The Clark College athletic department recently announced the 2019 Athletic Hall of Fame class.  On Saturday, February 2, the 2019 Class will be recognized during halftime of the men’s basketball game vs. Linn-Benton (approximately 4:45 p.m.). Following the basketball game, a Hall of Fame Ceremony will be held in the Gaiser Student Center at 6:00 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online at https://www.clarkcollegefoundation.org/athletics-hall-of-fame-2019.

This
year’s honorees are:

Brenda Bessner – Women’s Track
and Field (1989-90)

• 1989
  NWAACC Shotput Champion – 42’8 ¾”
• 1989
  NWAACC Javelin Champion – 166’1”
• 1990
  NWAACC Javelin Champion – 160’2”
• Currently
  still holds the record for shotput (45-05) and Javelin (178-00)
• Competed
  in the Deaflympics in 1985/89 for both Shotput and Javelin and place 2^nd
  in each event

Janie Hogan-Corbett –
Women’s Basketball (1991-93)

• 1^st
  team all-league
• 1^st
  team all-tournament
• Led
  league in scoring and rebounding
• Compiled
  33 rebounds in one game
• Was
  part of the first undefeated team in NWAACC history (33-0)
• 1993
  NWAACC Champions

1981 Men’s Golf Team

• Team
  members:
  • Kevin
    Antolock, Greg Brown, Jeff Coad, Eric Degerman, Ian Harper, and Glen Hueser
• Head
  Coach
  • Skeet
    O’Connell

1982 Men’s Golf Team

• Team members:
  • Kevin Antolock, Mike Burch, Jeff Coad, Eric Degerman, Tim Gilberg*, and Todd Quigley  *honor awarded posthumously
• Head Coach
  • Skeet O’Connell

About Clark College Athletics

Penguin Athletics has a proud tradition of competitive success
within the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC). The department offers 11 intercollegiate
sports programs: Baseball; Men’s and Women’s Basketball; Men’s and Women’s
Cross Country; Men’s and Women’s Soccer; Softball; Men’s and Women’s Track
& Field; and Women’s Volleyball.

Penguin Athletics places great emphasis on academic performance as well as
athletic achievement. The program offers student athletes the opportunity to
reach their educational goals, as well to pursue meaningful athletic
accomplishments. For more information, visit Clark Athletics’ website, Twitter
and Facebook pages.

Paul Cannon, green pants, sits with former Head Coach Eric Harper during a game.

Paul Cannon, former Assistant Coach for Clark College Women’s Basketball during the 2016-17 season, was moved into the Interim Head Coaching Position following the stepping down of former Head Coach Eric Harper.

Cannon joined the staff last season assisting first-year head coach Harper in a rebuilding year for the program. The Penguins finished the season 7-20 overall, with 12 of their losses by 10 or fewer points.

The Penguins will be returning two sophomores as they rebuild the program and gain buy-in to the new system being implemented by Cannon.

Prior to Clark, Cannon’s basketball experience includes five years at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Washington. At Evergreen, Cannon worked his way up from volunteering with the basketball program to becoming the varsity assistant coach. While working with the basketball program at Evergreen, he helped nine of his athletes move on to play at the college level.

Coming on as an assistant for the program is former NWAC player at Yakima Valley, Rosetta Adzasu. Adzasu also competed at the NCAA Division I level for the Washington State Cougars. Her experience as a college athlete, along with her time coaching with the Nike EYBL Fast Program, will be great assets to the team and the program.

Athletic Director Chris Jacob said, “We are very fortunate that our coaches find such high-quality assistants. With Coach Harper leaving, we are grateful and excited to see what Coach Cannon can do with the program and know that he will do well in this quick transition.”

Jacob also talked about the new assistant coach Rosetta Adzasu, “She is a very experienced basketball player that has so much to offer,” he said. “With her experience playing professionally, we welcome the knowledge she has. We are very excited to see what Coach Cannon and Coach Adzasu can do in such short time.”

Clark College Athletics contributed this article.

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Clark College Penguin Miles Martin dunks during a Dec. 4 game against Wenatchee Community College. Photo: Bruce Berg

The Clark College men’s basketball team opened its home season with a wire-to-wire, 84-64 victory over the visiting Wenatchee Valley Knights on December 4.

The Penguins, who had previously relied on their hot shooting to create early leads, just couldn’t find the range from the field and only shot 33 percent from the floor and 32 percent from 3. The shooting woes frustrated the Penguins, which led to some uncharacteristic fouls and turnovers as the team pressed early in the game. The Penguins committed 27 fouls, which led to 34 free-throw attempts for Wenatchee.

“Games like that are good to go through,” Head Coach Alex Kirk said following the win. “No one in that locker room feels good about our performance, but we found a way win despite not being at our best. There’s a lot to learn from this type of performance.”

It certainly wasn’t all bad for Clark College, as the Penguins had four players in double figures, led by Micah Paulson‘s 19 points on 6-10 shooting. Bryan Berg added 13, Eris Winder Jr. added 11, and Aubrey Stephens added 10. Additionally, Glenn Baral had another great overall performance: 6 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, 3 assists, 0 turnovers and only 1 foul.

Led by Baral’s 10 rebounds, the Penguins out-rebounded the Knights from Wenatchee Valley 52-43, en route to a 17-5 advantage in second chance points. During the evening, the Penguins had 17 offensive rebounds, their highest number to date. “The guys really crashed the offensive glass hard tonight,” a pleased Coach Kirk said, looking at the stat sheet. “In that area, this was definitely our best effort thus far this season.”

Additionally, the Penguins had 14 steals and forced 21 overall turnovers on the evening, which led to a 16-8 advantage in points off of turnovers. While Clark’s outside shooting touch wasn’t as efficient as had been previously, the Penguins still outscored the Knights 30-9 in points off of threes.

Perhaps the greatest strength thus far for the Penguins has been their depth, and once again the Clark bench proved to be a huge weapon. Clark’s bench dominated the Knights 38-22 in bench scoring. Aubrey Stephens, Devon Hawkins and David Baze all provided huge contributions throughout the game, especially on the defensive end, where they frustrated Wenatchee all night long.

Next up for the Penguins will be Concordia JV on Thursday, December 10. Tip is at 7 p.m. at the O’Connell Sports Complex.

The Clark College volleyball team celebrates its second place finish in the 2015 season.

The Clark Volleyball team started the NWAC Championship tournament with a No. 3 South Region seed and an opening match loss on Thursday to Walla Walla in five sets. After that, the Penguins went on a roll and won their next six matches on Friday and Saturday to make it to the Championship game on Sunday.

Head coach Mark Dunn said he kept telling the team to take things one match at a time. And after a big win over South Region rival Chemeketa, it was about authenticating that win. “After we defeated Chemeketa on Friday, we felt like we had to validate that on Saturday,” Dunn said. “And the ladies came through with four in a row.”

Their run at the NWAC Championship came to a halt Sunday afternoon at the Tacoma Convention Center. Three-time defending champ Blue Mountain (42-9) of Pendleton, Oregon, added a fourth straight title with a 3-1 win over the Penguins. The Penguins opened the match with a back-and-forth battle and won 25-23. The next three sets and the title went to the Timberwolves. Scores for the match were 23-25, 25-17, 25-22, and 25-20.

Clark’s Janessa Mast had 14 kills and 16 digs, Livia Strandberg had 12 kills and 10 digs, Meghan Turner had 26 digs, Gauleighyan Eastman had 22 assists and 10 digs, and Kinsey Pease had 22 assists. For a complete box score of the championship: http://www.nwacsports.org/volleyball/gameinfo.php?id=5620

It was the first time since 1979 that a Clark team had played for an NWAC Volleyball title. Clark finished the year with a 26-16 record and as runners-up in the Championship. In addition to taking the second-place trophy, Clark had three players named to the All-Tournament team. Those three were sophomores Meghan Turner and Janessa Mast, and freshman Melisa Ljuca. The all-star libero, Meghan Turner, was also named “Most Inspirational Player” of the tournament.

2015 Clark Volleyball (26-15)
26 NWAC Tournament Appearances
2 top 4 finishes
Road to the Championship
#3 Seed out of the South, 7-5 Region Record
Saturday – Clark def Linn-Benton (14-25,25-20,15-13)
Saturday – Clark def Tacoma (25-21,16-25,15-13)
Saturday – Clark def Walla Walla (25-13,25-17)
Saturday – Clark def Bellevue (22-25,25-22,15-6)
Friday – Clark def Chemeketa (21-25,25-23,17-15)
Thursday – Clark def Pierce (25-17,25-13)
Thursday – Walla Walla def Clark (22-25,12-25,25-19,25-20,20-18)
Team Tournament Stats
Hitting Percentage
Clark – .195, 4th ranked in the tournament
Blue Mountain – .194, 5th ranked in the tournament
Opponent Hitting Percentage
Clark – .109, 1st ranked in the tournament
Blue Mountain – .144, 3rd ranked in the tournament
Assists
Blue Mountain -11.33/set, 3rd ranked in the tournament
Clark – 11.10, 6th ranked in the tournament
Kills
Blue Mountain – 12.39/set, 3rd ranked in the tournament
Clark – 11.71, 7th ranked in the tournament
Blocks
Clark – 2.43/set, 2nd ranked in the tournament
Blue Mountain – 1.78/set, 6th ranked in the tournament
Service Aces
Blue Mountain – 1.78/set, 3rd ranked in the tournament
Clark – 1.14/set, 13th ranked in the tournament

Photo by Tracy Swisher, NWAC Sports Information Director