Former Greenwave basketball player Jeff Peterson, right, and his wife Nettie (Sorensen) look at the banner and state championships in the Churchill County High School gym. Peterson returned to Fallon last weekend to be inducted into the 2024 Greenwave Hall of Fame class.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
While other athletes and guests viewed photos of Greenwave Hall of Fame inductees in the gym’s foyer, former Fallon basketball player Jeff Peterson walked into the quiet Elmo Dericco gym, stood inside near the southwest door and viewed the banners on the walls.
The three-sport athlete who graduated in 1995 remained silent, moving his head to the state basketball titles the boys team won since he graduated almost 30 years ago. Peterson was one of many former Fallon athletes who had traveled to Fallon to partake in last weekend’s festivities associated with the 2024 Greenwave Hall of Fame induction.
Four teams, one coach and 10 athletes comprise the seventh class of athletes and contributors inducted Saturday into the Greenwave Hall of Fame. The banquet was held at the Fallon Convention Center.
Not only was the 6-foot-4 center the team’s most valuable player but he was also voted to the all-conference first team and broke the Greenwave scoring record.
On the court, Peterson gave opposing teams nightmares, especially against Reed in his senior year. In the game played at Fallon, Peterson recounted teammate John Palmer throwing an inbound pass to him. Peterson caught the pass, took one definitive step toward the hoop and dunked the ball, rattling the rim and firing up the packed house.
“The crowd went crazy,” Peterson remembers. “We won the game, a tight game.”
Peterson returned a year later, but that was the last time he stepped inside the gym.
“I came back a year after I played, but that’s been a good 29 years,” said Peterson, who’s a financial property attorney in the Houston area.
“It’s so impressive, I see the banners hanging in here. I’m just amazed with the talent that has played here.”
Peterson looked at the banners awarded to Fallon for winning state 3A boys basketball titles in 2019 and 2020 and then to the three state banners presented to the girls basketball team.
“It’s been remarkable to see the success we’ve had here over the years,” he added.
Like so many athletes who return to Fallon after graduation, Peterson extolled the community’s support, especially after a win.
Ava Case, who competed on the girls’ track team in the mid-1970s, said the weekend provided her and her teammates a chance to visit and reminisce about the team’s two straight AA titles.
“I have people I haven’t seen in 20 years or 30 years,” Case said. “You see people in Fallon all that time, but you can’t take the memories away from us. It’s in your heart.”
Case and many of the other track athletes spent an hour in the high school’s gym foyer looking at the photos from the previous teams and individuals who had been inducted since 2017. Even when Case visits the gym to see a basketball game, she enjoys looking at the photos.
“I have Greenwave pride,” she professes. “We’ve had an athlete who competed in the Olympics, several who played in the NFL (National Football League) after college.”
Case said the younger classes coming through high school will remember the history she and her classmates set.
Fallon’s rich history of its athletic programs has extended to the time around World War I when the area was beginning to grow. Keynote speaker Don Lattin, an all-state basketball and baseball player for Fallon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, continued to play hoops at the University of Nevada, Reno from 1972-76.
“Congratulations to the new inductees. I don’t know a lot of you, but I’m interested in learning the stories of your accomplishments,” he said.
Lattin is currently a partner with the law firm of Maupin, Cox and LeGoy in Reno.
He commended the athletes, but stressed everyone in the convention center is part of the Greenwave community that makes its residents better citizens. During his speech, Lattin discussed fellow athletes who played with him during his younger years and at the high school.
“When I’m talking about their stories, there’s also your stories and everybody else’s stories in here,” he said. “You look at things differently when you’re playing and when you’re part of the Greenwave community.”
Lattin said teammates rely on each other, and when someone on the team strugglers or suffers, they all suffer. His points followed a common thread from when he was 10 years old though his high school years. Through concerns and action, Lattin said he developed empathy toward others, a trait all members in the community should develop.
“The game is bigger than I was, bigger than you were, bigger than all of us," Lattin said,
Over the years when he and his friends were younger and playing sports, they experienced a transformation. He said people who attended the game were there to enjoy watching the players, and the players were excited to play. Lattin said he learned quickly the lessons: the game was bigger than him, and at that point, he wanted to be a member of the community.
Lattin talked of his teammates, who remain in contact. Players such as John Lewis, Mayor Ken Tedford and Richard Hucke grew up together and worked together, whether it was on the football field, basketball court or baseball diamond.
“These were teammates who made me better,” Lattin said.
Looking back to his youth, Lattin said Fallon was one of the best places to grow up.
The Greenwave Hall of Fame committee honored Donnie Nelson, former executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Nelson was instrumental in offering guidance when Fallon was forming a committee to research worthy athletes and contributors who would be inducted. Nelson recently left the NIAA in June and is working on another venture.
“In the Lahontan Valley, we remember Donnie is the champion of schools of all levels, certainly a friend of Greenwave athletes,” said Steve Heck, president of the Hall of Fame committee and former track coach.
“As a coach at the high school for 20 years, I personally had many opportunities to interact with Donnie,” Heck said, noting Nelson had a very calm, thoughtful presence.
Two years before the first induction in 2017, Heck said Nelson offered guidance, and the first committee began to forge ideas and search athletes’ history. Furthermore, Nelson, whose mother-in-law lives in Fallon, became one of the biggest supporters.
“Nelson was our first keynote speaker,” Heck added.
Nelson, who received a “Fallon basket” gift from the committee, commended the Greenwave Hall of Fame committee for its progress and how stories have been shared.
“That’s what this is all about,” Nelson added.
For the next hour, Heck introduced the inductees beginning with the 1943 state football team and then the 1959 girls basketball team, which had a 12-0 record. Sadly, this would be the final girls’ basketball team to step on the court until Title IX was passed in 1972. Once the players were introduced, they received a standing ovation and applause for being the first of many trailblazers in high school girls’ sports.
Heck welcomed players from the 1966 boys basketball team, which also won a state title and finally by the 1974 and 1975 girls track teams.
Ellen Townsend and Stormie Mullaly both competed on the 1974 and 1975 state championship teams.
“It seems like yesterday, “Mullaly said about the back-to-back titles. “It was the dream time of my life. We had a great coach (George Hucke) and he was a great inspiration. He came up to me and asked me if I would run the mile.”
Townsend, who is also in the Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame, said Hucke always wanted someone to step up in competition. Both athletes said they were pleased to see a standing ovation afforded to the 1959 girls basketball team.
“That was awesome,” Townsend said.
Mullaly said the players from 1959 set the precedent.
Another athlete received a standing ovation. Kara Kelly Borgognone, a standout softball pitcher in the early 1990s, played four years at Columbia College in Missouri.
Borgognone eventually became a Nevada state trooper, but she was killed in accident in 2008 while responding to a call. Her father Kevin accepted the induction award.
Greenwave pitcher Rich Hooten, who graduated on 1987, summed up the evening.
“I met so many nice people,” said Hooten, who now lives in western Montana. “This was very humbling and nice to see family meet great people. This was the best place to grow up. I tried to explain it to my kids. It takes a village to raise a child. I had the best village.”
NEED TO KNOW
To learn more about the Class of 2024, go to https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2024/jul/09/greenwave-greats-hall-of-fame-names-newest-inductees/
TEAMS
1943 Football
1959 Girls Basketball
1966 Boys Basketball
1974 Girls Track
1975 Girls Track
COACH
Bill Archer
ATHLETES
Neal Workman (1981)
Judianna Murray (1983)
Cody Olson (1983)
Mark Mansfield (1984)
Richie Hooten (1987)
Kara Kelly-Borgognone (1992)
Jeff Peterson (1995)
Jake Johnston (2010)
Tyson Ernst (2013)
Morgan Dirickson (2014)