Apr. 2—Nominees have been announced for the North Idaho Hall of Fame athletic awards, and hundreds of people are expected to be in attendance when the NIHOF holds its 62nd annual banquet to announce the winners on April 12 at the Coeur d'Alene Resort.
Inductees into the Hall's 2024 class include former Idaho volleyball coach Debbie Buchanan and former Vandal and NFL offensive lineman Mike Iupati.
Lewiston's multisport-athlete Addy McKarcher is a potential Athlete of the Year — one of dozens of area high school and college athletes and coaches nominated for the NIHOF's yearly awards.
A social hour in the lobby will begin at 5:30 p.m., with banquet room doors opening at 6:30. Tickets priced at $40 for individuals or $400 for tables of eight will be available on nihof.com, and the event will be livestreamed on idahosports.com.
Administrators, sports nuts unite to put on yearly event
Founded by the late former Coeur d'Alene Press publisher Duane Hagadone, the NIHOF is staffed by an all-volunteer, 18-person board including recognizable area names like Lewiston superintendent Tim Sperber and Potlatch athletic director Katie Ball.
Board member Bert Sahlberg described it as consisting of "sports administrators, school administrators and just sports nuts like me." The board selects athletes, coaches and teams from across 29 high schools and three colleges (the University of Idaho, Lewis-Clark State and North Idaho College) to nominate and vote on for its annual athletic awards.
"It's really a group effort to put this on," Sahlberg explained. "Once the finalists are voted on by the board, each board member is assigned at least one school and contacts the athletic director with the list of finalists from that school.
"We ask them to give a letter to the nominees on how to register (for the banquet). We realize that there are athletes who were seniors last spring and have since graduated, but the athletic directors are great in trying to reach out to them to come, and several do."
Schools large and small contend
Regular Tribune sports readers will find themselves quite familiar with many of the names featured among the high school nominations.
McKarcher, who had the good fortune to win $1,000 of scholarship money in a drawing at the end of last year's banquet, is nominated for Player of the Year honors in both volleyball and girls basketball and for overall Athlete of the Year status in the girls Class 5A/6A category. Chloe Grieser of Genesee has an identical set of nominations at the small school, 1A-through-4A level.
On the boys side, Moscow baseball has received a Team of the Year nomination in the larger-school division for earning the school's first state title in over a decade and first baseball state championship in 40 years. Bear baseball standouts Butch Kiblen, Connor Isakson and Tyson Izzo are all on the short-list for Athlete of the Year as individuals.
Among smaller-school nominees, the Kendrick Tigers are up for Team of the Year in both football and boys basketball after claiming state titles in both over the course of their first school year moving up a division to compete in Class 2A.
A pair of Vandals in the HOF class
North Idaho Hall of Fame inductions will also take place at the event, including that of Buchanan, who retired from coaching Idaho volleyball in 2021 after a 22-year career that included 16 postseason appearances.
Another former Vandal, Iupati, played football at UI from 2006-09 before being drafted in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft at No. 17 overall by the San Francisco 49ers.
He went on to be a four-time Pro Bowl honoree in his 11 seasons in the NFL with the ...
