Hall of Fame Dinner a success for Merced

Merced High School’s second Hall of Fame Dinner went off without a hitch Saturday night, as the Bears’ family welcomed 20 new inductees.

Athletic director Paul Hogue added a nice touch this year by handing out orange blazers to the inductees.

“All the inductees walked in together wearing their orange blazers, and they all got a big cheer as they entered the building,” Hogue said. “That was pretty cool. You could identify the inductees all night because they wore the orange blazers. We had about 12 inductees from last year who came back, and we gave them orange blazers, too.”

About 600 people attended, including racing legend Richard Petty. The all-time NASCAR wins leader is friends with Merced High Hall of Fame inductee Greg Hostetler. Petty was in California over the weekend for the NASCAR event in Fontana, so he traveled to Merced for the event.

“He took pictures, shook hands and signed autographs for everybody who wanted one,” Hogue said. “He was really laid back.”

Hogue learned Friday that Petty would attend, but he tried to keep it quiet.

“I let some people know, but I was afraid if it got out that we’d have a mass uptick in ticket sales and I already had a set number for our caterer,” Hogue said. “I was a little worried if people knew Richard Petty was coming we’d sell more tickets than we had meals. It was kind of a treat for everyone who already bought tickets.”

The dinner also serves as a fundraiser to improve the school’s athletic facilities.

Attendees were able to see an architectural rendition of the football stadium Merced High hopes to build on campus.

Construction for the new gymnasiums at Merced and Atwater High are scheduled to begin in May. Hogue said the construction is expected to take nine to 12 months to complete.

Merced girls soccer forfeits seven games – The Merced girls soccer team was forced to forfeit six nonconference wins and a tie for using an ineligible player.

The error was caught before the start of Central California Conference play, so the Bears are still 2-0 in the CCC.

“We played an ineligible player,” Hogue said. “It’s not the coach’s fault. It’s an athletic department issue.”

Merced forfeited victories over Atwater, Galt, Mountain House, Chavez, Livingston and El Capitan and a tie against Central Valley. The Bears are now 2-9 overall.

Merced reported the mistake to the Sac-Joaquin Section last week. Hogue said the players took the news well.

“The girls were really positive, and our coach (Megan Atoigue) handled it well,” Hogue said. “They knew about it before league started and still started strong. I think it kind of fired them up. They know it happened, and there is nothing they can do about it. I think they want to go out and prove they earned those wins.”

First CCC track center meet today – The first of three Central California Conference Center track and field meets will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Atwater High.

The second center meet will be at Golden Valley on April 13 and the third at Turlock on April 27.

The CCC Championships will be May 7 at Atwater.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Hall of Fame Dinner a success for Merced."