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The Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Athletic Hall of Fame will be
inducting five individuals Saturday evening, October 16 in
the 47th annual Hall of Fame Induction ceremony.
Bill Cover (Pomona 1994, Men’s Basketball), Paul Cross
(Pomona 1990, Men’s Tennis), Christy Doss Hemesath (Pitzer
1991, Women’s Swimming), Brian Forster (Pomona 1994, Men’s
Diving), and Shelley Waterworth Diaz (Pomona 1990, Women’s
Soccer) will be inducted in the ceremony to be held at Frank
Dining Hall at Pomona College.
In addition, the Athletic Hall of Fame will be giving a
special recognition tribute to former assistant football
coach Jesse Cone, who coached the combined Pomona College -
Claremont Men’s College football team for four years from
1953-1956. Dozens of Coach Cone’s former players will meet
this coming weekend to reminisce, as well as watch the
Pomona-Pitzer vs Claremont-Mudd football contest Saturday,
Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. on Pomona’s Merritt Field.
The criteria established for consideration for the Athletic
Hall of Fame include meeting minimal standards in at least
two of the following categories:
1) Consistency: awarded a letter for four years in one
sport, three years or more in two sports, or two years or
more in three sports.
2) Excellence: named or earned position on conference,
regional, national, or international all-star team.
3) Superiority: set or broke a school, conference, regional,
national, or world record.
4) Honorary: made an outstanding contribution to Pomona-Pitzer’s
athletic program through outside recognition at the state,
national, or world level, as a coach, athlete or national
leader with or without involvement in athletic competition.
2004 INDUCTEE INFORMATION:
 Bill Cover '94 - Basketball
Bill Cover arrived on Pomona's campus from Palo Alto High
School in the fall of 1990, and left four years later as the
all-time leading men's basketball scorer at Pomona-Pitzer.
During his four years, Cover was named the team MVP three
times, and was named First Team All-SCIAC three times. In
addition, he was twice named to the All-West Region team,
and as a senior was named to the NCAA III All-America team.
During his senior season, Cover broke the Pomona-Pitzer
school record for career points scored – fittingly, on a
slam dunk – and finished his four years with 1751 career
points. Cover also holds the record for career field goals
(677), and he also set a school record by playing in 102
varsity games.
Other spots held by Cover in the record book include: No. 2
in career field goal attempts (1304), No. 2 in career free
throws (360), No. 3 in single game points scored (38 pts. in
1992-93), No. 3 in career scoring average (17.1 pts. per
game), three spots in season points scored (No. 3 - 484 pts.
in 1994, No. 5 - 460 pts. in 1991, and No. 7 - 444 pts. in
1993), and No. 5 in career rebounding (663), among others.
As a senior, Cover led his team to the 1994 SCIAC Conference
title and the NCAA West Region playoffs, where the Sagehens
fell by a single point to UC San Diego.
Following graduation, Cover played two years for the
Maitland Mustangs Basketball Association in NSW Australia,
where he was the Team MVP and an All-Conference player.
After returning from Australia, Cover worked at Oracle for
six years, and then earned a Master's from the Stanford
Business School. Cover now lives in San Francisco, where he
is the co-founder and general manager for the Detert Family
Vineyards.
 Paul Cross '90 - Tennis
A team captain and undefeated Delta League champion at Davis
High School, Paul Cross came to Pomona and etched a storied
career in men's tennis.
Cross was named to the SCIAC Conference First Team in 1988,
1989, and 1990. In singles and doubles, Cross won three
SCIAC Championships, and, most tellingly, was named SCIAC
Player of the Year in 1989.
At the national level, Cross was a three-time individual
qualifier (1988, 1989, 1990), and won NCAA III All-America
honors each year in both singles and doubles.
At Nationals in 1988, Cross teamed with Steve Dagg '88 in
doubles, and the duo advanced to the third round at
Nationals. In 1989 Cross partnered with Carl Swanson '91 to
advance all the way to the National final to earn runner-up
honors.
During his senior year, Cross became the first and
still-only Sagehen to be ranked number one in the country in
singles, and he and Cross also were top-ranked nationally in
doubles. Cross and Swanson teamed to win the prestigious
Ojai tournament in doubles in 1990. In 1989 he led the team
to its first outright SCIAC title in men's tennis since
1948. Cross also led the men's tennis team to two NCAA III
National team berths in 1989 (8th place) and 1990 (12th
place).
Following graduation, Cross earned a Master's in Statistics
at UC Davis. He is a past club champion at Palisades Tennis
Club in Newport Beach, where he now lives. A Risk Management
Consultant with ARM Tech, Cross' hobbies include computers,
trivia, remote control cars and the Sacramento Kings. Cross
recently became engaged to Laura Castellucci, and the two
will be married next spring.
Christy Doss Hemesath (Pitzer) '91 - Swimming
Arriving at Pitzer in the fall of 1987 after being an
Illinois All-State and All-America swimmer at Maine South
High School in Park Ridge, Hemesath quickly swam into the
Sagehen record books.
Hemesath finished her four years as an 11-time
All-Conference swimmer, with seven individual SCIAC
Conference titles – including wins in the 200 back (three
times), 200 fly, 200 breast, and 400 IM (twice). In
addition, Hemesath swam on eight SCIAC-winning relays.
Hemesath twice established SCIAC Championship meet records
in the 400 IM (1989 and 1990), and set a SCIAC all-time best
in the 200 fly in 1990.
A four-year NCAA Nationals qualifier, Hemesath twice earned
All-America honors in the 400 IM, with a sixth place finish
in 1989 and an eighth place finish in 1990. Overall at
Nationals, Hemesath earned All-America status in five
individual events and four relays.
Hemesath set a school record in the 200 fly (2:10.93) in
1990, and she still stands on Sagehen top-10 lists in five
individual events. Not content with just swimming, Hemesath
also lettered in cross country while a Sagehen.
Following graduation, Hemesath coached high school swimming
for five years at New Trier HS and Niles West HS, and was
twice named Sectional Coach of the Year. Now living with
husband Jeff and three girls (Summer, Lilly, and Terra) in
Libertyville, IL, Hemesath is a school psychologist at
Glenbrook North HS.
 Brian Forster '94 - Diving
A state-ranked high school diver and soccer player at
Shorewood High School in Seattle, Forster arrived on
Pomona's campus in 1990 and took the pool by storm.
Forster dove four straight years, and by his junior season
he held Pomona-Pitzer school records on both the 1-meter and
3-meter boards. As a senior, Forster also set SCIAC records
on both boards. All of these records still stand. He was
team captain for both his junior and senior seasons. Forster
earned eight All-SCIAC honors in his career, and was the
SCIAC Conference champion in 1991, 1993 and 1994. As a
senior in 1994, Forster was named the SCIAC Athlete of the
Year – an extremely rare achievement for a diver.
Forster was a four-time NCAA Nationals qualifier, where he
earned six All America honors. Most significantly, in his
senior year in 1994, Forster won individual national titles
on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Not surprisingly, he
was also named the 1994 NCAA Division III Diver of the Year.
At the completion of his senior year at Pomona, Forster was
also named Pomona-Pitzer's Most Valuable Athlete for
1993-1994 among all sports.
Forster now lives in Darien, Conn., with his wife Colette
and daughter Logan (age 2 1/2). Forster is a Marketing
Manager for IBM, but still finds time for golf, reading and
another form of diving: scuba.
 Shelley K. Waterworth Diaz '90 - Soccer
Coming to Pomona in the fall of 1986 as the
Athletic/Academic Award winner from Nathan Hale High School in
Seattle, Diaz immediately made an impact on the Sagehen
women's soccer squad.
Diaz earned four straight First Team All-SCIAC Conference
honors (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989). In addition, as a senior in
1989, Diaz was named the SCIAC Women's Soccer Player of the
Year.
Diaz helped lead her team to the SCIAC Conference
Championship in both 1988 as a junior, and 1989 as a senior,
when she was also the captain of the team. In both seasons,
the Sagehens tallied impressive SCIAC records of 8-1-1.
Individually, Diaz tallied three dazzling career totals that
still stand second on the all-time record list. Diaz scored
47 career goals, 16 career assists, and earned 110 career
points over her four soccer seasons. In addition, Diaz was
named as Pomona-Pitzer's Scholar-Athlete at the end of her
senior year in 1990.
Diaz now lives in Marianna, Fla., with husband Robert and
daughter Jessie, and she is currently a ministry assistant,
as well as a newsletter and book editor.
Special Recognition Tribute
Jesse Cone - Former Assistant Football Coach, 1953-56
Jesse Cone had an outstanding collegiate football career at
Stanford – a lineman on the undefeated freshman team in
1948, and on the 1951 Stanford team that won the Pacific
Coast Conference and played in the 1952 Rose Bowl.
After earning his undergraduate and Master's degrees from
Stanford, Coach Cone taught one year at the high school
level, and then joined the 1953 Pomona-Claremont football
coaching staff that also included Head Coach Earl 'Fuzz'
Merritt, and frosh coaches Ed Malan and Bill Arce. Coach
Cone built outstanding lines for Pomona-Claremont, making
the team one of the top defensive squads among small
colleges in the nation.
Due in large part to Coach Cone's presence, the
Pomona-Claremont team embarked on the greatest three-year
run of any football team in Claremont Colleges history. The
1953 team went 7-1, the 1954 team went 8-0, and the 1955
team went 7-1 – with all three teams winning the SCIAC
Championship. The 1954 team is still the only undefeated
football squad for any Pomona or Claremont team.
These mid-'50s teams still hold school records for Longest
Win Streak (12 games across the '53 and '54 seasons) and
Least Rush Yards by an Opponent (-18 vs Redlands in 1954).
In 1953, the team limited both Caltech and La Verne to only
8 passing yards in each game.Following his four years at
Pomona-Claremont, Coach Cone spent one year at Mt. SAC, then
returned to town at Bill Arce's request to coach the
Claremont Men's team for four years. Coach Cone continued
his career at Ganesha High School, Utah State, Wake Forest,
New Mexico State, and in Turlock coaching both high school
and Merced JC teams.
Now retired, Coach Cone lives in Turlock with his wife
Natalie.
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