Moapa Valley High School Inducts Six Into Its Hall of Fame

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Six people were honorably inducted into the Moapa Valley High School Hall of Fame during a special ceremony held on Friday evening, Oct. 15 in the school cafeteria.

Inductees included MVHS alumni, athletes and teachers of note. In the banquet-style setting, each of these recipients were honored individually in the midst of their invited guests of family and friends.

MVHS Athletic Director Dallas Larsen explained that this was the second induction ceremony in this relatively new Hall of Fame. The ceremonies are set to take place every other year during Homecoming Week to honor outstanding members of the MVHS community of the past, he said.

Each inductee was presented with a special award plaque. And all will be featured in a database which is on display at a number of large touchscreens available on the MVHS campus.

The first inductee presented was Professional Off Road racer Josh Frederick. Josh’s brother Chase made the presentation in a brief tribute.

Josh began racing at 16 years old and had gone pro before graduating high school. In 2005, as a privateer, he won the longest off-road race in America, the Vegas to Reno desert race. He also conquered the Baja 250 and the Baja 500.
“Josh earned a reputation of having great endurance and basically having no quit in him, no matter how difficult the circumstances day or night,” said Chase.

In the years that followed, Josh won many other races, travelling all over the world to compete in the most challenging events.

In 2013, Josh experienced a career-ending accident while racing which left him seriously injured. “He conquered that challenge just like he conquered the race track: with superhuman endurance and with a refusal to quit,” Chase said.

The next inductee was Brooke Williams. The presentation was made by her former MVHS volleyball coach Matt Messer.

Messer lauded Brooke for her versatility as an athlete. She made important contributions in the sports of basketball, track and volleyball during her four years at MVHS.

As volleyball team captain, Brooke helped lead the Lady Pirates to three volleyball State Championships over her high school career. She was selected All-Division in volleyball and basketball and made First Team All-State in volleyball during both her junior and senior years.

After high school, Brooke went on to play basketball and volleyball at Dixie State in St. George and then continued playing volleyball at Utah Valley University.

“She is one of the most physically gifted people I’ve ever coached,” Messer said of Brooke. “She was young, she was strong, she was loud. And her presence on the court has been hard to find in these last many years.”

The next person being honored was Nick Bowler from the class of 1968. Presenting was his former coach and teacher Gary Batchelor.

Bowler was quarterback of the legendary back-to-back state football championship teams of 1966 and 1967. He also played center on two state championship basketball teams.

Nick went on to enjoy a long career of teaching and coaching at MVHS. He served as head coach of the Pirate Varsity Football team between 1990-97. During that time he lead the Pirates to two state Football Championships: one in 1992 and again in 1995. He taught at his alma mater for 30 years.

Batchelor emphasized that Nick was not only a great student athlete, but he had become a great associate and friend as an adult.

“In September of 1964 a young boy walked into my classroom as a freshman for the first time to take World History from me,” Batchelor reflected. “And yesterday, he and I went fishing on Lake Mead together. Can you imagine 57 years of association together? That is wonderful?”

The next inductee, Gary Hickman, was also from the class of 1968. The honor was presented by Gary’s son Shane Hickman who is currently a teacher and coach at MVHS.

Gary was instrumental in helping MVHS win state titles in the three sports in which he participated including football, basketball and track and field. That winning streak went on over both Gary’s junior and senior years.

Shane talked about how rare a phenomenon it was during the 1967 and 1968 school years to have a class of athletes who dominated the state every sport they played. “There really hasn’t been a class that is comparable to that,” Shane said.

Gary was given All State honors in basketball as a junior and a senior. He also broke the state record in the high jump as a senior with a jump of 6 ft 5.5 in. It was a record that he held for 25 years.
“All of that is hard to believe from a kid who wasn’t supposed to ever walk again,” Shane said. “He was stricken with polio at the age of four and spent many days in the hospital.”

Next to be honored was Kimberly Ortega. Presenting for Kim was her former volleyball coach, Rod Adams.
“I’m not sure there are too many other athletes that have gone through these halls that have accomplished more titles as a Pirate,” said Adams of Kim.

Kim was outstanding in the sports of Volleyball, Basketball and Track and Field.

In Volleyball she was a member of a team that won four straight state championships. In Basketball she earned Nevada’s Player of the Year as a senior and was named 3A All State as both a junior and a senior.

She averaged 19 points, five steals and four assists per game as a senior.

In Track, Kim participated in three straight State Championship teams and was All-State in that sport during her junior and senior years.

After high school, Kim received an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Seward County Community College. Following college, she played a season with the Birmingham Power of the WNBA.

MVHS Wrestling great, Phil Sprague was the next inductee. This was also presented by Shane Hickman.
Phil’s freshman year was his first official year of wrestling and he was passionate about it. He loved the challenge of it being all up to him whether he won or not!

After taking state in the 9th grade, Phil set a goal right then and there to take state every year after that. It was a goal that was ultimately accomplished.

Phil became the first of only two wrestlers to become a 4 -time state champion in the sport of wrestling in the history of Moapa Valley High School.

Phil’s domination on the mat led him to an undefeated record for both his Junior and Senior years of high school.
“He is not an emotional person, but he does get emotional about doing what you say you are going to do and giving it your best no matter what the outcome,” Shane said of Phil.

The final inductee for the evening was long time teacher and MVHS Debate coach Harold Tusler, affectionately known by students and associates as ‘Tus’. This was presented by a former MVHS student and debate team member Jon Oglesby.

Tus was born and raised in eastern Montana. He began his career teaching in the Montana public schools where he taught for more than 25 years. During that time he developed a forensics program at his school and led the team to two state championships and many top five finishes.

After retiring from teaching in Montana in 1995, Tus and his wife Evelyn moved to Moapa Valley. She taught at Bowler Elementary and he began teaching English at MVHS.

Tus rekindled what had been a stellar forensics program under Ron Dalley and developed it into a competitive force in the state. His teams won three consecutive Nevada state championships.
Tus retired in 2008 after a 40-year career in education.

“Harold Tusler had more of an impact on me and my career,” Oglesby said. “He taught me how to talk, how to write, how to be able to speak with people who think differently than me and how to look at the world differently. And he did that for me and hundreds of other kids.”