Seven new inductees earn their spots in Medford Hall of Fame

MEDFORD ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

Homecoming festivities at Medford Area Senior High will include the first inductions into the Medford Athletic Hall of Fame since 2016.

The 2021 class of inductees includes six outstanding student-athletes from the past 25 years as well as a recently-retired head coach.

The new Hall of Fame members will be introduced during halftime of Friday’s homecoming game with Mosinee. A reception will be held after the game at The Sports Page Bowl and Grill.

Michelle Butkus, a 2004 graduate, lettered twice in basketball, was a football manager and participated in volleyball, but she is mainly remembered for her accomplishments on the softball field from 2001-04.

Butkus was a power-hitting shortstop who lettered all four years in the program. She was an All-Lumberjack Conference honorable mention selection as a freshman and a first-team All-Lumberjack choice as a sophomore, junior and senior as well as the Lumberjack’s Player of the Year in 2004. She earned honorable mention All-State as a junior and Academic All-State honors as a senior and played in the Wisconsin Softball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Games. She earned several team awards in her time and she remains the program’s record holder in career batting average at .462.

Butkus helped lead Medford to its first WIAA Division 2 state appearance in 2003 and was a key member of UWEau Claire’s NCAA Division III national championship in 2008.

Kristin (Friedenfels) Lekie was a three-sport standout in volleyball, basketball and softball before graduating in 2003, earning a combined 10 letters and numerous All-Lumberjack Conference honors.

Her top accolades came in volleyball, where she was the Lumberjack Conference Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002 and helped lead Medford to its only WIAA Division 2 state appearance in 2002. Lekie lettered three years in the sport and earned honorable mention in the conference in 2000. She remains the school record holder in block kills with 321 for her career and 138 in the 2002 season and won team awards for Best Passer. In basketball, Lekie lettered all four years and was part of Medford’s 2002 and 2003 WIAA Division 2 state teams. She was a second-team All-Lumberjack choice in her junior and senior years and was Medford’s top rebounder in both years. She got All-Lumberjack honorable mention as a sophomore.

Lekie was a three-year letter winner in softball as an outfielder and was part of the 2003 state team.

Ethan Hemer, a 2009 graduate, excelled as an offensive and defensive lineman with the Medford football program, lettering for three seasons. He was named the Great Northern Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, the first year of the GNC’s existence and a first-team All-GNC offensive and defensive selection. That year, he was also earned first-team All-State honors from the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association and Wisconsin Preps and he was a second-team All-State selection by the Associated Press. He played in the 2009 Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star Game and finished his high school career with 47 tackles for losses and 11 quarterback sacks.

Hemer went on to play with the Wis- consin Badgers from 2009-13, where he was named the Scout Team Defensive Player of the Year in his first fall, became a starter at defensive tackle by the end of his redshirt freshman season and played in three Rose Bowls. He then went through two pre-seasons with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Hemer additionally was a four-year hockey player at MASH, a three-year baseball player and, in his one year of track and field in 2009, he qualified for the WIAA Division 2 state meet in the discus.

Patricia Kloth, a 2004 graduate, was a member of the Medford’s 2004 WIAA Division 2 girls state championship 800-meter relay team and was a four-time state place winner overall. Her younger sister Barb was also on that championship team and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2016. Patricia Kloth also placed at state in the Division 2 100 high and 300 low hurdles as a senior in 2004 and was part of Medford’s Division 1 seventhplace team in the 800-meter relay in 2003. She was part of three Lumberjack Conference championship events in 2003, including both hurdles races.

Kloth also participated in swimming and tennis as a Raider. Thanks to a year spent at Washburn High School, she holds the rare distinction of competing at the state track meet in all three divisions.

Josh Sperl, a 1998 graduate, won eight letters in three sports, including four in wrestling. Sperl went from being Medford’s Most Improved Wrestler in 1995 and earning a Captain’s Award in 1996, to leading the team in takedowns, reversals and near falls and finished second in the WIAA Division 1 145-pound state bracket in the 1996- 97 season. He was one of the leaders on one of Medford’s best-ever teams, the 199798 squad, that came within a point of qualifying for the Division 1 team state tournament. Individually he won the Lumberjack Conference championship and returned to state where he won the 145-pound Division 1 championship.

Sperl was a two-year letter winner in football, where he was a second-team All-Lumberjack Conference defensive back in 1997 and an honorable mention choice in 1996 and once held school records for season kickoff return average (26.2 yards) and kickoff return yards in a game (192). He was a two-year letter winner in baseball and was the team’s co-Most Improved Player in 1998.

Megan Strama, a 2004 graduate, was a standout in track and field and gymnastics and was a four-year letter winner in both.

Strama joined the Kloth sisters and Mallory Zuelsdorff on that WIAA Division 2 state championship 800-meter relay team that beat Columbus by 0.63 seconds in a time of 1:44.81. Strama was part of the 2003 Division 1 state-qualifying 800-meter relay team, the 2004 statequalifying 400-meter team and she qualified for state in the Division 2 long jump in 2004. Strama was also part of several Lumberjack Conference champion relay teams and won the league’s long jump title in 2003.

In gymnastics, Strama qualified for state in two events in 2004, placing sixth in the WIAA Division 2 floor exercise that year with a score of 9.017 and 18th on the balance beam with an 8.217. She remains the school’s record holder with a floor score of 9.375 that was achieved in the 2004 sectional meet and earned multiple team Most Valuable Gymnast awards. Her all-around school record score of 34.8 points stood for 17 years until it was broken this past February.

First-time nominee Dave Vaara earned induction following his retirement from teaching and coaching this past spring. He was the school’s volleyball head coach from 1994 2017. His teams won four Lumberjack Conference titles and back-toback GNC championships in 2015 and 2016. Medford made its lone state appearance in the sport under Vaara in 2002, reached WIAA Division 2 sectional finals in 2001 and 2008 and won additional regional titles in 2009 and 2011. Vaara’s teams won well over 400 matches in his time as head coach.

Vaara was the Medford’s head coach for 22 years, leading the Raiders to GNC titles in 2016 and 2017 as well as Lumberjack Conference titles in 2004, 2006 and 2007 and 12 WIAA Division 2 team sectional appearances, including thirdplace finishes in 2006 and 2017.

Vaara was the girls basketball head coach in the 2016-17 season.

Kristin Lekie

Ethan Hemer

Patricia Kloth

Josh Sperl

Megan Strama

Dave Vaara