This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Four former athletes, one coach and two state tournament teams will be inducted into the Marshfield Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024.
Marshfield High School graduates Andie (Varsho) Alexander, Ashley (Jodarski) Panici, C.J. Brock and Oladipo Fagbemi, along with retired teacher and long-time track & field coach Jim Sherburne, and the 1999 football and volleyball teams will be honored at Marshfield’s home football game on Friday, Sept. 20. An induction ceremony will be held at the Marshfield High School Auditorium at 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, with a social to follow at the Elks Club.
Ceremonies begin at 6:40 p.m. on Sept. 20 with the five individuals introduced prior to the Tigers football game at Heiting Community Stadium. The two teams will be honored at halftime.
Alexander (Varsho) was a four-time first-team all-Wisconsin Valley Conference softball performer from 2007-10, earning Player of the Year honors as a junior in 2009. She also earned all-state accolades all four seasons.
She was also a four-time letterwinner in girls tennis and earned three letters in basketball. On the tennis court, Alexander (Varsho) reached the individual state tournament in three-straight seasons, and was part of back-to-back state tournament girls basketball teams while earning all-WVC honors twice.
Alexander (Varsho) went on to play softball collegiately at Purdue University, earning all-Big 10 honors three teams, Academic All-American accolades twice and remains the Boilermakers all-time leader in career hits (272) and batting average (.398). She is currently the Athletics & Activities Director at Stoughton High School.
Panici (Jodarski) played volleyball and softball at MHS prior to graduating in 1999. In volleyball, she was a first-team all-Wisconsin Valley Conference honoree in 1997 and 1998, and a member of Marshfield’s first state tournament team in 1998.
In softball, Panici (Jodarski) helped the Tigers reach the state tournament as well, being named the Wisconsin Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1999 and was a three-time all-WVC performer. She went 15-6 with an ERA of 1.56 pitching in 1998, while also hitting .470 with six home runs and 26 RBI in 1998.
She went on to play softball at St. Cloud State in Minnesota and is currently a paraprofessional for the visually impaired in the Appleton School District.
Brock qualified for the WIAA State Boys Golf Tournament in all four seasons for the Tigers from 1992-95. He was part of two Wisconsin Valley Conference championships and was two-time Division 1 sectional champion (1992 and 1995), while earning top-four finishes at the state tournament in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Brock went on to play collegiately at the University of Wisconsin, where he was a four-year letterwinner and a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. Following college, Brock played on a number of professional tours and is now the CEO of Better Way Medical Group in Fort Worth, Texas, as Founder and CEO of TexAssist Surgical Assist Staffing in Richardson, Texas.
Sherburne taught at Marshfield Junior High/Middle School from Aug. 1969-2000, coached track at the then Junior High from 1970-74, and has been on the high school varsity staff from 1975-1990, and again from 1996 until today.
Sherburne has been instrumental in the growth and success of the track & field programs in the School District of Marshfield and has left a lasting impact on the local track & field community.
Fagbemi, a 2009 MHS graduate, was a two-time state champion at the 2009 WIAA State Track & Field Championships, winning the Division 1 long jump and triple jump titles.
Fagbemi won five Wisconsin Valley Conference individual track titles, and set seven team records.
He also was a standout running back on the football team, and still holds records for most rushing touchdowns in a season with 25 in 2008) and most 200-plus rushing yard games in a season with three that year. He racked up 1,905 yards and had 10 100-yard games in 2008, earning all-conference honors.
Fagbemi went on to the University of Minnesota, where he was a four-year letterwinner on the track team, earning nine top-10 finishes in Big 10 Championship meets. He later went to medical school of the Medical College of Wisconsin and is currently doing a residency in internal medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
The 1999 Marshfield football team finished as the Division 1 runner-up. After going undefeated to reach the WIAA state finals, the Tigers lost to Mequon Homestead 23-13 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
The Tigers, coached by Len Luedtke Sr., was voted as one of the Fox Sports Fab 50 for the 1999 season as one of the top teams in the country.
Tyson Bittrich, Shawn Multerer, Adam Stroik and Ben Will were team captains, with Will and Matt Gorman earning first-team all-state honors from The Association Press, and Stroik, Gorman and Multerer being named first-team all-state by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.
The 1999 girls volleyball team went undefeated without losing a set in the Wisconsin Valley Conference and reached the WIAA state tournament for the second-straight season.
The Tigers finished with a 43-2-1 record as Janelle Tomlinson, Sarah Chronquist and Katie Shookman were named first-team all-WVC. Tomlinson was a second-team all-state pick and Shookman was an honorable mention choice. The team set a program record with a .531 hitting percentage for the season.