AURORA – The Colorado High School Activities Association celebrated its 35th Hall of Fame ceremony by officially inducting its Class of 2023 into the CHSAA Hall of Fame Tuesday night at the DCSD Legacy Campus.
This eight-member group, consisting of Jan Anderson, the late Vincent Jackson, Mike Pallotto, Jane Silver, Al Snyder, Al Snyder, Sue Snyder and Abby Waner Bartolotta, embodies the core values of the Association along with its vision of seeking excellence in academics, activities, and athletics.
In addition to the inductees, CHSAA also recognized four special award winners, with Monica Abelein being named the Tom “The Bomb” Robinson Award, Don Stone and Rick Hertzke as the Bert Borgmann Distinguished Service Award winners and Erika James-Bouwmeester as the Rhonda Blanford-Green Impact Award winner.
Meet the Hall of Fame Inductees
Abby Waner Bartolotta (ThunderRidge) – As one of the most talented girls’ basketball players in the state, Abby Waner Bartolotta led her ThunderRidge Grizzlies to three Class 5A Championships. Waner Bartolotta’s 27 points per game led to her becoming Colorado’s second-ranked scorer all-time. A National Girls High School Basketball Player of the Year and two-time Ms. Colorado Basketball winner, she took her basketball accolades and her 3.9 GPA to Duke University, where she scored 1,400 career points for the Blue Devils.
“This is incredibly meaningful,” Bartolotta said. “I think the older you get, you can start to look back on your career with a less critical eye and learn to be grateful for all the really incredible things that you got to experience. This also makes me reflect on the sheer number of people that helped me along the way that are just as equally deserving of tonight as I am.”
Vincent Jackson (Widefield) – As a straight-A student, this Widefield High School football standout was a Colorado Springs all-area and first-team all-conference pick. After being accepted to Columbia University, Vincent Jackson chose instead to attend the University of Northern Colorado. He had a highly successful college career at UNC and was then drafted by the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.
“This one is special,” Terence Jackson, father of the late Vincent Jackson, said. “This is high school. To recognize him while he was still that young, in high school, and to acknowledge all the accomplishments and achievements he made during that time here, in the state of Colorado, it’s just phenomenal.”
Linda Witt (University) – During her tenure as the girl’s gymnastics coach (1979-1993), Linda Witt led the Bulldogs to 10 Class 3A State Gymnastics titles and five runner-up finishes. Along the way, Witt earned many coaching honors, including runner-up for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (1994), Colorado Sportswoman of the Year (1985), and the Gatorade “Coach Who Cares” Award (1993).
“This is absolutely magical,” Witt said. “It is a privilege beyond anything I expected or ever hoped for, and I just really appreciate all the wonderful people I’ve been able to surround myself with. People helped get me here. It takes a village and I am blessed to be part of the village I had a career with and was able to exercise my passion of teaching and coaching with. It’s absolutely amazing.”
Jane Silver (Mancos) – Described by many as a perfectionist, Jane “Janey” Silver worked tirelessly for nearly 30 years. In that time, the Mancos Marching Blue Jays won the Colorado Bandmasters Association (CBA) State Marching Band contest three consecutive years. Silver’s band is still considered the “Pride of the Mancos Valley.”
“Jane was one of the major proponents of women’s sports,” Erica Holm, one of Silver’s former students, said. “When she came to Mancos, there weren’t even girls sports. But she worked to build this huge sense of community. Everybody was working towards this main goal, and when we finally achieved it under her, we weren’t band geeks, we were state champs. And, we were the first state champs our high school ever got to have. I think she would just be floored and amazed that all these years later that we’ll remember her and that people want to remember that time in our lives and that time that she got to accomplish what she worked so hard for.”
Mike Pallotto (Roosevelt) – After graduating from Lakewood High School and the University of Northern Colorado, Mike Pallotto entered the teaching profession at Roosevelt High School where he was taught until his retirement. As the school’s wrestling coach, the team won three state championships, finished second seven times, and third three times. Pallotto coached 33 state champions and 11 All-Americans.
“CHSAA itself is just a great organization, so, when you can get inducted into something like CHSAA, it means the world,” Pallotto said. “I’ve done this for my whole life, so this is a special night for me.”
Al Snyder (Simla) – Al Snyder started and ended his long-time coaching career with the girls basketball team at Simla. He spent his first two years as the assistant coach before resuming the head coaching duties. His 1987 team made their first appearance in the state tournament and they’ve been regulars ever since, winning the title in 1996 and 2010, and finishing as runners-up in 1997 and 1998. He and his wife, Sue, were both inducted together.
“This is fantastic,” Al Snyder said. “You never think about this when you’re going through coaching and teaching and all the things that you do, but this is a fantastic accomplishment. I can’t think of another word that would describe it any better than that. To be honored like this with all the people that have been here before me, it’s humbling.”
Sue Snyder (Simla) – A Miami-Yoder graduate, Sue Snyder played volleyball and basketball for Northeastern Junior College and Adams State College before taking over the Simla volleyball team. Over the course of 24 years at Simla, she won more than 500 games, captured two state titles – in 1994 and 1996 – and finished as the state runners-up four times. She and her husband, Al, were both inducted together.
“It was such a shock to receive the award and it was such a humbling experience, it’s even hard to describe,” Sue Snyder said. “For nearly four decades we competed at the CHSAA events and we always used that as our standard as to where to get to, so to go into the Hall of Fame makes me feel very honored. I’m really appreciative and I think it’s a representation for our school and all the kids that we coached, all the people that helped us along the way and our assistant coaches. It’s been a great honor.”
Jan Anderson (Denver East) – As a teacher, Jan Anderson filled roles outside of her regular teaching duties as the school’s yearbook adviser, Student Council sponsor, and Cheer sponsor. Upon her retirement, that strong desire to serve continued as Anderson has been a mainstay. For the past 35 years, she has served as a CHSAA official for boys and girls swim, has spent 25 years as a statistician for the CHSAA Boys and Girls State Basketball Tournament, and has volunteered for a variety of other sports.
“The biggest thing is, I’m following in my father’s footsteps,” Anderson said. “My father is also in the Hall of Fame, which, I think, is pretty special, to have a father and a daughter go in. He was far more important, because he was very, very well known. But, for me to go in is extremely special. It also means a great deal because I feel like I had an opportunity to represent a lot of students, and my job as an an official and my job, for a very short period of time, as a coach, just really gave me an opportunity to do a lot. And, I enjoyed everything I did. So this just helps bring it full circle.”
Meet the Special Award Winners
Don Stone and Rick Hertzke: Bert Borgmann Distinguished Service Award winner – Don Stone is a member of the inaugural class of the Lloyd Gaskill Athletic Hall of Fame after being a three-year letterman in basketball at the University of Northern Colorado, while Rick Hertzke was an all-conference basketball and baseball player at Greeley West High School before going to Colorado State University, where he was a three-year letterman in baseball and team MVP. For the past 20 years, Stone and Hertzke have served as team hosts and scorekeepers for the CHSAA state basketball tournaments.
“I’m humbled,” Stone said. “It’s nice to be recognized, but that’s not why we do it. We do it because we enjoy it. We appreciate everybody’s contribution to this honor for us.”
“The neat part of it is it’s the ‘Bert Borgmann Award’,” Hertzke added. “We worked with Bert a lot in baseball, and some basketball, but a lot of baseball stuff, where we volunteer. So that makes it even more special.”
Monica Abelein: Tom “The Bomb” Robinson Award winner – For over 55 years, Monica Abelein has been an active member of the Colorado swimming and diving community, as a competitor, coach, official and meet director. Over the course of her incredible officiating career, she has been selected to officiate 50 CHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships – including 41 as Head Deck Referee – and has served two terms as the Colorado State Swim & Dive Rule Interpreter and was a member of the NFHS Swim & Dive Rules Committee from 2019 to 2023. The officials Education and Training Coordinator, she was the 2016 recipient of the CHSAA Distinguished Service Award and was inducted into the Jefferson County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
“Tom was one of my mentors and I worked with Tom for 20 years,” Abelein said. “This is like the pinnacle for me. We never get into these things for awards later on in life, but this means more to me than you can imagine. It really does. If you knew Tom, you knew the meaning of the words humility and passion. You know, he was just a man of all men and I can’t be more honored than I am right now.”
Erika James-Bouwmeester: Rhonda Blanford-Green Impact Award winner – Erika James-Bouwmeester started her work with high school sports at 19 when she was tasked with typing up basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and tennis box scores and stats for the Pueblo newspaper. Since then, James-Bouwmeester has served CHSAA in a variety of roles, serving as a media liaison at multiple state championship events, as a committee member for the CHSAA Tennis and Volleyball committees, as a tournament director for the 3A Girls Tennis Championships, and as the head of technology at the CHSAA State Volleyball Championships, where she organized close to 100 scorekeepers, timers and volunteers.
“This means a lot, considering that I’ve been volunteering for CHSAA over the last 20 years,” James-Bouwmeester said. “I’m also really honored it’s the ‘Rhonda Blanford-Green Award’. She was the first person that I met when I started working with CHSAA and, ever since then, she’s been really supportive, as well as the entire CHSAA staff, to take me under their wing and teach me all the things that they know and continue to champion me as I move through my career. So, I’m really really happy about it.”