DCC Announces 6th Class of Hall of Fame Inductees

Dawson Community College Athletics will be inducting its next class into the Athletics Hall of Fame on January 25-26th. This will be the sixth class to be inducted. Track star John Beard, men’s basketball standout Matt Preusser, softball teammates Trish Halvorsen and Tawnya Vernon, and the Lady Bucs basketball teams from 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 will be honored at a banquet at the DCC Toepke Center on January 25th and during a home basketball game on January 26th. The Hall of Fame is part of DCC’s mission to foster a culture of excellence, and the college is excited to honor the individuals and teams who have achieved excellence in athletics over the past 65 years. Montana Broadcasting legend, Rocky Erickson, will be the Master of Ceremonies for the weekend.

A committee of six members, made up of former DCC coaches, student-athletes, supporters and administrators, reviewed and deliberated over the nominations and came to the final consensus. DCC Athletic Director Joe Peterson bragged about this class. “It brings me great joy to be a part of honoring such well deserving individuals. Some of these inductees I’ve known for the past 30 years and others I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in just the past couple of months. I love the brotherhood and sisterhood that comes from DCC. There is a connection that brings all of us Buccaneers together, and that is our love for DCC, the great experiences we’ve had and what that experience has done for our lives. Beard destroyed the competition on track in our conference and region for his two years here. Preusser was an incredibly hard-working and talented individual who produced night in and night out. Halvorsen and Vernon were the best players on some of the best softball teams Dawson produced in the first 10 years of the program. And the two Lady Bucs basketball teams of the mid-90’s won 21 games each year and went far in the postseason. It is so much fun to hear the stories and celebrate their success!”.

Anyone interested in purchasing tickets for the Hall of Fame Banquet on the evening of January 25 th can do so online here. Tickets are $50 each. The banquet will be held at the Toepke Center on the campus of Dawson Community College. Bravera Bank is a partial sponsor of the Buccaneer Athletics Hall of Fame. You can also be a part of honoring these great Buccaneer Legends by making a tax deductible financial contribution to help to offset the costs of the banquet and other costs associated with our Hall of Fame Weekend. To donate to the Hall of Fame, you can click here.

Inductees

Beard ran track at Dawson from 1964-1966. While he was attending Dawson County High School, DCC
Track coach Donald Kettner invited him to become a Buccaneer and Beard chose to stay home for his
first two years of college.

Through his exploits, Beard helped the Buccaneers win the Regional in 1965 against nine other teams,
racking up a total of 70 points to outpace the defending champion, Worthington. Beard led all individual
scorers in the Regional with a record 20 points, garnering three first place finishes and two second place
finishes. He won the 100 yard dash, running it in 10.1 seconds which tied the regional record. He set
another regional record in the 180 yard low hurdles with a time of 19.8 seconds. He finished 2nd in the
120 yard high hurdles and the 220 yard dash. Beard was also a part of the winning 880 yard relay team.
In 1966, the Buccaneers won the first ever Mon-Dak Conference title by garnering 11 first place finishes
and scoring in all of the other events to trounce their competition. Beard finished #1 in the 120 yard
high hurdles, 180 yard low hurdles, 440 yard relay and #2 in the 100 yard dash. In that same year, they
also won their 2nd straight Region XIII championship by scoring 74.5 points which was double the points
the runners-up earned. Beard once again won the 100 yard dash with a region record 10.0 seconds, and
he won the 180 yard low hurdles with another region record 19.4 seconds.

After Dawson, Beard transferred and competed at Central Washington State College where he starred
for the Wildcats in the 100 yard dash and relays. He won first place in the NAIA District 1. Beard then
taught and coached for over 30 years in the central Washington area and later became an adjunct
professor at Central Washington University.

Beard is retired and lives in Wenatchee, WA. He has one daughter and three grandchildren.

Matt Preusser

Preusser was a Buccaneer legend in the early 1990’s. The 6’2 do-everything guard was recruited by Don
Mast from Horizon High School in Scottsdale, AZ and he made an immediate impact during his freshman
year. In one of his first college games, he scored 17 points on 5-6 field goals and 7-7 free throws to go
along with 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals in a big win over Casper College. Preusser was a triple
double threat who filled up the stat sheet every game he played. As a freshman, he scored 14 points a
game on 54% shooting, averaging nearly 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals a game. He also was selected
to the Mon-Dak All-Conference Second team.

In his sophomore year, Preusser’s numbers and impact increased. His first game that year he put up 32
points on 15-23 field goals while grabbing 12 rebounds, dishing out 11 assists and getting 11 steals to
post a rare quadruple double. In their second game, he had a triple double with 12 points, 10 rebounds
and 11 assists. He was named the Mon-Dak Conference Co-Player of the Year. He was also named All-
Region IX, the first player of Coach Mast’s to receive that honor. The last All-Region player for Dawson
was eight years prior. He scored 17 points a game on 55% shooting from the field along with 6 

rebounds, 8 assists and 3.8 steals per game in his sophomore year. He led all of Region IX in steals and
was second in assists.

After Dawson, Preusser signed with Division I University of Texas Pan-American, but eventually landed at
MSU-Billings where he was a key part of two teams that went 41-15, won a conference championship
and qualified for the NCAA D2 National Tournament twice. They reached the Sweet 16 in Preusser’s final
year. He averaged double digits both seasons at MSUB and was the team’s leading rebounder.

Preusser also returned to DCC to be an assistant basketball coach for Don Mast for three seasons. In
those three seasons, the Bucs had a winning record each year and reached the Region IX Tournament
Semifinals in two of the seasons. As a coach, he was a relentless encourager and great communicator
who loved to share all of the positives DCC could offer.

Currently, Preusser is a partner in a family owned swimming pool company in Dallas, TX with his brother
and brother-in-law. He is married to his wife Jennie and they have four kids.

Trish Halvorsen Anderson and Tawnya Vernon

 
Halvorsen and Vernon were key contributors on the 2001 Lady Bucs Softball teams that won the district
and finished 3rd place in the NJCAA Division III World Series, Dawson’s first ever World Series team. That
is still the highest finish of any DCC ball team in the athletic department’s history.  The 2001 softball
team finished the season 14-5 vs. NJCAA competition. They won the District Championship before
making a great run at the World Series. 

Coming to Dawson from Billings, Halvorsen was the freshman MVP as a pitcher and third baseman in
2000 and then the sophomore MVP as a catcher in 2001. She won the batting title with a .400 average
and a .715 slugging percentage. In the first ten years of the Lady Bucs Softball program, Halvorsen held
the record for most home runs (8), most RBIs (52) and best slugging percentage (.715) in a season.

Vernon, from Stevensville, MT, was Dawson’s freshman MVP pitcher in 2001. In the first ten years of
softball at DCC, she held records for lowest ERA (1.35), strikeouts (170), win-loss percentage (65%), and
complete game shutouts (6). In 2002, Vernon led the Lady Bucs back to the World Series, finishing in 4th
place nationally.

Vernon and Halvorsen were both selected to the All-Region IX Team, NJCAA District C All-Tournament
team, NJCAA All-Tournament team and as a 2nd team NJCAA All-American.

Halvorsen currently resides in Billings and Vernon lives in Missoula.

1994-1995 and 1995-1996 Women’s Basketball

 

The women’s basketball teams in the mid-90’s went 21-9 for two straight years. Head Coach Joyce Ayre

and assistant coach Rudy Stulc led them all the way to the Final 4 of Region IX before losing to the host

team Western Nebraska in 1995. The following year they got knocked out in the quarterfinals to host
team Casper College.
In the 1994-1995 season, the Lady Bucs went 21-9 on the season, 7-3 in the Mon-Dak Conference and
were 9-1 at home. Local standout Kamee Kunick led the way by averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds a
game while shooting 50% from the field. Freshman Julie Luoma from Red Lodge contributed 11 points
and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 52% from the field and 80% from the free throw line. Both were
named All-Conference and All-Region. Cori Ringwood was named to the Region IX All-Tourney team.
Along with Kunick, Ringwood and Luoma, the team included Melissa Brainard, Misa Carlson, Angie
Johnston, Rachel Jablonski, Julie Lutgen, Julie Lutke, Heather Pepping, Scoti Clingingsmith, Shana
Engellant and managers Valerie Morgan, Ashly Kaholoa'a and Marci Hannesson. The Lady Bucs 

made 46 more 3-pointers than their opponents on the year and outrebounded their opponents by 228.

They also averaged 18 assists and got 13.6 steals a game.

In the 1995-1996 season, Luoma had another great season averaging 11.8 points and 6.2 rebounds while
shooting 51% from the field and 81% from the free throw line. Rocky transfer Sabrina McQuinn
averaged 11.5 points and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 46% from the field. Luoma and McQuinn were
named All-Conference. Another hometown girl, Scoti Clingingsmith, led the team with 12.6 points per
game. Clingingsmith was selected to the Region IX All-Tournament team. Besides Luoma, McQuinn and
Clingingsmith, other sophomores included Brainard, Carlson, Johnston and Lutgen. The freshmen who
joined the squad were Devona Lambert, Jaime Grubb, Rhea Duncan, Anna Erickson, Lynell Willems and
Cari Murnion. The Lady Bucs shot almost 70% from the free throw line and 35% from the 3-point line.
They outrebounded their opponents by 179 rebounds and had 220 more assists.

Kunick finished her two years at Dawson with the most rebounds in Lady Bucs history (363) and the
most field goals attempted (749). Luoma ranks second all-time in field goal percentage for a career
(50%) and second in career free throw percentage (80%) along with her teammates Carlson and Duncan.
Lutke is still Dawson’s all-time leader in assists with 226 for her career. Carlson is second with 210.

For more information on the Dawson Community College Athletic Hall of Fame, visit
https://dawsonbucs.com/sports/ hof/index or contact Joe Peterson at 406-377-9459 or
jpeterson@dawson.edu.