2019 Superior Hall of Fame inductees named

Five individuals and the 1986 Superior High School football team are among the 2019 inductees into the Superior Athletic and Academic Hall of Fame.

Joining the Spartan football team on the athletic side of the hall of fame will be Hailey Kontny, Cara (Fenhouse) Pond and Pat O’Brien for individual accomplishment and Bud Brand for coaching achievement.

The Superior Academic Hall of Fame will also induct Toby Heytens with the Lifetime Contribution Award.

The induction ceremony Sept. 28 will correspond with the 2019 SHS homecoming week. Tickets for the induction ceremony are $40 and will go on sale the first week of September.

For more information, contact SHS Activities Director Ray Kosey at ray.kosey@superior.k12.wi.us or 715-394-8720 ext. 41137.

Hailey Kontny

Kontny, a 2014 SHS graduate, is the second all-time leading scorer in SHS girls basketball history; an all-state selection her junior and senior years; all-conference first-team all four years; and a three-time team captain. She was also a three-time captain and the sixth all-time leading scorer in UW-Superior women’s basketball history.

She is the only Yellowjacket, and second player in UMAC history, to be named the UMAC MVP three times. Kontny and UWS also participated in three NCAA tournaments.

Pat O’Brien

O’Brien was named the Babe Ruth baseball athlete of the year in 1978 and lettered in football, hockey and baseball while attending SSHS, where he graduated in 1981. He held the Wisconsin state hockey tournament record for least goals scored against a goalie for several years and was featured in the February 1980 Wisconsin Hockey Report.

He named to the 1980-81 Wisconsin High School All-State Hockey team and to the 1981 University of Minnesota Hockey Unlimited All-State Team. O'Brien was scouted in 1980 by the California Angels and played football at UWS.

Cara 'Fenhouse' Pond

Pond was a three-year letterwinner in softball at SSHS and a captain her junior and senior years. She was named Lake Superior Conference second team her junior year and first team as a senior. She was also the Spartans’ MVP as a junior and senior.

Pond went on to play softball at UW-Stout, where she was a four-time all-conference player and the WIAC West Division Player of the Year in 1998. She played second base and catcher, posted a .369 career batting average and appears in the top 10 of nearly every hitting category. She was inducted into the UW-Stout Hall of Fame in 2013.

Bud Brand

Brand has volunteered for more than 30 years with local youth basketball and baseball programs. He also coached youth soccer and flag football several years at the YMCA, served on the RBA and SYO boards of directors and has kept score for almost 4,000 basketball games at the Salvation Army.

Brand received the Volunteer of the Decade for 1990-00 from the Salvation Army and many other awards from several organizations for his lengthy volunteer services.

Toby Heytens

The 1993 SSHS graduate was salutatorian of his class. He is also a 1997 graduate of Macalester College (St. Paul), where he majored in history and communications. At Macalester, he helped found and captain the mock trial team. In 2000, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he held the highest grade-point average in the law school's history for a decade.

Heytons is credited with writing several legal documents that are often cited. His employment history includes law clerk in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.; professor at the University of Virginia School of Law; and he is currently the solicitor general, Commonwealth of Virginia, which is the chief appellate legal advocate for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

1986 SSHS football team

The Spartans were the second undefeated team, conference champion and state semifinalist in school history. Doug Anderson and Dean Hoff were named most valuable offensive players; Mark Sickler was the most valuable defensive player; Mike Soyring was most improved; and Darryn Davidson was named the best blocker. Sickler and Eric Dunning were named all-state and coach Larry Hoff was named coach of the year.

Team records included: most yards rushed, 3,312; most interceptions, eight by Joe Putz; and most points scored, 361.

Ken Olson / kolson@superiortelegram.com