AARON SELE – Baseball
The 6-foot-5 right-hander from North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo was the 21st overall pick by Boston in the 1991 Major League Baseball draft amateur draft after helping Washington State win three straight Pac-10 conference championships. Once touted as having the best curveball in the game, Sele was 148-112 over 15 MLB seasons.
At his peak, he went 19-11, 18-9, 17-10 and 15-5 while making at least 33 starts and pitching over 200 innings in the 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons. Sele made the American League All-Star team twice (’98 with Texas; 2000 with Seattle) and finished fifth in the American League Cy Young Award voting in 1999. Sele earned a World Series ring from his 2002 season with the Angels but wasn’t on the postseason roster because of an arm injury. In high school, Sele was captain and quarterback of the football team; captain and leading scorer and rebounder of the basketball team and captain of the baseball team that won a 1988 state championship. He pitched a three-hit shutout against the Cuban National team in 1990 while playing for Team USA.
JOE KEARNEY – Administrator
As the athletic director at the University of Washington (1969-76) and Michigan State (1976-80), Joe Kearney hired Don James, who won a national football title, and the Spartans’ Jud Heathcote, who won an NCAA basketball title. Kearney served briefly as the Athletic Director at Arizona State in 1980 before being hired away by the Western Athletic Conference to serve as its commissioner from 1980 until his retirement in 1994. Earlier in his career, Kearney was a high school principal at Onalaska and Tumwater and served as an Assistant Director for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for a year. Joe earned a Masters degree at Seattle Pacific and a doctorate at the UW and was also an assistant basketball coach at Washington under Tippy Dye. Kearney also served 16 years as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. A member of the UW athletic Hall of Fame, he was a recipient of the national Corbett Award by the nation’s athletic administrators.
DICK CARTMELL – Official
Dick Cartmell, a 1973 Richland High School grad, retired from NCAA basketball officiating in 2018. Cartmell was one of the top men’s basketball officials in the country, refereeing Division I contests for over 35 years. He began his career at Central Washington University officiating intramural games and worked more than 1,500 NCAA games in his career. He officiated NCAA tournament games for 24 years, worked five Final Fours, and was a member of the NCAA title game crew three times. In 2016, the Atlanta Tipoff Club honored Cartmell with the Naismith Men’s College Official of the Year award, one of basketball officiating’s highest honors.
ADAM MORRISON – Basketball
The 6-foot-8 Gonzaga University forward was a consensus first-team All-American and shared the national player of the year award in 2006 with J.J. Reddick of Duke. Morrison was the third overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft by Charlotte at the end of his junior season after leading the nation in scoring, averaging 28.1 points. He led the Zags to the Sweet 16. Morrison averaged 19.7 points per game in his college career. He played four seasons in the NBA, averaging 7.5 points per game and earned two NBA championship rings as a reserve for the Los Angeles Lakers. At Mead High School, Morrison set the Greater Spokane League single-season (542, league games only) and career (1,904) scoring records and led the Panthers to the state championship game against Franklin. Despite playing with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level) so severe that he nearly suffered a seizure, Morrison scored 37 points in a losing effort that was the team’s only loss. He averaged a GSL record 27.7 ppg his senior season.
BRAD WALKER – Track & Field
Brad Walker set a U.S. record in the pole vault in 2008 by clearing 19’ 8” at the Nike Prefontaine Classic. A graduate of University High School of Spokane Valley, Walker starred at the University of Washington where he was a two-time NCAA champion and two-time Pac-10 champion. Walker won a world indoor championship in 2006 and a world outdoor championship in 2007. He also earned two silver medals and one bronze at the world championships in other years. A member of the U.S. Olympic team in 2008 and 2012, Walker was a three-sport athlete in high school and a member of two high-school state-title track teams.
DON ZECH – Basketball coach
Don Zech became the most successful basketball coach in University of Puget Sound history during his 21 years in Tacoma. Zech amassed an impressive record of 405 wins and 196 losses (.674 winning percentage) with 11 seasons of 20 wins or more, 11 postseason appearances and two Great Northwest Conference titles. Ten of his players were drafted by NBA teams and he was four-time West Coast Coach of the Year. He also was a two-time GNC Coach of the Year. When his Loggers won the 1976 NCAA Division II Championship, he was named National Coach of the Year. His very first UPS team had a 24-3 record in 1969, and he just missed winning it all in 1970 when the Loggers lost by one-point in the nationals, playing without their leading scorer due to injury. Zech was a three-sport star at Sumner High, graduated from Notre Dame, and coached Blanchet to an unbeaten season and the state championship prior to a coaching opportunity at the University of Washington. After coaching the Husky freshmen, UPS beckoned and the Z-man fashioned a nationally-recognized program. He was inducted into the UPS Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
