Russell among this year’s Maine Basketball Hall of Fame inductees

BANGOR — Penquis Valley High School School and University of Maine star Wally Russell, who also coached in the area for more than two decades, is among 19 inductees who will be part of the fourth induction class of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2017 will be inducted Aug. 20 at the Cross Insurance Center.
Russell had an illustrious career at Penquis Valley and he was named first team All-State in 1973. At the University of Maine, the magician point guard led the Black Bears in assists during the 1976-77 and 1977-78 campaigns.
In more than 20 years coaching the Penquis Valley girl and boys teams and the Piscataquis Community High School boys squad, Russell won more than 200 games. He is currently the head coach of the Penquis Valley Middle School girls.
“This is more of an eclectic group than we’ve had in the past,” said Tony Hamlin — himself a former star on the court at Penquis Valley and the University of Maine who is chair of the Hall of Fame’s selection committee as well as a member of last year’s class — during a Jan. 25 new conference at the Cross Insurance Center. “We’re kind of blending toward getting into the modern era, which is after 1980.”
Joining Russell in the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2017 is Paul Cook, who scored 1,700 points for Lubec High School before serving as a captain at the University of Maine; Terry Carr, who helped Stearns High School of Millinocket to the 1963 New England championship before going on to play at Maine; Bob Cimbollek, who established 11 records while playing at Husson College before embarking on a long career in both officiating and coaching, the latter effort producing five state championships and six Eastern Maine crowns; and Diane Nagle, who helped Houlton High School win four consecutive Eastern Maine championships as well as back-to-back state titles in 1985 and 1986 before going on to Maine.
Also to be inducted are the late Bernard “Bunny” Parady, a coach and administrator in the Mount Desert Island region whose teams totaled 23 tournament appearances, seven regional titles and four state championships in 26 years; Kissy Walker, the former Cony of Augusta and Maine guard who has coached the Husson University women’s basketball team to more than 425 victories in 26 years; and Terry Spurling, who led Ellsworth High School to back-to-back state titles and the 1954 New England championship and went on to play at Maine before coaching at Aroostook Central Institute of Mars Hill and Houlton High School.
Other honorees include longtime former University of Southern Maine women’s basketball coach Gary Fifield, whose teams won 660 games and three national championships; former USM star Tim Bonsant, who went on to coach his alma mater, Erskine Academy of South China, to the 2004 Class B state title; former UMaine-Farmington standout Cameron Brown, the 1978 NCAA Div. III scoring leader; and former Gorham High School and University of New Hampshire women’s basketball star Kelly Butterfield, who later played professionally in Ireland and Australia.
Also to be honored are former York girls basketball coach Rick Clark, who led his teams to 509 victories, four state championships and six regional titles; Derek Counts, who scored more than 2,000 points at Oak Grove-Coburn School in Vassalboro and more than 1,000 points at the University of New Hampshire; and Lewiston’s Dick Giroux, who scored 1,510 points and grabbed 964 rebounds for Husson College from 1967-70.
The Hall of Fame lineup also includes Derrick Hodge, a two-time All-Maine performer at Morse High School of Bath who went on to score 1,206 points at Maine; Cathy Iaconeta, the diminutive point guard who starred at Portland High School who went on to earn all-conference honors at Maine, where she captained the Black Bears to a 23-7 record and an NIT berth in 1990; Tom Maines, who amassed 369 victories during a 30-year coaching career that included three consecutive state championships while at Morse of Bath during the late 1980s; and Jim Stephenson, who set the Maine record for points in a game with 54 in 1969 and also holds the school mark for career scoring average (22.7 ppg).
Set to be honored in the hall’s “Legends” category are former Bangor coach Frederick “Red” Barry, legendary Jonesport-Beals guard Dwight Carver, longtime Augusta middle school coach and sportswriter Gary Hawkins, Bath’s Chick Marchetti, a southern Maine basketball official for more than 40 years; two-time first-team All-Maine guard Tom Pelletier of Fort Kent and Waterville-area broadcaster and sportswriter Bob Woodbury.
Teams to be recognized are the undefeated Class A state champion 1979 South Portland High School boys squad and the 1980 Westbrook High girls team, one of a string of four straight Class A state championship teams from that school.
Ernie Clark of the Bangor Daily News contributed to this story.

2017 Maine Basketball
Hall of Fame inductee
Wally Russell

Bangor Daily News photo/Gabor Degre
HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2017 — Maine Basketball Hall of Fame selection committee Chair Tony Hamlin talks about the people who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame while Class of 2017 inductees including, from right, Dick Giroux, Bob Cimbollek, Kissy Walker, Paul Cook and Wally Russell and Hall of Fame Executive Director Steve Pound listen during a news conference Jan. 25 the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Russell and Hamlin — who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year — are both Penquis Valley High School standouts who took their talents to the University of Maine and later came back to coach and teach at their alma mater.