Monte Vista High School honors outstanding alumni with fourth Hall of Fame inductees

High school sports is a tradition, and around it is built a celebrated community of friends and neighbors coming together around fields, courts and swimming pools to create and foster brighter futures for students. Monte Vista embraces the value of the entire community that is Monte Vista past and present each year by inducting alumnus in all curriculum of studies into its own Hall of Fame.

High school sports is a tradition, and around it is built a celebrated community of friends and neighbors coming together around fields, courts and swimming pools to create and foster brighter futures for students. Monte Vista embraces the value of the entire community that is Monte Vista past and present each year by inducting alumnus in all curriculum of studies into its own Hall of Fame.

On October 6-7, 2017, Monte Vista High School celebrated that heritage with their Fourth Annual Hall of Fame induction prior to this Friday night’s homecoming game and then on Saturday at its Monte Vista Hall of Fame inductee banquet. Not only do the honored inductees honor as best of Monte Vista, but are also recognized for their commitment and dedication to the campus community. On the field, about half an hour before the game clock began, 2017’s Hall of Fame inductees were marched onto the field and presented with plaques to be recognized in front of the Monte Vista community. After the ceremony, the Monarchs football team took the field and slaughtered the Mt. Miguel Matadors 35-0.

“It means the world to us,” said Liz Liljestrom, a member of the Hall of Fame committee. “They’ve given back to Monte Vista in support of our students. For them to come back and be recognized for the great things they’ve done, not only for Monte Vista but also for the community, is just beyond anything I could say.”

Friday night with the homecoming football game, from the parking lot gates to the last stand of the homecoming carnival above the stadium, the grounds were packed with Monarch students, alumni and family.

This year’s class includes four-time CIF wrestling champion Dan Kida, San Diego Police Department detective Tim Faubel, former water polo and swim coach Phil Poist, pediatrics doctor Trevor Henderson, former Major League Baseball player Brooks Conrad, and local football coaching legend Ed Carberry.

Each inductee has merited the honor by some measure of outstanding performance in or service to the community, said Hall of Fame Committee Chairman Maribeth Bostick. Henderson, for example, has been named one of San Diego Magazine’s Top Doctors for 10 consecutive years, and Poist was named to San Diego’s Hall of Champions in 2006 for his contributions as a coach and an athletic director. 

Many of the inductees went on to coach elsewhere after their time at Monte Vista as students or as coaches. Kida coached at San Jose State University, as well as local high schools Valhalla and Steele Canyon, and even worked with a US Olympic Team Alternate. Carberry continued his coaching career at Southwestern College where he has the second highest win record of any SWC football coach to date. 

The nomination process is done entirely by the community.

“Each year we see the people who are nominated and we are in awe,” said Liljestrom. “Some of them we kept track of and we know and others, they just come out, nominated by someone, and we are in awe of the things they have done.”

Bostick said this is the first year previous inductees have gotten involved in putting on the event. 

“It’s growing,” said Bostick. “This year was our biggest year. We know what the tradition and history of the school and it’s important to us and it’s important to them.”

The induction ceremony was held Saturday night, providing an opportunity for family and friends to join the honorees in the commemorative event in a more intimate setting.

At the banquet Kida, Class of 1969 was presented by Monte Vista wrestling Coach Bill Clauder, who started teaching a junior wrestling program with the La Mesa Recreation Department. It was there he first met Dan Kida, a third grader. After starting coaching at Monte Vista, Kida came into his wrestling program in 1966 as a freshman.

“He was a sophomore CIF champion, a junior CIF champion, a senior CIF champion and compiled an unbelievable 44-0 in four years at weight,” he said. “He went on to Santa Fe State where he took fourth in the nation. Danny Kida was probably, if not the best kid I ever had, was at the top.”

Tim Faubel is one of the most decorated officers to serve the San Diego Police Department in the past 30 years. He worked patrol, SWAT, Narcotics, Special Investigation Unit/Fugitive Apprehensions, Homicide and the Criminal Investigations Unit. Class of 1977, Faubel played football four years, 1st team all CIF as center and Grossmont League Lineman of the year in 1977. He also had a strong reputation as a Monarch wrestler and baseball player for four years.

Mitch Muhelman called him lucky to have Faubel on his team as a linebacker during his first season coaching at Monte Vista and blessed to have known him since. “Tim is a hero to me because he has risked his life for over 30 years to make sure that we can live safe,” he said.”

He further quoted SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman who said, “There is not a single officer in my time with the department that exhibited greater professionalism, dedication to his work, dedication to his fellow officers and the safety of the public we serve.”

Dr. Trevor Henderson was honored for his dedication to academic success. His involvements in Monte Vista lead him to be recognized as the Senior Standout of Most Likely to Succeed. He was also Valedictorian for the Class of 1988. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Cell Biology and Medical Degree from UCSD. His specialization is Pediatrics, practices in East County and named one of San Diego Magazine’s Top Doctors for 10 consecutive years.

Eric Wilson, a graduate of 1988 and now teacher at Monte Vista said he met Henderson in seventh grade and saw the focus that he had towards academics that is so rare. He knew whatever he would decide to do in life, Wilson said he knew that Wilson would succeed. “If I could bottle that guy and give the better elixir that he’s got to every single teenager that I have, I would be teacher of the year,” he said.

Henderson said he was honored that he was honored with all of the athletes and that he looked at himself as an academic athlete. He said more than the honor he was happy to have his family and friends of the Class of 1988 still in his life and by his side. “Lifelong friends have been invaluable,” he said.

Class of 1998 Brooks Conrad began his career at Monte Vista as a four-year starting varsity baseball player, the 1998 First-Team All-CIF, and CIF Co-Player of the Year. He continued his baseball career at Arizona State University and then drafted by the Houston Astros and went on to play 16 years professionally. He is currently the Single Season and All Time MLB Record Holder for Game Winning Pinch Hit Grand Slams.

Mark Smellco said that they realized early on that Conrad was a professional and could make it into the big league. “We were one of the best baseball teams in San Diego County because of Brooks,” he said.

“I’m just a guy who loved to play the game of baseball and was blessed and lucky enough to fulfill my childhood dreams by playing in the big leagues,” said Conrad. “All of you here tonight have had great impacts on my life.”

Phil Poist ended his teaching and coaching careers at Monte Vista, coaching 30 years. He saw his teams win more than 72 percent of their contest, winning four Grossmont League titles. He was instrumental to the introduction of Girl’s Water Polo and Golf Programs. As an athletic director, his programs won the Clarkson Trophy in 1993 and 1994 and named into the San Diego Hall of Champions in 2006 for his contributions as a coach and athletic director.

Tim Lindley said he’s known Poist for nearly 50 years, he was his teacher and coach when he went to Monte Vista, later working with him as a teacher, coach and athletic director. “He’s given life to so many students,” he said. “Not only his water polo critters, but his geography students and all his other students. I call it education ease, and a term that we came up later, student centered. He truly is a student centered professional. He was always about the students.”

Carberry, who began his coaching career at Monte Vista in 1989, said several of his players flew in to help him celebrate the weekend. During his time with the Monarchs, Carberry’s teams won seven league championships, two CIF titles and won more than 100 games. Carberry said he gets a couple of Monte Vista players at Southwestern College every season.

“It’s been a lot of years,” he said, shortly after receiving his plaque on the 30 yard line of the Monarch football field. “I can still look out there and see all of the players running from all of the years.”