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2001 Hall of Fame Dinner Recap

May 12, 2001

The evening started with the silent auction portion of the event.  As Everett always does, there was much socializing among present and past members of the club and their families. Around 6:15 Dave Gilbertson welcomed all the auction attendees and informed them of how the evening program would be going..  Various members were acknowledged for all their work on the auction and our "celebrity guests" were introduced.  (I said that I would probably forget to mention at least one person who worked very hard and I did.  I should have also mentioned Julie and Darren Davidson for all the work they did in securing items for the auction.  Julie, you were relentless and we thank you for all your efforts in procurement and in bringing guests.  If anyone else was missed, I am sorry).

After an active live auction the coach of the team, Boyd  Ballard, made the presentation of our Graham Morin Inspirational Award to Patrick O'Neil.  This award is given in memory of Graham, a USA Everett member who passed away last fall at the age of 18.  This is an award that is chosen by the coach.  It became very emotional as memories of Graham were talked about by the coach prior to presenting the award.

Following presentation of the Graham Morin Inspirational Award to Patrick O' Neil, Dave Gilbertson came to the stage to make presentations to the 6 charter members of the USA Everett Wrestling Hall of Fame.  The text of his presentation is as follows.

Presentation by Dave Gilbertson

I have the honor this evening of presenting awards to the charter members of the new USA Everett Hall of Fame. Because of the tradition of excellence that has been with the club over the years we thought it was time to honor champions from the past and start to have a written history of the club. In your booklets there is a biography on each of tonight's inductees along with a picture. This will not just be just here tonight but we will also institute a Hall of Fame on the USA Everett web site. If you have not been to our website the address is www.USAeverett.com and you should check it out. Each year as we add to our Hall of Fame the new members will be added to the previous members at the website and a written history of the club will be established. Criteria for being in the Hall of Fame in the future will be set up by the Board of Directors over the coming year. The criteria for this year was being part of the original five wrestlers and the original coach. This was a small beginning however, each of these five wrestlers achieved great success on the mat. All were high school state champions, each earned All-American honors, several were national finalists and one was a national champion several times.

This evening I will be bringing up the wrestlers in the order we have them in the book. After we have inducted all the wrestlers I will bring up our coach.

Brian Harper  

Dan Alar
Adam France

Boyd Ballard  
James Stephens

Last, but not least to be honored this evening is Ron Bessemer. I've known Ron personally for about six years now. I've known him as the coach of my son, I've known him as a patient in my office and I've known him as a friend. During those six years I've come to respect Ron as much as anyone that I've met in my life so is a great honor to talk a little about him. 
Ron Bessemer

Ron originally started the club in the early 80's and was the driving force behind the high level of excellence that the club has continued to demonstrate over the years. USA Everett has always attracted the better wrestlers from NW Washington for one reason, coach Ron. They all knew what came out of the room and that if they were to compete at that level, they needed to be there. It's not just about attracting talent however as there's lots of talent everywhere. Ron had the ability to teach and to get the most out of every kid. He helped them to reach their fullest potential as a wrestler and as a person. The examples that stick with people's memories the most of the ones that happen directly to their family. In our case we had a young boy who showed glimpses of great talent and yet when he went to state at age 7 he went 3 and out. He didn't win a match! He was deeply disappointed as knew he had the ability to have been in the finals. The next year we joined the USA Everett club and he went the entire year without a loss in freestyle until the finals of the AAU Grand Nationals in Tulsa OK where he lost in overtime. I remember both coach Ron and Darby saying that if we could swing it financially to get Jonny back to nationals that we should. I remember saying to them that there was no way he could compete at nationals and they both told me that I might be surprised at how well he could compete. They were right! He could never have achieved what he did then or since without Ron. The same can be said for every kid in this room and each one has a story. They owe were they are at in wrestling to the coaching and guidance of Ron, whether they were with him for one year or with him for 15. I'm glad that Ron touched the life of my family and that I personally have the great honor of presenting him with his award as a charter member of the USA Everett Hall of Fame.