The Booster Club senior athletes of the year are Chelsea Gagner and Trevor Tagle.
They were named during the annual senior sports awards banquet held on May 31.
Joining the high school athletics hall of fame were Dani Birky, Tagle and Gagner. To qualify for the hall of fame, the athlete must have a 2.5 GPA, be a good citizen, earn district or state honors and be approved by 50 percent of the coaching staff.
John Sutten and Nicki Aerni were named the U.S. Marine Corps distinguished athletes.
Hayley Cole and Colton Cooley were named the U.S. Army Scholar Athlete.
Cooley and Dani Thireault earned the school’s Moe awards.
The Greg Hagle Memorial Scholarship award went to Tim Faulconer.
Cooley received the Sweet Home Alumni Foundation Norm Davis Memorial Scholarship.
Faulconer and Bethany Emmert received the Larry Johnson Sportsmanship Award.
Julia Henthorne received the Kenneth J.H. Sitton Award.
Gagner, Faulconer, Tagle and Hannah Swanson received the Husky award for participating in three sports all four years of high school.
Sweet Home High School graduate Dan Borresen told senior athletes that it was his coaches and the Sweet Home community who taught him what he needed to know to be successful not just on the field but in life.
Borresen teaches English at McNary High School and coached tennis and volleyball. He graduated from Western Oregon University in 1994. He played football for Willamette University.
“Twenty-three years ago, I sat out where you folks are, and my biggest concern was whether my hair was feathered and parted correctly,” Borresen said, but sports was also the most poignant classroom, a place where athletes experience emotions they will never have in a regular classroom.
“It prepares you for the real stuff down the road,” Borresen said, and “I wouldn’t be here if it was for this community.”
He could talk about his strength and ability to overcome adversity, he said, but in reality it was people like Coach Bruce West, who was in attendance; others like Alan Temple, Debbie Temple, Rob Younger; and several others.
“Alan Temple, (who is to this day the most organized man I have ever met in my life and) who called me on my laziness in front of the entire class,” Borresen said. “You learn lessons from these people. “Rob Younger over there who was, at times, my Dad as he worked me through my weaknesses and things I had to overcome.…
“You have no idea how special Sweet Home is.”
It was Sweet Home that gave him opportunities to rise up, he said. “I didn’t understand what those opportunities were, but I use them in my life every day.”
Borresen told the seniors to remember the impact their community and coaches have had on their lives.
He challenged the seniors to take care of their opportunities. He said it takes courage and guts to be an athlete. He asked them to use that and parley it into something more. He told them to be something bigger than they are and change lives.