The 2023 Alaska Sports Hall of Fame Director’s Awards, including the Joe Floyd Award, three Trajan Langdon Award winners, four Pride of Alaska Award recipients and the Hall of Fame Class of 2023; were released by the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame and include a lifelong notable from Kenai as the Joe Floyd Award winner.
2023 Joe Floyd Award
The 2023 Joe Floyd Award recipient, recognized for lasting and significant contribution to Alaska through sports, was awarded to Kathleen Navarre. Navarre, raised in Kenai and a graduate of KCHS, was recognized for decades of coaching and administering high school sports at Kodiak High School, Dimond High School and now as a member of the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA).
Navarre Profile:
Navarre coached basketball, volleyball, flag football and track over the past 20 years at Kodiak High School and Dimond High School and has guided multiple teams to State Championships.
The former athletic director and event director for numerous local and statewide high school sporting events, Navarre now helps organize events like the Alaska March Madness basketball tournament for Alaska School Activities Association. Kathleen’s impact on the Alaska sports community is far reaching.
From Kodiak to Anchorage and all points in between, prep sports happen because she is who she is. A tireless advocate for everything good about scholastic sports, Kathleen has done it all. She’s been a teacher, coach, tournament director, director of operations and more,” her nomination reads.
2023 Pride of Alaska Award
Finnigan Donley, 17, an Alyeska Ski Club skier who won two age-group national alpine championships and made an impressive debut on the world stage;
Alissa Pili, 21, the Pac-12 Player of the Year for the University of Utah who foreshadowed her college greatness by scoring a state-record 2,614 points in four seasons at Dimond High;
Sayvia Sellers, 18, who broke Pili’s scoring record with 2,651 points during a four-year career at Anchorage Christian. She plans to play for the University of Washington, which means she could face Pili a couple of times next season.
Jeremy Swayman, 24, one of the NHL top young goalies who has spent the last two months rotating in goal for the mighty Boston Bruins.
2023 Trajan Langdon Award
Vanessa Aniteye in the adult division and Geremu Daggett and Colton Merriner in the youth division — received the Trajan Langdon Award, which honors leadership, sportsmanship and inspiration (profiles listed below).
Hall of Fame: Class of 2023
Individual
Reggie Tongue: Lathrop High football player. Oregon State football and 10-year NFL player
Jessica Moore: Colony High basketball-twice Alaska Player of the Year, U of Connecticut-three-time national champion, 8-year WNBA player
Joe Floyd: Kodiak coaching great and Joe Floyd Award namesake in the individuals category; Kikkan Randall’s 2018 Olympic gold medal in the moments category; and March Madness Alaska/state high school basketball championships in the event category.
Moment
Kikkan Randall’s 2018 Olympic gold medal performance
Event
March Madness Alaska/state high school basketball championships
The Hall of Fame’s annual awards banquet and induction ceremony is scheduled for April 27 at the Anchorage Museum. The event is free and open to the public.
Directors Awards Profiles (provided by Alaska Sports Hall of Fame)
Jeremy Swayman, Pride of Alaska (adult men’s division)
The Boston Bruins goaltender made the NHL’s All-Rookie Team and, at 24, already shows signs of becoming the greatest netminder in Alaska history.
He’s the complete package – technically sound, athletic, ambitious, a talent who supplements sublime skill with a strong worth ethic. Perhaps most critically, he owns the emotional equilibrium his position demands.
In three NHL seasons, his stats have far exceeded league averages. As of March 24th, Swayman boasts a sparkling 21-6-4 record with a 2.24 GAA and a .919 save percentage.
Other finalists: Keegan Messing; Santiago Prosser
Alissa Pili, Pride of Alaska (women’s division)
The 6-foot-2 forward led the Utah women’s basketball team to the Sweet 16 and was named a second-team All-America pick by both the Associated Press and the US Basketball Writers Association.
She was the Pac-12 Player of the Year, she ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring (20.0 points per game) and shooting percentage (59.1), and in her first two NCAA Tournament games she scored a combined 61 points for the 8th-ranked Utes.
Pili’s season ended with a Sweet 16 loss to eventual champion Louisiana State, which eked out a three-point victory.
She was semifinalist for the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year award.
Other finalists: Lydia Jacoby; Eve Stephens
Finnigan Donley, Pride of Alaska (boys division)
After surprising himself by qualifying for the World Junior Alpine Championships in Austria, 17-year-old Finnigan Donley of Anchorage placed 13th (and top American) in the Super-G.
He then dominated the U18 U.S. Junior National Champioships in New Hampshire by winning gold in the downhill, gold in the Super-G, bronze in the slalom and sixth in the giant slalom.
That made him the runaway U18 national champion among 75 competitors a year after placing second overall at the event.
At the U.S. Nationals, he claimed fifth place in the super-G and 14th in the slalom, and in each race he was the top U18 skier. The giant slalom is Wednesday.
Other finalists: Jack Nash; P.J. Foy
Sayvia Sellers, Pride of Alaska (girls division)
The Naismith All-American was named Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year for the second time.
The Anchorage Christian School standout finished her high school career having never lost a game in Alaska (79-0) and won led the Lions to three state championships.
She set the Alaska career scoring record with 2,651 to top Alissa Pili’s previous record of 2,614.
Sellers is one of the highest nationally rated girls to ever come out of Alaska. She plans to play for the University of Washington next fall.
Other finalists: Trinity Donovan; Olyvia Mamae
Vanessa Aniteye, Trajan Langdon Award (adult division)
Aniteye, of Eagle River, ran to an NCAA Division II track championship after a two-year break from racing, a comeback that began while she was still breastfeeding her son.
Motherhood put her stellar career on hold — she was a six-time All-American during three years at UAA — but it didn’t end it as Aniteye first feared.
She worked on her own for more than a year to regain her fitness and form before landing at Seattle Pacific, where coaches turned the 400-meter runner into an 800-meter runner.
Nearly three years after Aniteye and her husband welcomed their son, she won the 800 finals at the national championships by two-tenths of a second with a personal-best time of 2:06.84.
She finished her career as a nine-time All-American and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s female athlete of the year for track.
Other finalists: Robin Beebee/Christy Marvin; Hunter Keefe
Geremu Daggett and Colton Merriner, Trajan Langdon Award (youth division)
When Merriner collapsed a few meters away from the finish line at the state cross country championships, teammate Daggett stopped racing and started retreating.
The Grace Christian senior turned back to retrieve the sophomore and dragged him across the finish line. Two runners passed Daggett as he coaxed and carried Merriner, dropping from 13th place to 15th. But reaching the finish line was no longer his goal.
“I saw him fall, and I’m like, if I cross this finish line I can’t go back and help my teammate,” Daggett told Channel 2. “So I stopped right there and ran back and helped him up.”
The two had entered the Bartlett High stadium together, poised to crack the top-15 along with three Grace Christian runners ahead of them. Merriner was in sprint mode when his legs failed.
Daggett slowed and shouted encouragement before Merriner collapsed and began crawling. Daggett went back and pulled him to the finish line, getting passed by two other runners in the process. Daggett finished 15th but Merriner, who pushed himself to the brink, was disqualified for not finishing under his own power.
Kathleen Navarre, Joe Floyd Award
Navarre coached basketball, volleyball, flag football and track over the past 20 years at Kodiak High School and Dimond High School and has guided multiple teams to State Championships.
The former athletic director and event director for numerous local and statewide high school sporting events, Navarre now helps organize events like the Alaska March Madness basketball tournament for Alaska School Activities Association.
Kathleen’s impact on the Alaska sports community is far reaching.
From Kodiak to Anchorage and all points in between, prep sports happen because she is who she is. A tireless advocate for everything good about scholastic sports, Kathleen has done it all.
She’s been a teacher, coach, tournament director, director of operations and more,” her nomination reads.
Other finalists: Charles Scott; Rob Proffitt