Five athletes and one coach will be inducted into the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame November 3.
The 12th class of women inductees into the Hall of Fame includes volleyball player Deb (Allaman) Johnson, basketball player Sue Christiansen and swimmer Kersti Nelson.
The men's inductees are golfer Steve Mattiacci and swimmer Al Opsahl.
The coach will be long-time swim coach Tom Prior.
The Blugold Hall of Fame was established in 1973 to pay tribute, to give deserved recognition and to enhance school tradition by honoring former athletic letterwinners or coaches who showed distinctive, unique or exceptional ability while on the campus at Eau Claire and have distinguished themselves in their profession or personally since leaving the institution.
For women athletes, there must be a lapse of 10 years before they can be considered and for the men 15 years. Since 1973, a total of 76 men and 38 women have been honored prior to this year's class which brings the current number of inductees to 120.
TOM PRIOR
Tom Prior built the Blugold swim program into a conference and national powerhouse during a three-decade period beginning in 1969.
As the men's swim coach from 1969 to 1999, Prior's teams won 25 of 30 conference championships and placed among the top 10 at the national meet 24 of those years. At one point, the Blugolds won 19 consecutive Wisconsin State University Conference crowns. Three times the team was the NAIA national runner-up (1978, 1979 and 1988) and 15 times achieved a top five finish despite going against scholarship competition without the same benefit. .His men's teams produced a 234-49 dual meet record (.826 winning percentage) and won 243 gold medals at the conference championships.
In 21 seasons as the women's coach, Prior's teams won 19 conference championships including 18 straight at one point. His powerhouse 1983, 1987 and 1988 teams also claimed the NAIA national championship. During a 14-year stretch, Blugold teams never placed lower than fifth in the women's NAIA national meet. His women's teams produced a 132-25-1 dual meet record (.838 winning percentage) and won 201 gold medals at the conference championships.
During Prior's tenure, 140 men and 102 women earned All-American distinction, several as many as four times. He mentored 35 national champions. Twenty-eight of his swimmers and one assistant coach previously were inducted into the Blugold Hall of Fame which this year will add two more swimmers.
Prior earned a level five classification, the highest level attainable, from the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) and was awarded the two highest awards of Master Coach and Distinguished Coach from the ASCA. He was the men's NAIA Coach of the Year in 1976 and both the men's and women's NAIA Coach of the Year in 1987. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1993 and the NAIA District 14 Hall of Fame in 1994. He served as president of the NAIA Swim Coaches Association during the 1991-92 academic year after stints as secretary and vice-president. He was a six-year member of the rules and sites committee and was chair of the scholar-athlete committee from 1983 to 1993.
Prior was the principle lecturer for an Olympic Solidarity Swim Coaches Clinic in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in July, 1990. He returned there the next summer and served as swim coach for the Papua New Guinea National Team which participated in the South Pacific Games. Two of his relay teams won a gold medal with a South Pacific Games record and another individual also won a gold medal.
Prior gained a great deal of local notoriety by guiding annual trips to Hawaii for students, faculty, staff and community members. He was honored by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) with a 30-year award for officiating high school meets. He was one of five founding members of Chippewa Valley Swimming Inc. which provided $25,000 worth of timing display boards, began the Fairfax Pool summer swim meet and supported the swim programs at the Eau Claire YMCA, North and Memorial High Schools.
Prior and his wife Becky, who was a medical technologist for 30 years at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire and a microbiology teacher at Chippewa Valley Technical College, are the parents of two daughters-Heather Bohl and Laura-and have one granddaughter.
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DEB (ALLAMAN) JOHNSON
Deb (Allaman) Johnson rates as one of the school's all-time leading volleyball players. The 6-foot southpaw outside hitter still ranks fourth in career attack percentage at .332, fourth in career blocking assists with 181 and seventh in total blocks with 232. She led the 1989 team with a .370 attack percentage, still the fifth best single season total in school history and topped the 1988 team with 78 total blocks.
During Johnson's four years on the Blugold varsity from the 1986 through the 1989 seasons, the team posted a 170-30 win-loss record and won the school's only conference championship in 1987 when it finished 52-3 overall. The team placed second in the conference twice during her career. She was on the first three Blugold teams to advance to NCAA post-season competition in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
As a senior, Johnson ranked among the top 10 in the conference in attack percentage, kills, total blocks and blocks per game. She earned All-Conference, All-Region, AVCA second team All-America and third team GTE Academic All-America honors.
After her volleyball eligibility was completed, she spent one season playing basketball for Lisa Stone and was named the team's Blugold Award winner that year.
She was a member of several honor societies and recipient of two scholarships as a student at Eau Claire. She was the Blugold NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and a Super Six Award winner in 1991.
Following her graduation, Johnson taught and coached in the St. Croix Falls and Clayton school districts. She has now returned to her hometown of Grantsburg where she has coached the JV volleyball team and served as a varsity assistant at the high school since 1996 and is involved as a volunteer in church, school and community activities. A stay-at-home mother, Johnson and her husband Peter have a six-year-old son Gustav, an 18-month old son Sven and are expecting their third child in March.
Besides her career as an English teacher, Johnson has served as a drama advisor, director of a three-act play, a senior newspaper advisor, forensics coach and certified adjudicator. She has worked with special needs students, served on a volunteer group for alcohol and other drug abuse for female athletes and served on a committee for discipline, gifted and talented and at risk students.
She has served as the volunteer station director for the Grantsburg community television and on the board of directors for community education and dollars for scholars, coordinates the Grantsburg food pantry, teaches a frugal living class for area residents and helps with local relief efforts through a social action committee. At her church, she has taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, served as a senior high school youth group leader, served as a church council member and sings in the church choir.
She is a freelance videographer and considers herself an outspoken environmental enthusiast with an overzealous attitude about reducing, reusing, recycling. She writes poetry, short stories, essays, news articles, journals and manuscripts. She is working on a self-initiated local history project of girls' athletics at Grantsburg High School in video documentary and book form. She has been Red Cross certified in several areas and worked for years as a WIAA volleyball official.
As a JV volleyball coach, her teams have incurred one loss in five complete seasons. She has been part of a varsity program whose success began with Bill Morrin in 1989 but has included conference and regional titles and two state trips since Johnson joined the program in 1996.
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SUE CHRISTIANSEN
A four-year All-Conference basketball player from 1986 through 1990, Christiansen left UW-Eau Claire as the school's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Her 1,661 points in 106 games still ranks second only to Arlene Meinholz' total of 1,834. A consistent performer, her single year scoring totals were 362, 438, 438 and 423 as she finished among the top five in conference scoring each year. She also ranked among the top five in rebounding all four seasons as a Blugold. She still holds the school record for steals in a game (10), in a season (99) and in a career (307). She is the school's third all-time leading rebounder (859) and ranks sixth in assists (324). When she graduated, she held the school records for games played (106), free throws made in a game (13) and free throws attempted in a game (16).
Until Vanessa Schley scored 36 points against UW-Oshkosh last season, Christiansen shared the school single game scoring record with 35, a game in which she set a school record with 16 field goals which still stands. She shares the school single game free throw percentage record of 1.000 as she hit all nine of her attempts in a game against Oshkosh.
Christiansen played one year for Sandy Schumacher, one year for Lisa Herb and two years for Lisa Stone. She was a member of the first Blugold conference championship team in 1990 and the first Blugold team to advance to the NCAA Division III playoffs in 1989 when the team won its first two regional games, then lost in the NCAA quarterfinals to Centre College of Kentucky.
Besides being named to the All-Conference team four times, she was also named to the All-Defensive team one year. Five times during her career she earned conference player of the week honors. Before the university switched its basketball affiliation to NCAA, she was named to the All-NAIA District 14 team.
She was a team MVP and served two years as team captain. Twice, she was named to the Kodak Division III All-District VI team.
A Mounds View High School graduate, Christiansen graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a minor in psychology.
After spending eight years at Telemortage Services, the last three years as the Vice-President of Operations, she is now the lead customer service supervisor and project coordinator for Sovran, Inc., a design, implementation and maintenance company of LAN and WAN computer systems, located in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
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KERSTI NELSON
In a Blugold swimming program that has produced many All-Americans, Kersti Nelson ranks among the greatest during her career from 1986 through 1990. A four-year All-American in 12 individual events and 11 relays, Nelson personally scored 306.5 points in conference competition and 277 points in national competition. She was a member of four Blugold conference championship teams and two NAIA national championship teams in 1987 and 1988. The Blugolds were also second and third at nationals her other two seasons on the team in 1989 and 1990.
Nelson was a member of the Blugolds' national championship 800 freestyle relay team that set an NAIA record in 1987. She won nine individual conference titles including four straight in the 1650 freestyle. She won the 400 individual medley twice and the 200 IM, 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle once each.
When she left UW-Eau Claire, she held the individual school records for the 200 freestyle (1:55.79); the 500 freestyle (5:05.32), the 1000 freestyle (10:33.40) and the 1650 freestyle (17:28.25). She was also a member of the school record-setting 400 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay and 800 freestyle relay teams.
Nelson was a team MVP in both 1989 and 1990, earned the Hardest Worker award in 1989 and the Most Improved award in 1987.
A graduate of Fergus Falls High School, Nelson graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1991 with a bachelor of science degree in physical education. She is currently working toward her master's in education at St. Cloud State.
She is presently the physical education and adaptive physical education teacher at Rice Lake Elementary School in Maple Grove and serves as assistant swim coach at Maple Grove High School. At Maple Grove, where she has coached the girls team six years and the boys team five years, she helped the girls win a conference championship during the 2000 season and the boys complete an undefeated season, win a section championship and finish as state runner-up last winter. Maple Grove is currently the defending Minnesota state champion in the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay. During her coaching career, Maple Grove has had four girls and six boys earn honorable mention All-American status.
Nelson has served on several committees at Rice Lake Elementary including a Safety Committee, Technology Committee and Teacher Advisory Team Committee.
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STEVE MATTIACCI
Steve Mattiacci was a member of the first Blugold conference and NAIA District 14 championship golf team in 1976 and the first to advance to the NAIA Nationals in 1977. The Blugolds won another conference title in 1979 when the team also won the District 14 crown and finished 20th at the NAIA Nationals under head coach Frank Wrigglesworth.
Mattiacci was named All-Conference as a senior and was also named to the All-District 14 first team as a sophomore and second team as a senior. In four years of conference meet competition, Mattiacci placed sixth (four strokes out of first), fourth (six strokes out of first), tied for eighth (eight strokes out of first) and tied for second (two strokes out of first). As a senior, he was named to the 11-member NAIA Academic All-America team.
Mattiacci, who graduated from Wausau East High School, received his bachelor of business administration degree in accounting in 1980. He worked for seven years as an audit supervisor and senior consultant for Touche Ross in Milwaukee. He spent five years as a divisional controller for Marcus Corporation. Steve joined Milwaukee-based CMI Group, Inc. in 1992. CMI specializes in alternatives for equipment maintenance. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer after stints as controller and general manager.
Steve, his wife Terri and four children--Lisa, age 20; Katie, 11; Maggie, 9; and Peter, 7-reside in Brookfield. In recent years, he has been involved in coaching his children's youth soccer teams. His oldest daughter is a member of the soccer team at UW-Madison.
Mattiacci has been involved in the United Way, Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, Variety Club, Junior Achievement and the American Cancer Society, all while working in the Milwaukee area.
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AL OPSAHL
A backstroke and sprint freestyler, Al Opsahl was a four-year All-American on Blugold swim teams from 1980 through 84. During his career, the Blugolds won four conference titles and placed fourth twice, sixth once and eighth once in the NAIA national championships.
Opsahl was a conference champion on Blugold 400 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay teams. The Blugolds set both a school and conference record in the 400 freestyle relay his junior year. His best individual finish was a runner-up in the 100 backstroke as a junior. In both his junior and senior years, he finished among the top five in both the 100 and 200 backstroke events. He contributed 54 team points as a senior, 42 as a junior and 31 as a sophomore toward the Blugolds' conference championships.
Opsahl served as team captain in 1983-84, the same year he was the team's Most Inspirational award winner. He received the Most Improved and Most Inspirational awards in his sophomore year. In 1982-83, he was UW-Eau Claire's WSUC Scholar-Athlete award recipient when only one athlete was selected to represent the entire institution each year. Opsahl earned NAIA Academic All-America honors two years.
After his eligibility was completed, Opsahl served as an assistant Blugold coach after returning from a semester in Copenhagen, Denmark in the Danish International Studies Program.
A native of Austin, Minnesota, Opsahl graduated cum laude in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in biology and a minor in math.
Following his graduation from Eau Claire, Opsahl spent three years in the education field before landing a position as a senior technologist at Kraft General Foods Technology Center. After five years there, he moved on to Pharmacia in Global Toxicology. He is currently the Manager of the Digital Image Lab for the Preclinical Pathology Group.
He received the Outstanding Achievement Award in 1990 at the Kraft General Foods Basic Science Day. He received the Ace Award in 1995 from Searle/Pharmacia.
Opsahl has had 10 papers or presentations in his area of expertise, the most recent a publication in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Opsahl has stayed involved in swimming, spending the past 15 years as head swim coach of the Lattof Neptune Swim Team at the Lattof International YMCA in Des Plaines, Illinois. He has worked with an average of 150 swimmers a year and his teams have been the combined Chicago District Champions in six of the last seven years. His program has produced an average of 35 state qualifiers each year.
Opsahl and his wife Lisa have four children-Adam, age 6; twins Evan and Ethan, age 4; and Megan, age 1.
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