WHITEHALL — The Whitehall Sports Hall of Fame banquet featured another distinguished class of inductees Saturday at the American Legion, including the event’s longtime emcee himself getting the call to the Hall.
That man was Greg Boughton, the 50-year golf coach at Whitehall and 11-time host of the Hall of Fame banquet, who briefly passed over the microphone to committee member Denis Koegel to introduce him as the final inductee of the evening.
Boughton used a line he’s said before regarding his long tenure early in his speech, saying, “The years must have been good, because they went by fast.” He attributed the quote to his parents, who were married nearly 60 years.
In those 50 years, Boughton said, he served 11 Whitehall athletic directors, seven superintendents, and, he added with his trademark wit, nine Montague golf coaches.
Those years weren’t always rosy, as the program nearly was a casualty of budget cuts early in Boughton’s tenure. When the program was slated to be a victim of necessary financial reorganization due to millage requests being voted down, prior coach Lou Iverson stepped up to save the day, offering White Lake Golf Club to the team at no charge.
The longtime coach thanked wife Deryl and his family for their support along the way and ended his speech by noting his belief that when one member of a team is honored, all are honored; therefore, he thanked the “hundreds of golfers” he coached for sharing in his award.
Boughton was the longest-tenured Viking inducted Saturday, but the one with the most famous clients was the late Rick Lighton, whose brother Greg accepted the award on his behalf. Lighton was inducted in the new category of Distinguished Alumni for his remarkable work over the years as an artist.
Lighton was a three-sport athlete at Whitehall and was good enough to earn a Muskegon Community College roster spot in basketball, which Greg called Rick’s true passion, for two years. However, he made his biggest impact not as a teammate of basketball players but by producing beautiful renderings of them after falling in love with art while taking a class.
Rick’s art career, Greg said, began when he decided to draw a portrait of then-Philadelphia 76ers star Darryl Dawkins, one of his favorite players, and managed to show it to Dawkins outside the Philadelphia locker room on a 76ers visit to Detroit. Dawkins, the story goes, bought the work from Lighton on the spot, and it wasn’t long before word spread of Lighton’s talents.
Over the years, Lighton’s client list grew exponentially. The Detroit Pistons commissioned him to draw a portrait of superstar Isiah Thomas on the occasion of his retirement, and Lighton drew several portraits of the one and only Michael Jordan later in Jordan’s career. Greg called his brother “an inspiration” and joked that he was looking down on Greg saying “A distinguished alumni, huh? I told you!”
The night’s youngest inductee was Tyler VanBergen, who joined older brother Ryan in the Hall. VanBergen starred in football, basketball and track, earning all-conference in 11 sprint events in the latter during his career, earning all-area honors in basketball, and making things happen at almost every position in football on his way to a Grand Valley State offer. VanBergen played a season at GVSU and later went into teaching and coaching himself. He is now an assistant coach and first-grade teacher at Mona Shores.
VanBergen grew misty several times during his speech, drawing support from the crowd. Among the many people he thanked were his coaches, including current area fixtures Nate Aardema and Kirk Mikkelson. He said his coaches didn’t just mold him into a good player but developed him into the person he is, inspiring him into the field as well. He also thanked his family, including his parents, wife Ashley, and in-laws Brenda and Mike Bourdon. VanBergen also credited Ryan with begrudgingly allowing him to play sports with him and his older friends growing up, which helped develop his athletic gifts. Former teammate and current Whitehall coach Christian Subdon also received a shout-out for being a tireless training partner throughout VanBergen’s Viking career.
Tracy Brandel was another Hall of Famer to join a sibling, being inducted alongside sister Tia. Along with relay teammates who set a state meet record in both sprint relays, Brandel helped lead the Vikings to a third-place finish in the state meet as a junior. She also starred in basketball.
Brandel credited the one-of-a-kind White Lake area for its support in her speech, joking that her recent Viking alum sons Tyler and Taden were “pampered” during their own sports careers by comparison to her generation. She shared a story of co-workers at Bacardi - she was one of the earliest female sales representatives at the company - coming through the area with her on a West Michigan visit and marveling to her at how kind everybody was.
“We have people who are good to the core,” Brandel said.
Brandel also thanked the Hall of Fame committee “for forcing me to do this,” her track coach Carol Biederman for her incredible work with the team, and her parents, “my first team,” for their sacrifices along the way.
The 1968 state championship golf team was inducted en masse during the event. Speaking for the team, its top scorer Bob Funnell shared stories of what he called “the golden age” of Whitehall sports in the 1950s and ‘60s, which featured many current Hall of Famers. On behalf of his team, he emotionally thanked the committee and the area for their support.
Not content to celebrate the past at Whitehall, the Vikings also made an exciting announcement about their future, as athletic director CJ Van Wieren said the department will be moving forward with school-wide fundraising efforts in hopes of taking that responsibility off its coaches’ plates. He said the school will be hosting a raffle this winter with the goal of raising tens of thousands of dollars for the department. Tickets will be sold for $100, with a drawing scheduled for Feb. 3 back at the American Legion. The grand prize for the raffle, Van Wieren said, will be $10,000, and the hope is to sell 1,000 tickets for the raffle.
In the future, this and other fundraising efforts, Van Wieren said, are aimed at eliminating all ancillary costs to compete in sports for Viking athletes; the ultimate goal is to raise enough money to eliminate the need for pay-to-participate fees.
“We know how much more success students can have in the classroom if they’re involved in something,” Van Wieren said. “We’re constantly looking for more opportunities for students.”
