Moses Lake High School

Hall of fame 2005 inductees

Editor's note: This is the first part of a two-part series highlighting the MLHS Hall of Fame class of 2005

By Brandon Swanson and Brad Redford

Herald sports writers

MOSES LAKE - Once again, the Moses Lake High School Hall of Fame committee has created a new identity for the class of 2005.

It holds a mix of young and old, athlete and academic, the front-runners and those who went the distance in the shadows.

"Just looking at the class, there is such a separation from the honoree group and the athletic group," said Moses Lake athletics director Loren Sandhop.

This year, the group includes 11 individuals, some graduates and others whose impact on their different programs still affects the high school today, Sandhop said.

From Moses Lake's second wrestling coach Gary Frey, to high school graduates Ryan Doumit and Jason Cooper who were drafted by Major League Baseball the same year, it is a class that contains behind the scenes supporters such as Vicki Olson and Ray Mayo and swimming greats Nick Jarman and Aaron Fitterer. The class contains individuals who worked their way up the ranks like Lew Mason and Lisha Ribellia, or Justin DeBeaumont's all-around athleticism, and finally, Clyde Carpenter, who turned the track team around.

"This puts us up to 50 athletes and Moses Lake has been around a long time," Sandhop added. "I think it is a great honor to those individuals and the teams they played for."

1999 graduate Lisha Ribellia enters the Hall of Fame after an illustrious collegiate softball career at the University of Arizona. But it almost didn't happen.

After high school honors in softball and soccer, including a batting title her senior year, Ribellia only got a few offers from college teams, none of them Division I.

"I was pretty unknown coming out of high school," she said.

She said she decided to walk-on at Arizona, hoping to play two sports. She didn't know Arizona was such a powerhouse on the diamond.

"When I first began thinking about the University of Arizona, I didn't know how good they were," Ribellia said. "But my dad always taught me if you're going to do anything, you're going to do it all the way. I didn't think it was above me."

She proved beyond doubt that the challenge was not above her.

Not only did she make the team, she earned a starting spot at second base and became an integral part of the 2001 NCAA championship team.

Ribellia called the championship the highlight of her career.

"It was a huge accomplishment because there was so much work put into it," she said.

In 2004, she earned All Star honors at shortstop in Women's Professional Fastpitch.

Her induction comes as a complete surprise to her.

"I can't believe anybody actually remembered that I came from Moses Lake," she said.

Mel Olson was a pioneer in the state of Washington for broadcasting.

By his side the entire time was his wife, Vicki, who became the integral part of the duo, keeping her husband informed of stats, players, scores and everything in between while Mel kept his eyes on the action for listeners in the Columbia Basin.

Vicki started broadcasting with her husband 42 years ago, starting with the sport of wrestling. From there came basketball and football.

"When I went into it with Mel, there wasn't any women involved," Vicki said, who now joins Mel as a member of the Moses Lake Hall of Fame. "I was in a world of men."

Vicki met Mel at an American Red Cross swimming instruction class in Tacoma. The two were later married and have spent the last 42 years of their 55 year marriage keeping listeners in tune with Moses Lake High School Sports.

"I am the second voice behind the first voice," Vicki said. "I do all the running around and checking on the stats."

Lew Mason graduated from Moses Lake High School in 1967, setting his niche along the way.

He was a state wrestling champion in 1965 at 106 pounds, part of three state championship teams and a state cross country qualifier for the Chiefs.

More notably, Mason was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Mi. after high school and earned a wrestling letter three times and won the Eastern Conference championship twice. He became a full commander after a 24-year Naval Aviator career that included 800 aircraft carrier landings and 4,500 hours of flight time.

"Lew is a champion in his own right and comes from a championship family," said Mason's former wrestling coach Dick Deane. "The thing about it is, Lew represents the family he grew up in."

Gary Frey enters the Hall of Fame as yet another standout coach of wrestling in Moses Lake.

With Frey at the helm in the early 1960s, Moses Lake won three state titles in five years.

He left Moses Lake with a 129-13 record overall, but he did not leave coaching.

Frey moved on to Grays Harbor College, where his success continued.

He won 11 State Junior College titles and was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame.

Frey heard about the induction from his friend Mark Hara, who heard it on the radio.

"I was quite surprised to be honest with you," he said.

Frey taught and coached for 40 years, but holds a special place for his time in Moses Lake and his induction into the Hall of Fame.

"It's truly an honor because this is where I got my start in teaching and where I got my start in coaching," he said. "So it's really special to me."

For Clyde Carpenter, news of his induction into the Hall of Fame was anything but a surprise.

"I serve on the board so that night I knew I was inducted," he said.

A three-sport standout in high school, he went on to star on the track for Eastern Washington University, finishing fifth in the nation in the mile for three years.

"Track has been good to me," Carpenter said. "I was able to get all of grad and undergrad work paid as a result of scholarships. I wanted to repay the kindness to me."

He said that's why he decided to coach.

Carpenter led the Moses Lake track and field and cross country teams for 45 seasons, allowing him to accrue numerous memories, including helping other athletes compete for the Olympic team.

"Many, many great highlights," he said. "The biggest reward is seeing the citizens that are contributing and providing me with a lot of thanks I don't know if I earned."

Carpenter said he does not wonder why people waited so long induct him.

"It just took that long for some fool to nominate me," he said.