The University of New Hampshire athletic department has announced the eight UNH graduates that will be inducted into the UNH Athletic Hall of Fame. The announcement was made by Director of Athletics Marty Scarano.
The induction ceremony will be held Saturday, June 7, 2014 at 6 p.m. at Lundholm Gymnasium on the campus of the University of New Hampshire.
The 2014 Hall of Fame class includes Jana (Reardon) Mowers ’97 (gymnastics), David Ball ’06 (football), Dr. Rick Schavone ’71 (swimming and diving), Alyson (Coler) Quinn ’03 (volleyball), Ryan Leib (men’s soccer) ’94, Jack Sebastian‘88 (men’s soccer & men’s lacrosse), Nicki Luongo ’99 (women’s ice hockey) and Katey Stone ‘89 (women’s ice hockey & women’s lacrosse).
Dr. Rick Schavone is considered one of the nation’s premier diving instructors. However, the 36th-year head coach at Stanford University, seven-time head coach at the U.S. Olympic trials and 1971 UNH graduate never competed in diving. He got his start from a summer job for the Wayland (Mass.) Park and Recreation department, where he taught diving at the town beach on Lake Cochituate.
Schavone obtained a Physical Education degree from New Hampshire, where he played basketball and baseball, earned his master’s at Maryland and received a Ph.D. in Sports Psychology from Stanford in 1978.
He was introduced to Stanford in 1976 as a graduate assistant and was promoted to the head diving coach the following year. He left Palo Alto to fill the diving head coach vacancy at Princeton University in 1978-1979, but returned to Stanford the following year and remains there today.
Since returning to Stanford during the 1979-1980 season, Schavone has molded the Cardinal diving team into one of the top all-around diving programs in the nation. A four-time NCAA Diving Coach of the Year (1992, 1993, 2007, 2013), Schavone is also an eight-time recipient of the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year award (1995 – men, 1995 – women, 1997 – women, 1999 – women, 2000 – women, 2007 – women, 2008 – women, 2013 – men).
In addition to his work at Stanford, Schavone has served as head coach for several U.S. National Teams, including the 1990 Goodwill Games, the 1997 World University Games in Sicily, competitions in Rome and Vienna with the national team in 1999 and the 2006 FINA World Cup in China.
Schavone served on Team USA’s coaching staff at the 2012 Summer Olympics after two of his divers (Kristian Ipsen & Cassidy Krug) earned their first-ever nods. Ipsen won the bronze medal in the 3-meter springboard, while Krug finished seventh in the same event. Most recently Schavone coached the USA at the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
The 36th-year head coach has coached Stanford men and women divers to 30 national championships including twelve NCAA champions, 42 individual Pac-12 titles and 108 All-America honors. Schavone has coached at least one All-American diver in 34 of the past 35 years.
Schavone founded the Stanford Dive Club in 1981. It has developed into one of the top youth dive clubs in the nation. In 2013, the Stanford Dive Club was named one of seven USA Diving Podium Centers with the main goal to produce future Olympians.
Other inductees are:
Jana (Reardon) Mowers competed for the Wildcats gymnastics team from 1993-97. The native of Peabody, Mass., was feted as the ECAC Rookie of the Year and the athletic department’s Jane Blalock Rookie of the Year as a freshman in 1993-94. That season, she earned All-Conference and All-Regional distinction and shared NCAA Northeast Regional All-Around honors. Reardon won the all-around seven times and led the Wildcats to the NCAA National Championships for the only time in school history. Despite a severe ankle injury, she still competed at nationals and helped guide the ‘Cats to 12th place.
In her sophomore year, Reardon set then all-time school records on balance beam (9.825) and all-around (39.150) en route to the team MVP award and the 1995 ECAC Gymnast of the Year award. She captured conference titles on floor exercise and all-around and registered All-ECAC honors in every event. At NCAA Northeast Regionals, she won floor and all-around to earn All-Northeast honors.
Reardon capped a successful junior campaign in the fledgling East Atlantic Gymnastics League by being named All-EAGL on vault, beam, floor and all-around in 1995-96.
The 1996-97 team co-captain graduated with the University’s No. 1 all-time score in AA (39.150), tied for fourth-highest vault mark (9.850), registered the third-best beam score (9.850) and the No. 3 floor score (9.875).
She is a member of the 1,000-point club (1184.825) and the 9.5 club.
Jana’s husband, former UNH hockey player Mark Mowers, is a 2006 UNH Athletic Hall of Fame inductee.
David Ball rewrote the University’s football record book as the most decorated wide receiver in Wildcat history from 2003-06. The Orange, Vt., native who walked on to the team in 2003 is the NCAA Division-I FCS (formerly I-AA) all-time leader with 58 career touchdown receptions. Ball surpassed former NFL legend Jerry Rice for the all-time record in a win over Richmond at Cowell Stadium on Oct. 7, 2006.
Ball, who registered 23 career 100-yard receiving games and notched at least one TD in 28 games, is UNH’s all-time leader in receptions (304) and receiving yards (4,655). He possesses the school’s top two single-season totals for receiving yards –1,551 (2005) and 1,504 (2004)– and also owns the No. 5 ranking with 1,114 yards in 2006. Additionally, he holds the top three single-season reception totals –93 (2006), 87 (2005) and 86 (2004). Ball’s 146 points scored in 2005 is an all-time University high.
His single-game records include receptions (15), receiving yards (284) and TD receptions (4).
Ball was a three-time Walter Camp All-America (2004-06), a two-time AFCA and A.P. All-America (2005-06), three-time All-Atlantic 10 (2004-06) and earned the team’s 2006 MVP award.
During his career, the Wildcats earned their first-ever D-I NCAA playoff victory (2004) and registered NCAA first-round victories in three straight seasons (2004-06).
Alyson (Coler) Quinn is the best volleyball player to ever compete at UNH. A two-time America East Player of the Year in 2002 and 2003, as well as the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2000, her recognition both at the regional and national level is very rare for the volleyball program.
Coler is the first and only student-athlete at New Hampshire to be named AVCA All American Honorable Mention, earning the honor in 2003. She was also named to the AVCA All-Northeast Regional Teams in 2002 and 2003.
In her junior season (2002), she amassed a program single-season high 564 kills to guide UNH to its second conference title in program history.
Coler again guided the Wildcats to a conference title in 2003, tallying 554 kills and a personal-best 386 digs. Coler left UNH as the program record holder in career kills (1,814), career attack attempts (4,726) and most kills (38) in an individual match. Furthermore, she ranks third all-time in digs with 1,231 and was named to the America East Tournament Team all four years
Since stepping on the field as a freshman, Ryan Leib made an immediate impact for the University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team. In his first ever collegiate game, Leib recorded a hat trick in a 3-1 win over Iona on Sep. 7, 1991.
Through the first 18 games of his collegiate career, Leib set the program record for most points by a freshman (31) on 13 goals and five assists, a record that still stands today. His performance earned him a spot on the 1991 All-New England Team, a feat that he would achieve each of his four years. He also served as a two-year captain as a junior and senior.
Leib earned All-North Atlantic Conference honors as sophomore, junior and senior. Today, his career goals mark of 36 has him second in program history as does his career points mark of 92. Additionally, Leib stands third in all-time assists with 20.
Leib graduated from UNH with a degree in Athletic Training. He currently lives in Birmingham, Ala., where he is the Director of Coaching for Briarwood Soccer Club.
While at the University of New Hampshire, Jack Sebastian competed and excelled in two sports: soccer and lacrosse. As a soccer player, Sebastian started each of the four years that he played and captained the squad as a senior.
As a member of the lacrosse team, Sebastian earned All-New England honors as a junior and as a senior. Additionally, he was named to the All-America team in his senior year.
Sebastian was invited to participate in the North/South lacrosse game which featured the 30 top Division I players selected by invitation only. He also helped power the lacrosse team to its first ever NCAA tournament appearance in 1986.
He graduated in 1988 from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics and is now a partner at Goldman Sachs, a global investment company headquartered in New York.
Nicki Luongo, a celebrated Wildcats’ defensemen for the women’s ice hockey team, set several records during her time at UNH. After playing limited minutes during her first two seasons, Luongo burst onto the scene during her junior year in 1998. The defenseman tallied 11 goals, 23 assists and 34 points during 39 games and was tabbed an AWCHA All-American. Luongo was also named to the AWCHA All-Tournament Team, All-New England Team and ECAC All-League Second Team.
Luongo was named captain for the 1999 season and went on to finish the year with 16 goals and 29 assists for 45 points. Her 29 assists ranked first on the team and 10th in the nation, while her 45 points finished 15th in the nation.
During a Nov. 15, 1998 contest against Maine, Luongo set a UNH and ECAC record for assists in a game by logging seven. She also tallied a goal during that game to tie an ECAC record for points in a game with eight.
She collected a handful of individual accolades during her senior season, taking AWCHA All-America First Team, AWCHA All-Tournament Team, All-New England Team, ECAC All-League First Team and ECAC All-Tournament Team in her final year with UNH. Luongo was also a Top 3 Finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented annually to the nation’s top player.
Throughout her time in Durham, Luongo guided the women’s hockey team to one ECAC championship, one AWCHA national championship, three ECAC second-place finishes, and one AWCHA runner-up finish. She ranked fifth upon graduation and is currently number 10 among Wildcats defensemen with 87 career points and was named to the ECAC All-Decade Second Team.
Katey Stone was a four-year letterwinner in both women’s lacrosse and women’s ice hockey at UNH. In hockey, Stone was a senior captain and led the Wildcats to ECAC championships in both 1986 and 1987.
Stone also excelled on the field for the lacrosse team. She was a two-time All-America selection and captained the team in 1989. Stone was also a member of the 1985 women’s lacrosse national championship team, UNH’s only NCAA championship team.
After UNH, Stone went on to coach Harvard University in women’s hockey. She has spent 19 years at Harvard, making nine NCAA tournament appearances and five Frozen Four trips. Stone has also led the Crimson to six ECAC regular-season titles, five ECAC tournament championships, six Ivy League titles and 10 Beanpots. She is the winningest coach in the history of Division I women’s ice hockey with 402 wins and was named United States College Hockey Online (USCHO) Coach of the Year in 2004-05.
Stone recently became the first woman to be head coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team, leading the women to a silver medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She has also led the U.S hockey team to a gold medal at the 2009 Four Nations Cup and a silver medal at the International Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships.
Additionally, Stone was recently honored with the 2014 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award, which honors a distinguished former student-athlete on the 25th anniversary of their graduation.
For more information contact Amy Sheehan at 603-862-8641 or email her at amy.sheehan@unh.edu.
