Former football head coach Rob Smith and the 2008 softball team highlight the 2023 Cal Poly Humboldt Hall of Fame class.

The class will be inducted at a special ceremony at Baywood Golf and Country Club on Oct. 27 and also includes Austin Bryan (men’s basketball, 2012-15), Kate Eilers (women’s track and field, 2013-15), Molly Fisher (rowing, 2009-12), Brett Frydendahl (football, 2009-12) and Mariah Smither (rowing, 2013-16). 

The 2008 softball team was coached by legendary coach Frank Cheek and won the NCAA Division II National Championship in Houston, Texas, without losing a game during the tournament. 

The team also won the West Regional Championship and the coaching staff was named the NFCA/NCAA Division II National Coaching Staff of the Year. 

Hall of Famers from this team include Cheek, assistant coach Shelli Sarchett, Marissa Slattery, Lizzy Prescott, Nikki Ketteringham and Natalie Galletly.

Smith, meanwhile, served as head coach of the Humboldt football team from 2008 to 2017 and won two conference championships with the Jacks, while also leading them to a first NCAA playoff appearance since 1968.

Smith will become the third football coach to be inducted into the Jacks Hall of Fame, joining Phil Sarboe and Bud Van Deren. 

Bryan was a 2015 NCAA All-Region Second Team recipient and led the CCAA with 60 three-pointers and a 44.1 three-point percentage that year.

He is seventh all-time in school history in career three-point field goals (164), No. 2 all-time in career free throw percentage (85.4), No. 1 all-time in single-season free throw percentage (90.1 in 2015) and No. 3 all-time in single-season three-point field goals (83 in 2015). 

Eilers, formerly known as Kate Earle, qualified for the Heptathlon at the 2015 NCAA National meet, where she finished 14th in the country for Division II. 

Eilers was named 2015 CCAA Female Track and Field Co-Athlete of the Year, and was a CCAA champion in the 100-meter hurdles (14.22) and the women’s long jump (19 feet, 7 inches). 

Fisher was a member of the first Humboldt women’s rowing national championship team in 2012 and was named an NCAA First Team All-American.

Frydendahl was named a NCAA First Team All-American in 2012 and was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Offensive Linemen of the Year in 2012.

Smither was named a First Team All-American in 2016 and was a member of the 2014 NCAA National Championship team.