CV Sports Foundation to Honor Local Legends

If you don’t already have tickets for Sunday’s Castro Valley Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies, you’re out of luck.  The event is a complete sellout.

Two teams and 14 individuals will be honored at the seventh biennial Hall of Fame banquet at Redwood Canyon Golf Course.  The first Hall of Fame class was inducted in 2010.

The Castro Valley Sports Foundation, the non-profit group that operates the Hall of Fame, decided to honor two teams for the first time this year.  In the past, only individuals with a sports connection were inducted.  The initial teams are the 1958 Castro Valley High boys’ wrestling team, which captured the local high school’s first North Coast Section championship, and CVHS’s 1994 NCS champion girls’ volleyball team.

The 14 individuals in this year’s class include two baseball pitchers, a baseball coach, two soccer stars, a track champion, a volleyball standout, a wrestler, a basketball coach, a thoroughbred horse trainer, a sports television commentator, two legendary equipment managers and a world-record holding pizza tosser.

Pitchers Alex Williams and A.J. Vanegas both had stellar careers at Redwood Christian High and Stanford.  Williams is still pitching in the Miami Marlins’ organization.  Will Tavis, a standout baseball and basketball player at CVHS, became a successful baseball coach at Chabot College.

After brilliant careers on the soccer field at Castro Valley, Ali Sill and Jen LaPonte continued to excel in college and, in LaPonte’s case, in the professional National Women’s Soccer League. Kennedy Jones was a state-champion triple jumper, as well as a league champion at Boston College. Kelli Souza led her Bishop O’Dowd High and Santa Clara volleyball teams to numerous titles and led the nation in assists one year.

After beating up on boys, Summer Scott starred for the first Castro Valley High girls’ wrestling team and later in college. The late Jim Lemmon coached the CVHS girls’ basketball team to a decade of success, including a trip to the Northern California finals. As a thoroughbred trainer, Robert Hess, Jr., has been to the winner’s circle almost 1,500 times and his horses have earned close to $52 million.

Castro Valley High grad Brodie Brazil is the familiar face on Oakland A’s and San Jose Sharks pre- and post-game shows and has won 13 Emmy Awards.  The longest tenured employee in A’s history, equipment manager Steve Vucinich is also a member of the A’s Hall of Fame.  Warren Davis was a fixture at CVHS football games and practices for 48 years and a friend to hundreds who came through that program.  Pizza tosser Tony Gemignani is a multiple world record holder and is in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Dave Del Grande will again serve as Master of Ceremonies when this diverse group of sports personalities is honored Sunday.  He has been the emcee for the six previous induction ceremonies as well.

Castro Valley Sports Foundation is an all-volunteer organization that supports youth sports and wellness in the community.