MARK MORRIS 2024 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

INDUCTION CEREMONY TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY JANUARY 26th, 2024 at 6:30 pm

 

Mark Morris High School is honored to announce the 2024 Mark Morris Athletic Hall of Fame Class.

The ‘24 class will be recognized at this Friday’s boys’ basketball game vs. Hockinson.  A ceremony will be held at half-time and also a “sit-down” ceremony in the cafeteria after the game. All are invited. Please note that the start time for this Friday’s varsity game will be 6:30 pm.

Jim Clary (1962) – Under Coach Dick Mealy, Jim was a member of the 1959-1962 Mark Morris swim teams. He also was a leader in his class and school, voted “Most Likable” his senior year. Since graduation and embarking on a 60-year career in the auto industry, Jim has been a generous financial supporter in the community and at MM with a passion for high school athletics and supporting high school students.  Jim’s latest great act of giving back to his community is the funding for the nine-court pickleball complex at John Null Park.   For over 20 years he has joined high school friend Randy Sweet to establish and fund the Dick Mealy Memorial Scholarship annually for a Monarch swimmer on both the girls’ and boys’ teams. For the past 30 years, he has been a driving force, the person who came up with the idea of an Oregon vs. Washington summer basketball tournament and sponsor of the MM War of the Border summer basketball tournament.  The War of the Border is considered by many the top such event in the Pacific Northwest by high school basketball coaches.

Valerie White (1986) – One of the top track & field athletes ever at MM, Valerie holds the school record in both the 100-meter hurdles (15.3 seconds) and the 300-meter hurdles (45.4 seconds), records which have stood for 37 years. At the state championships as a junior, Valerie placed 5^th in the 300 and followed that up with a third-place finish as a senior in 1986. She also took sixth in state in the 100 hurdles as a senior. Valerie is part of one other long-standing MM record, running the anchor leg on MM’s best-ever 4 x 400 relay team with teammates Sheri Noah, Stacy Rankin, and Michelle Hayes. The team took fifth in state in 1986. To add to her Monarch track & field legacy, Valerie has the seventh-best long jump ever. Valerie also was an outstanding volleyball player at MM. She attended Linfield to compete in track and later transferred to Lower Columbia where she played volleyball. Today Valerie lives in Longview, where she is a business consultant and grant writer for a non-profit organization

Mike Roberts (1987) – Mike was the starting point guard for the Monarchs in three consecutive state championship games from 1985-1987 and a two-time state champ playing for Coach Dave Denny. He culminated his Monarch hoop career averaging 16.5 points per game his senior year, earning first-team all-conference honors, voted first-team All-State by the Washington sportswriters, and was named the Most Valuable Player in the state tournament. Overall, he scored 899 points over three varsity seasons and had 299 assists, third best-ever at MM. Mike later played college basketball at Hawaii Pacific and Lower Columbia. Mike also played tennis at MM and has become an accomplished professional netter, still competing today in senior events.

Jeff Denny (1988) – The three-point line was introduced to high school basketball before Jeff’s senior year at Mark Morris and he took advantage of it, hitting 61-112 (54.4%), still a Monarch record 35 years later. Playing for his father Dave, Jeff was a three-year varsity player. As a junior, he averaged 14 points per game and helped lead the Monarchs to the 1987 state title, then followed that up with 431 points his senior year in 1988. He earned all-league honors in 1987 and 1988. One of MM’s all-time top male athletes, Jeff was a member of the 1988 state track & field 4 x 100 relay champions, in a school record 43.17, and is the #2 all-time MM record holder in the long jump at 22’-2.” He played college basketball at Lower Columbia.

Coach Steve McCallum – Over a 34-year career as the Mark Morris boys’ basketball JV coach, Steve amassed a 479-197 record while also serving as a lead varsity assistant coach to Dave Denny (1977-1992) and Bill Bakamus (1993-2010). He was on the bench for three state championship teams and coached overall in six state title games. He was selected to the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association (WIBCA) Hall of Fame in 2010. Steve coached the 1980 MM volleyball team to a state title and was an assistant to John Sapinsky when the Monarchs won the VB title in 1979. He also was a football assistant for many years and a longtime photography teacher at MM.

1987 State Champion Boys’ Basketball team – Under Coach Dave Denny, the Monarchs beat Olympia 68-57 in the title game, gaining revenge for a loss in the 1986 finale to the Bears. The ’87 Monarchs finished with a 22-4 record and also beat Olympia in the District title game. Team members were Jeff Denny, Eric Myklebust, Matt Davis, Mike Roberts, Eric Reisner, David Walling, Jeff Graves, Jeff Walling, Shawn Merz, Rob Perry, Mark Herold, Tony Silvery and team manager Ron Johnson. Coach Denny was assisted by Steve McCallum and Jon Fountain.