Earlier this June, the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) recognized the achievements of two Bellevue College teams and two student-athletes, inducting them into the 2025 Hall of Fame.

The Northwest Athletic Conference is the parent organization for 37 community colleges throughout Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Annually, they honor exceptional athletes, coaches and teams within the NWAC by presenting awards like Coach of the Year and inducting new members into the Hall of Fame.

The two teams recognized, while being the only two inducted this year, are Bellevue College’s 1981 Women’s Cross Country team and 1983 Women’s Track and Field team. Rhonda Bell and Lisa Kindelan were Bellevue College’s student athletes inducted, among six other student athlete inductees across the conference. 

In total, half of the Hall of Fame inductees this year hail from Bellevue College.

Starting after the first inductee of the ceremony, track and field athlete, Rhonda Bell was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously. At the 1980 Spokane Community College meet, Bell won the 400-meter, 200-meter and long-jump events. She set meet record times for the 200-meter event and established the second-best long jump in NWAC history. Additionally, Bell anchored the winning 1600-meter relay for Bellevue College during that meet. Highlighting her accomplishments, she was named Bellevue College Female Athlete of the Year. 

Bell further defended her titles in the 400 and 200-meter events in the following 1981 season. Even more than 40 years later, Bell still holds the fastest 400-meter race times in the NWAC, at 53.69 and 54.21 seconds. 

Bell continued her athletic career at Oregon State University, going on to establish an eighth all-time in the 400-meter race and being named “All-Pac 10” twice. After an incredibly decorated career, Bell sadly passed away in 2015.

Also inducted into the Hall of Fame was cross-country and track athlete Lisa Kindelan. 

She led Bellevue’s women’s cross country team to its first women’s championship, the NWAC Cross Country Championship in 1980, and won the individual championship with a record time of 17:53 in 1981. By the time the season finished, Bellevue College’s cross-country team ranked #1 nationally. Kindelan helped Bellevue College win the NWAC championships in 1981 and 1982. She ran impressive times of 10:20 for the 3K race and a 17:54 for the 5K in 1981.

Kindelan transferred to the University of Idaho, where she competed all-conference in cross country and track and field during her upperclassmen years. Kindelan remains the only woman in the NWAC to compete in three Olympic trials, placing 10th, 19th, and 29th in her three trial marathons. Throughout the 1990s, she competed in many notable marathons, such as the U.S. Marathon (2:35:00) in 1995 and the USA 5K championships in 1996. Kindelan was also a member of the U.S. Track and Field team at Seattle’s Goodwill Games in 1990, where she finished in fourth.

Bellevue College’s 1981 Women’s Cross Country team and 1983 Track & Field team were last to be inducted. Throughout the 1980s, they contributed greatly to Bellevue College’s athletic history. 

Notably, 1981’s Women’s Cross Country competed exceedingly well at the NWAC championship that season. The first, second and third place finishes by the Bellevue College athletes rank as three of the four fastest times ever run at a NWAC Cross Country Championship. The team’s first, second, third, seventh, eighth and ninth placements during the NWAC’s Women’s Cross Country Championship helped contribute to their undisputed win that year.

Additionally, Bellevue College’s 1983 Women’s Track and Field team remains the most dominant team in NWAC history. Thirteen out of seventeen events at the NWAC Track and Field Championships were won by this team, as well as scoring in all seventeen events. The athletes set four conference records and three of them remain today. 

Bellevue College athletics director, Jeremy Eggers, emphasized his pride about the Hall of Fame inductions. “This was a great way to honor the rich sports history at Bellevue College,” Eggers said. He also noted that this was the first time in eight years that Bellevue College had been honored by the NWAC. 

It was clear that representation mattered to Eggers during this year’s nomination process. “Bellevue College didn’t have any females or female teams inducted prior, so I thought that was an important thing to acknowledge,” says the athletic director. “These were the best of the best at the time in the NWAC. These are very good representations of our athletic department, and what they did back then is what we’re continuing to strive to do in the sports that we do currently have.” 

This year’s inductees represent what Bellevue College’s athletics have always been about一dedication and hard work in the face of adversity. Congratulations to the inductees and Bellevue College athletics!

In the leadup to Sunday’s MLB Draft, many pundits will note the Holliday family’s deep baseball ties. Matt Holliday played 15 years in the major leagues and made seven All-Star games. His oldest son, Jackson, was drafted first overall three years ago and is now the second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles.

Now, Ethan Holliday is next in line for a baseball dynasty forged under the endless skies of Oklahoma. He is a gifted 6-foot-4 shortstop with tremendous raw power from the left side. He has a chance to go to the Washington Nationals first overall, and if he doesn’t go there, draft experts predict he will go fourth to the Colorado Rockies, the same organization that drafted his father.

Some may mention that the line doesn’t actually start with Matt, Jackson, and Ethan. Tom Holliday — Matt’s father and Jackson’s and Ethan’s grandfather — was a longtime Division I baseball coach, including a seven-year run as the coach at Oklahoma State. His brother, Dave, is a veteran scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. Matt’s brother, Josh, is now the coach at OSU.

There are other families out there who have made baseball their business. The Alous, the Boones, the Griffeys. Thirteen pairs of brothers have been drafted as first-round picks. B.J. Upton went second in 2002, and Justin Upton went first in 2005.

But if Ethan were to go No. 1, it would be the first time in baseball history two brothers have both been 1-1 picks. Only Peyton and Eli Manning have done that in any major American sport.

Read more below.

Keiser Director of Athletics Kris Swogger visited Russo & Rizzo on ESPN West Palm 106.3 on Wednesday, July 9, for his recurring “Ask the AD” segment. During this time, Swogger discussed the world of college sports, all things in Keiser Athletics, and more.
 

Russo & Rizzo airs Monday through Friday on 106.3 on your FM dial. Fans can also listen live by clicking HERE.
 

ESPN West Palm is Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast’s home for sports, featuring entertaining and engaging sports talk, the best coverage of the local-area stories, and a presence at the biggest sports marketing events in the community.    

 

General athletic news can be found at KUSeahawks on Facebook, kuseahawks on Instagram, and kuseahawks on X.
 

The family of Merv Lopes didn’t plan for the coincidence, but the sports world was given yet another reminder of the mark he left just days prior to his celebration of life on Saturday.

As part of its “50 States in 50 Days” tour, ESPN’s SportsCenter highlighted Chaminade University of Honolulu’s historic 1982 victory over Virginia in its Tuesday episode. Chaminade, coached by Lopes, was an NAIA school at the time, but somehow managed to defeat the Cavaliers, the top-ranked team in the country.

Virginia, led by three-time national player of the year and eventual top NBA Draft pick Ralph Sampson, fell to Chaminade 77-72 at the Honolulu International Center, now known as the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. The game is considered by many as the greatest upset in collegiate sports history. The game gave Chaminade and Lopes such national exposure that plans to change Chaminade’s name to the University of Honolulu were canceled.

Lopes died on May 8 in Waikōloa. He was 92. Chaminade’s McCabe Gym hosted his celebration of life on Saturday, which had approximately 150 attendees. The impact he left on players, coaches, family and friends was evident throughout the celebration, which lasted three-and-a-half hours.

With his nephew, former NBA agent Jarinn Akana, emceeing the event, over a dozen speakers shared their fond memories of Lopes.

A Nānākuli native, Lopes excelled in football as a youth and also enjoyed hunting and fishing. After graduating high school from ‘Iolani, he played football collegiately for Compton College and San Jose State. He was drafted into the Army before returning home and earning a master’s in education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Lopes coached basketball locally at the high school level at Kailua and Kalaheo before eventually making his way to Chaminade. He remains the school’s all-time winningest coach at 238-118, helming the Silverswords from 1977 to 1989. In addition to his signature win over Virginia, he also led the Silverswords to victories over NCAA Division I schools such as Louisville and SMU. He was inducted into the Chaminade Hall of Fame in 2009.

Chaminade’s victory over Virginia inspired the creation of the Maui Invitational, considered for decades as the country’s top early season collegiate basketball tournament. Beginning with the tournament’s inception in 1984, the Silverswords were part of the tournament every year until it was decided by organizers that Chaminade would only play in the tournament every other year, starting in 2017, due to the blue-blooded nature of the tournament. Chaminade, which made the jump to NCAA Division II status in 1989, has gone 8-97 in Maui Invitational games, which routinely feature multiple ranked teams.

Former players who spoke at Lopes’ celebration of life on Saturday noted how his demanding practices would get the team adequately prepared to play. A common sentiment shared was how Lopes and his staff cared for their players, who came from various backgrounds across the country.

Keith Whitney, who played for Lopes from 1983 to 1985, recalled how the scholarship offer he received from Lopes allowed him to leave the projects of Orlando after junior college. Whitney, now a substance abuse counselor, told a story about how he drove with Lopes through Nānākuli, and how his coach was often stopped by those who recognized him from his upbringing, leading to long conversations. Whitney realized that even though he and Lopes grew far from each other geographically, they both came from humble beginnings.

In his speech on Saturday, Merv Lopes Jr. recalled his father’s kindness and the way he got his players to believe in themselves, even as they readied to play the top college basketball team in the country.

“People put people on pedestals,” Merv Jr. recalled his father telling the Silverswords before the Virginia game. “Get them off them.”

Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.