Cota (football) – Cota, a sophomore at Modesto Junior College and graduate of Sierra High, rushed for a school-record 1,315 yards and 16 touchdowns (fourth in the state) last fall. His 131.5-yard average per game was second in the state. He set four school records, including career yardage (2,457) and touchdowns (30). Cota is MJC’s first JC All-American since Marcus Allen in 2008.
Matt Galas (football) – Galas, a senior at Nevada and graduate of Central Catholic, started all 13 games at center for a 7-5 Wolf Pack team (4-4 in the Mountain West) that lost to Louisiana-Lafayette in the New Orleans Bowl. Galas, a team captain, was named to the All-Mountain West Conference second team and started 37 games during his last three seasons.
Vince Wheeland (baseball) – Wheeland, a graduate of Turlock High, finished his four-year career at Oklahoma State last spring with a record of 10-1 and a 1.52 ERA as a reliever. He was a two-time All-Big 12 selection. The Cowboys went 48-18, won an NCAA Regional and lost in their Super Regional. For his career, Wheeland was 20-4. He was drafted in the 24th round by Houston and pitched for the Tri-City ValleyCats of the New York-Penn League (short-season A).
The open division women’s finalists:
Courtney Anderson-Heiner (track and field) – Anderson-Heiner, a graduate of Cal State Stanislaus, was the NCAA Division II champion in the 1,500 meters (4:23.33) last May at Grand Valley State in Allendale, Mich. She also placed fourth in the 5,000 (16:36.42). Anderson-Heiner, from Folsom and a transfer from American River, became Stanislaus’ first national champion in any sport since pole vaulter Kasey Burlingham in 2009 and the school’s first female national champion since Chaunte Mitchell in the pole vault in 2004 and ’05.
Gabby Maurice (softball) – Maurice, a sophomore at UCLA and graduate of Johansen, was selected to the All-Pacific-12 freshman team. The utility player batted .321 with six home runs, 28 RBIs, 32 runs, 72 hits and 13 walks. The Bruins went 52-8 and were eliminated in an NCAA Super Regional.
Cara McClain (track and field) – McClain, a sophomore at MJC, won the hammer throw state title last spring with a season-best throw of 183 feet, 10 inches at Mt. San Antonio College. She’s a two-time Northern California champion who placed fourth in the state as a freshman. McClain also is a former USA Junior Outdoor champion who placed at the Junior Pan-American Games.
This story was originally published May 10, 2015 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Eric Dickerson highlights Sportsmen of Stanislaus Club’s 48th OAA dinner this week."