Released: February 20 2002
Release #: 0206
Contact: David Eadie,
COA Sports Information Director

Sacramento, CA . . . The Commission on Athletics (COA) will induct four new members into the California Community College Sports Hall of Fame at the 5th Annual COA Convention in Reno, NV. The 2002 inductees are:

Maureen O’Toole, Long Beach City College
Kim Braatz-Voisard, Saddleback College
Thomas Clement, Foothill College (service recipient)
Walter Rilliet, Skyline College/COA (service recipient)

The 19th Annual Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will be held Thursday, March 21 at 11:30 p.m. at the Peppermill Hotel. To purchase tickets for the event, please print, complete and return the convention registration form available at www.coasports.org. Tickets are $40 prior to March 1, and $45 after March 1. Tickets will be on sale until March 20th and will not be available on the day of the banquet.

Maureen O’Toole, Long Beach City College
Regarded by some as the greatest female water polo layer of all time, Maureen O’Toole had waited two decades for an opportunity to play in the Olympics. She finally got her chance, as women’s water polo made its debut at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, where she led her squad to a silver medal. She started playing water polo during the swimming off-season at age thirteen. She started playing on the boys’ team at age 15. She played at Long Beach City College on the men’s team for national team coach Monte Nitzkowski. She then attended the University of Hawaii on a swimming scholarship, as there wasn’t much opportunity at that time to play collegiate water polo. O’Toole played in the national team from 1977 until 1991 when she left to have her daughter, Kelly. After only a three-year break, O’Toole was back in shape and playing at the ’94 world championships. She then retired thinking there was no future for women’s water polo in the Olympics. In 1998, it was announced that women’s water would be added as an Olympic sport, so Maureen got back in the pool and played in the 1998 world championships. She has been playing ever since and devotes a large amount of her time to tutoring and coaching young water polo and swimming athletes. She has coached at Rio Hondo College and UC, Berkeley, as well.

Kim Braatz-Voisard, Saddleback College
Kim Braatz-Voisard was born in Santa Ana, grew up in Costa Mesa and, at age five, began playing softball. She enrolled and starred at Saddleback College before transferring to the University of New Mexico, where she earned All-America honors. She continued her career professionally in northern Italy and competed in the World Cup in Nice, France. In 1994, Kim accepted an offer to play professional baseball with the fledgling Colorado Silver Bullets, the only women’s professional baseball team to play against professional men’s teams. In 1996, she became the first female to hit an out-of-the-park homerun against an all-star team in Cape Cod, MA. She finished that historic season as one of the team’s biggest contributors; she was second on the team in eight offensive categories, including batting, doubles and slugging percentage. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and helps out her husband, Mark, former Rockies pitcher, at Samford University. Kim is also active in church ministry, and travels the world sharing the good news of Jesus Christ through the game of baseball and softball. Mark and Kim have two children, Madison Lee and Franklin.

Thomas Clement, Foothill College
Dr. Thomas H. Clement served a distinguished career in higher education and in the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. In 1994, he retired after 12 years as president of Foothill College and a total of 30 years in top administrative posts in the district. An early advocate for parity among men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic programs, he supported the creation of several women’s programs at Foothill, including softball, water polo and golf. He stressed the importance of academic achievement and the goal of transfer of Foothill athletes, faculty and administrators. Dr. Clement was appointed to the COA Board by the Coast Conference for six years and served as chair for three years. He also focused on human performance and athletic-scholar issues throughout his educational career. Under his leadership, many breakthrough improvements were made in intercollegiate athletics, including the completion of the preamble and introduction to the COA constitution – then known as the Athletic Code; establishment of rules mandating the abolishment of tobacco and other substances in COA-sponsored competitions; adoption of policies strengthening the quality of the student athlete academic performance requirements; and, completion of early research on the ‘Study of Academic Performance of Student Athletes’.

Walter Rilliet, Syline College/COA
Walt Rilliet retired in 1995 as Commissioner of Athletics for the Commission on Athletics, drawing to a close an illustrious career in the field of education that spanned nearly four decades. A native Californian, Rilliet was born and raised in Oakland; he graduated from Oakland High School, where he participated in numerous athletic activities, then earned his Associate in Arts degree from City College of San Francisco. He served in the United States Army, during which time he saw duty in Korea and Japan, and then went on to graduate from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He began his teaching and coaching career in 1958 at San Mateo High School and, in 1969, was named one of the first administrators hired at Skyline College, and for the 13 years following, was the division dean for physical education, athletics, recreation and served as men’s basketball coach. During his tenure at Skyline, he developed the first physical fitness academy, a model replicated at many other community colleges, and in 1981, left Skyline to become the first state commissioner of the COA. He developed the 11-chapter State Athletic Code and scholar athlete and team awards programs, was active with various NCAA committees’ and was instrumental in developing the COA’s initial sponsorship program. His contributions to the word’s largest system of intercollegiate athletics have been invaluable.

For more information on the COA Annual Convention, and for the latest news, information and updates of all 23 COA sanctioned sports, please visit www.coasports.org.

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