Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame inducts another stellar class

It will be a who’s-who collection of former players, coaches and administrators who helped shape the Sac-Joaquin Section into one of the California Interscholastic Federation’s best that will gather Sunday afternoon.

The section’s fourth Hall of Fame ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento will induct six athletes dating to 1914, four coaches, two officials, two media members and three administrators and benefactors.

Pete Saco, the section commissioner for 21 years and a driving force behind the state’s expansion of the football playoff format who also stressed sportsmanship throughout the 190 member schools until his retirement in 2014, will give a speech on behalf of the induction class.

“I’ll talk about all the great things we have in this section, what makes high school sports so special,” Saco said.

Two quarterbacks headline the athlete inductees.

Robbie Bosco of Roseville High excelled in football, basketball and golf in the late 1970s. He later led BYU to the national championship in 1984, when he was third in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Aaron Garcia led Grant to the 1987 city championship game while shattering John Elway’s state records for passing yards with 3,500 yards. Garcia later logged 19 seasons in the Arena Football League, passing for 1,336 touchdowns, more than any quarterback in football history.

Two swimmers will be inducted: Jeff Float of Jesuit won four section titles in the late 1970s before winning Olympic gold in the 1984 Games. Denali Knapp of Davis won five section swimming titles and was later inducted into the Arizona Hall of Fame for being part of national championship relay teams and earning All-America honors 23 times.

The track and field inductees include Lindsay Hyatt of Placer, who won four consecutive state championship 800-meter titles in the 1990s and remains the only section track athlete of either gender to win four state titles in a running event.

Jim Jorgensen, a longtime assigner of referees, and Joe Harper, a track and field starting official for 50 years, are the officials inductees.

The coaches will include Art Banks, whose softball teams at Roseville and Woodcreek won 633 games and four section titles; Dan Carmazzi, who has won 251 football games at Jesuit and Christian Brothers, where he coaches now; Duwaine Ganskie of Bear River, who won eight girls section basketball titles; and the late Mike Takayama of Del Oro, who won a section girls-record 627 basketball games.

Takayama’s family will accept in his behalf.

For more information: cifsjs.org