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Legends to be joined by new class
By Dave Davies-Sports Editor
Article Launched: 05/06/2007 12:41:55 PM PDT
The list of previous winners of the Chico Sports Person of the Year award winners at the annual Chico Sports Hall of Fame and Senior Athletes Banquet reads like a who's who of local sports legends.
Since 1988, the award has gone to, in order, Chris Verhulst, Tom Harrington, Jeff Stover, Armand Brett, Roque Santos, Puck Smith, Craig Rigsbee, Jim Barrett, Matt Lucena, Lindsay Meggs, Sam Simmons, Steve Nettleton, Marissa Bradley, Haley Cope, Aaron Rodgers, J.J. Jakovac, Danielle Orsillo and Amber Simmons.
All of these athletes and coaches made significant contributions to the local sports scene with their accomplishments, and this year's nominees are no different.
The nominees for the Sports Person of the Year award for the 35th annual Hall of Fame banquet sponsored by the Enterprise-Record, to be held Tuesday at the Elk's Lodge, are, in alphabetical order, sprint car driver Jonathan Allard, collegiate volleyball standout Kylie Atherstone and three-sport Paradise High athlete Jeffrey Maehl.
Allard has been a fixture on the local and national racing scene, winning a Silver Dollar Speedway track championship in 2002. In 2004, he spent his first full year on the World of Outlaws series, the top sprint car series in the country.
The Chico driver hooked up with owner Morrie Williams in 2005, and had a spectacular season in 2006. Allard won the Golden State Challenge-King of California Series championship, making all 19 starts and winning seven A main events. He also had 10 fast time awards and 10 heat wins, 13 top-five finishes and 15 top-10s.
Despite only racing on eight of 13 nights in the Silver Dollar track championship series, Allard finished 12th in points and had six fast times.
So far in 2007, Allard leads the Silver Dollar points race with three feature wins and four top-fives in five starts, and was third in the Golden State series heading into Saturday night's race in Watsonville.
Atherstone, a sophomore at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, won the Big West Conference Player of the Year award, and in March was one of 20 collegiate players named to the United States Women's National A2 Team, a unit that serves as the elite training group below the women's national team.
A Pleasant Valley High grad, Atherstone led the Big West in kills per game (4.51), total kills (505) and was third in aces per game. A two-time Big West Player of the Week, she was the AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week in October. During the 2006 season, she had 10 matches of 20-plus kills, 18 of 15-plus and reached double-digits in kills in each of Cal Poly's 29 matches.
Maehl, a senior at Paradise this year, has proven to be the best all-around athlete in the Northern Section. In football last fall, he led the Bobcats to the section's Division I championship, was named an all-section first team safety and the section's Defensive Most Valuable Player. He was also named to the Cal-Hi Sports Medium Schools All-State first team.
In basketball this year, Maehl garnered another Cal-Hi All-State team honor, after being named a first team all-section guard and the section's Most Valuable Player with a 25 points-per-game scoring average. He led the Bobcats to the section title game, where they lost to Pleasant Valley, and into the CIF state playoffs.
A first team all-section outfielder in baseball last year as a junior, Maehl has led the Bobcats to third in the Eastern Athletic League this season, and is batting .395 with two home runs and 18 RBIs.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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