County’s third Hall of Fame class announced

With a permanent display just a few months from completion, the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame committee has announced its class of inductees for 2012.

Ten individuals and two teams will be formally enshrined during a banquet in September, and by then the plaques and memorabilia honoring the county’s greatest sports figures will be in display cases at Everett’s Comcast Arena, according to Hall of Fame committee chairman Frank Foster.

The addition of this year’s class will increase the Hall of Fame to 30 individuals and five teams in 11 different sports.

The 2012 class includes:

• Dick Armstrong, who coached football at Snohomish High School from 1963 to 1994, winning two state championships and 279 career games (including his nine years at Sultan, Concrete and Camas high schools), from Snohomish;

• Herm Atkins, a world-class distance runner in the late 1970s, from Everett;

• Karen Bryant, the president and CEO of the Seattle Storm, winner of two WNBA championships, from Edmonds;

• Terry Ennis, the longtime football coach at Cascade and later Archbishop Murphy high schools who won 287 games and three state titles in 36 seasons, from Everett;

• Ron Gipson, a starting fullback for the University of Washington in the 1978 Rose Bowl, from Everett;

• Jack Nichols, a UW basketball player in the 1940s who went on to play professionally, from Everett;

• Nancy Snyder, a coach in six different sports at Darrington High School over 30 years (and counting), her 1981 baseball team won a state title, from Darrington;

• Steve Thompson, a UW football player who later played in the 1969 Super Bowl with the New York Jets, from Lake Stevens;

• Tony Voltenpest, a 1992 and 1996 U.S. Paralympics sprinter, from Edmonds, and;

• Sherron Walker, a 1976 U.S. Olympic long jumper who still holds a state high school record in the event, from Everett.

Atkins, Gipson, Nichols, Thompson, Voltenpest and Walker are being inducted as athletes; Armstrong, Ennis and Snyder as coaches; and Bryant as a special contributor.

Nichols, Armstrong and Ennis are all deceased, though they will likely be represented by family members at the September banquet.

Also being inducted are the 1940 Everett High School and 1977 Mountlake Terrace High School boys basketball teams, both winners of state championships.

“This is an exceptional class,” Foster said. “As I look through the bios, we have individuals who’ve won state championships and people who’ve competed internationally. Each year it’s amazing that individuals in our county have done such incredible things.

“All these folks have come from Snohomish County,” he added, “and they’ve brought honor to themselves and to the county.”

Nominations for this year’s class were submitted by the public and by the 25-member Hall of Fame committee earlier this year. A committee vote this month determined the inductees.

Along with anticipation for the September banquet, there is also great excitement about the forthcoming displays, Foster said.

“It’s exciting to have the whole Hall of Fame coming to fruition,” he said. “This has been an incredible project that a lot of people have invested their time and energy into.”