Four Inductees Named to GLVC Hall of Fame
INDIANAPOLIS – A three-time All-American pole vaulter, a league Player of the Year and first-team All-American, a two-time National Soccer Player of the Year, and a dedicated servant to covering college athletics, have been elected for induction to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Hall of Fame, it was announced by the Conference office Thursday.
The GLVC’s Class of 2018 inductees include University of Indianapolis women’s basketball and volleyball standout Courtney (Sands) Gault, Missouri S&T multi-event specialist Peter Hollenbeck, Northern Kentucky University soccer star Steven Beattie, and longtime Kentucky Wesleyan College sports information director (SID) Roy Pickerill.
The GLVC Hall of Fame Class of 2018 will be honored at the Enterprise/GLVC Spring Awards Banquet at the Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Louis on Tuesday, May 22.
Courtney (Sands) Gault began her tenure at UIndy as the GLVC Newcomer of the Year in 1990 and finished her senior season at UIndy as the 1992-93 GLVC Player of the Year and a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association first-team All-American. She was the leading scorer and rebounder on the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament team in 1992-93. That squad, which was inducted in the UIndy Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008, compiled an impressive 24-4 overall record. Six years prior, Gault was a 2002 UIndy Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. She is also the only Greyhound to lead the team in blocked shots all four seasons and holds the school record for most career blocks (188). She ranks second on the school’s all-time rebounding list (929) and sixth overall in scoring (1,527). In addition to basketball, Gault was an accomplished volleyball standout, having earned All-Conference and the Greyhounds’ team MVP distinction in 1993.
Peter Hollenbeck captured the 2009 and 2010 GLVC Championship in the decathlon and was recognized as the GLVC Field Athlete of the Year following the 2010 GLVC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He was just the third individual in league history to win the decathlon in consecutive years. Hollenbeck was a three-time All-American in the pole vault, with his top finish coming at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships, as he placed fourth with a clearance of 17-0¾ in the event. He took sixth at the 2008 national meet and tied for eighth at Indoors in 2009.  Hollenbeck also finished 11th at the 2010 outdoor meet. He earned All-GLVC honors in all four outdoor seasons from 2007-10 and his final three indoor track campaigns from 2008-10. He finished second in the pole vault in 2010, as well as third in 2008 and 2009 and fifth in 2007, while taking sixth in the heptathlon in 2010. Peter also had second-place performances in the outdoor pole vault in all four seasons in which he competed, and added a third place finish in the javelin in 2010 and a seventh place showing in that event in 2009.
Steven Beattie is arguably the most decorated soccer player in both NKU and GLVC history, earning two Daktronics National Player of the Year honors in 2008 and 2010 and NSCAA National Player of the Year accolades in 2010. As a senior, he led NKU to a 20-2-3 season and the 2010 National Championship – the only national title earned by a GLVC soccer program. He earned GLVC Offensive Player of the Year laurels and Daktronics and NSCAA All-Region and All-American accolades during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons. The forward finished his career as a four-time All-GLVC performer, having led the Norse to a 72-13-9 record and a 42-6-4 mark in GLVC play. He netted 184 points and 77 goals during his time on campus. In 2010, Beattie was the only NCAA Division II player invited to the Major League Soccer (MLS) Combine, and was later drafted as the 13th overall selection by Toronto FC. He currently plays professionally for Cork City FC in Ireland, where he won the 2016 FAI Cup. Beattie, who still owns nine single-season and six career school records, was inducted into the NKU Hall of Fame in 2017.
Roy Pickerill’s service at Kentucky Wesleyan has spanned 46 years, 29 of which were as the Panthers’ sports information director. His 35 years in the GLVC is one of the longest tenures for an administrator in league history. He was the Conference’s second SID from 1980-83 and was recognized in 2014 as the GLVC Thomas Kearns Service Award recipient. Pickerill retired from his campus SID post on Dec. 31, 2016, and has since worked for KWC as sports information director emeritus and special assistant for college relations. In addition to his service with the GLVC, Pickerill served as the first president of the Division II Sports Information Directors Association from 2006-09. He is in his 25th season managing the media coordination for the NCAA Division II Elite Eight Men’s Basketball Championship. The GLVC’s top honor is not the first to come Pickerill’s way. On campus, his alma mater accorded him the Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1994, the highest honor for an alumnus. He was then inducted into the Kentucky Wesleyan College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2012, and later in its Athletic Hall of Fame in May 2015. The College Sports Information Directors of America inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1999. Pickerill also received the prestigious CoSIDA Warren Berg Award, presented to a college division member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of sports information, in 1998. CoSIDA presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award in June 2017.
The 2018 GLVC Hall of Fame Class will be the 17th class to be inducted since the establishment of the honor in 2002. With the inclusion of the Class of 2018 in May, the GLVC Hall of Fame membership will expand to 76 former administrators, coaches, and student-athletes.
