A pole vaulter who soared from the Philomath High School track to the Beijing Olympics. A father and son who won a state basketball title on the same March night in 2002. Three state championship teams that left their mark on Warriors athletics across a decade.
Those were among the stories told Saturday night in the school’s auditorium with the PHS Hall of Fame installing its fifth group of inductees. Honored individually were Erica (Boren) Fraley (Class of 1998), former boys basketball coach Dave Garvin and his son, Logan Garvin (Class of 2002). The 2002 boys basketball state championship team, the 1995 girls track and field state championship team and the 2001 girls cross-country state championship team were also inducted.
Gallery: PHS Hall of Fame Banquet (May 9, 2026)
A collection of photos from the Philomath High School Hall of Fame banquet in the PHS auditorium on Saturday.
The Hall of Fame recognizes former coaches, athletes and teams. Gary Cox, the former athletic director, coach and teacher, had been working to establish the program before his death in 2021. The inaugural class came along in 2022 with Cox among the first inductees.
His daughter, Kathi Sollars, who serves on the Hall of Fame Committee, spoke about her father’s work toward building the program.
“My dad dedicated over 30 years to the Philomath School District,” Sollars said. “He was a teacher, coach, mentor, friend — he is a star. His light continues to shine down on us, guiding us and lighting our path, and I truly believe that his light is shining in this room tonight. For many of us, our days of being athletes are far behind us but our opportunity to be a star never ends.”
Erica (Boren) Fraley
Fraley started out in cross-country at Philomath but moved into pole vaulting in 1993 when girls were first allowed to compete in the sport. She won the Class 3A pole vault state title in 1997 when she cleared 10 feet, 6 inches.
PHS coach Joe Fulton recalled a time when Fraley returned to Philomath and visited practice years after graduating.
“Most of the kids didn’t know who she was but she went over and started talking to Dennis (Phillips),” Fulton said. “She took a pole and she was like, I don’t know, six steps away — it must’ve been 12 feet — and she runs down and clears it.”
It was a jaw-dropping moment for the boys who were watching, he added.
After graduating with Philomath High’s Class of 1998, Fraley competed at Texas A&M, where she won two Big 12 Conference titles and was a three-time qualifier for nationals. She later trained professionally and qualified for the Olympic Trials in 2004.
Fraley made the U.S. Olympic team in 2008 after earning the bronze medal in the pole vault at the Olympic Trials in Eugene. Competing on the same field where she had won a state title with PHS years earlier, she cleared 14 feet, 11 inches to earn a trip to the Beijing Olympics.
She currently coaches track and field at the University of Montana.
In her remarks, Fraley spoke about her years at Philomath and the activities she became involved in as a student, including forestry under the late Terry Selby and various student organizations.
“I just want to reiterate how much I appreciate this community, how much I appreciate the teachers and the coaches that have shaped the lives of students at Philomath High School and myself,” she said.
Fraley said that whenever she visits Philomath, she drives through the school campus to check on the track, the garden and the forestry program area.
“I keep tabs on this place because it’s part of what raised me,” she said. “And it’s part of what made it possible for me to find my dream in the pole vault and chase that dream to the top.”
Logan Garvin
Logan Garvin was a four-year starter at point guard for the Warriors who earned Class 3A Player of the Year honors in 2002. Now 42 and living in Bend, he serves as president of Boss Basketball, a youth program he started in partnership with former PHS teammate Kevin Boss. He also is the general manager of a company that manufactures honey.
Nathan Weidermann, an assistant coach on the 2002 team, introduced him.
Garvin said being inducted alongside his dad and the 2002 title team made for a reflective moment.
“My first state championship was his first state championship in Oregon and it’s kind of cool to go into something that meant so much to us,” he said. “I think it was so formative for both of us in Philomath and on the same night as well.”
Garvin said he often thinks about the broader arc of Philomath athletics.
“I think about the culmination of Philomath athletics in general — talking about those teams in the ’80s that were so competitive and then the ’90s,” he said. “It was fun for me to be able to grow up watching those guys and having favorite players on a high school team where most kids have favorite players on professional teams.”
Asked what stood out about the 2002 team, Garvin spoke about closeness and connectivity.
“I think it’s really rare to have a team of people that have been around each other so much, even outside of basketball,” he said. “We were having sleepovers together in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade — we just did everything together. So I think the camaraderie and the closeness when I think back about it is what stands out the most outside of the games.”
Garvin went on to play collegiately at Chemeketa Community College and Regis University in Colorado.
“There’s so many people in this room that have played a huge part in this and that basketball was never just a game, it was a vehicle that God used for a much bigger story in my life,” he said.
“I was really fortunate to grow up here,” he added. “I think Philomath is a rare place where you’ll find parents in the stands cheering on the team decades after their kids have graduated. … That’s the environment where I first learned what hard work looks like and that education started at home.”
Dave Garvin
Blake Ecker, an assistant coach on the 2002 state title team and the current head coach of the boys basketball program, introduced Dave Garvin.
“He was the right man for the job and quickly got us turned around to get us to state tournaments every year,” Ecker said.
The year before Garvin arrived, the Warriors had gone 1-19. By the 1986-87 season, Philomath had finished runner-up in the league standings and qualified for state. Garvin earned coaching honors through the years at both the statewide and national levels.
The former coach shared stories from his coaching past in Iowa and Oregon — memorable games, helpful parents, impactful assistants and the players themselves. He said the real payoff in athletics comes down to the relationships formed along the way.
“It’s nice to have championships, it’s nice to have all these trophies,” he said. “It’s a heck of a lot nicer to have friends that you’ve gone through some really important things with you.”
Garvin became emotional on a few occasions while trying to get the words out.
“They call me coach and that makes me proud,” he said, referring back to a commencement speech he gave in 1989. After a long pause to collect himself, he continued: “It is now 2026 and they still call me coach.”
Before retiring from coaching for good, Garvin returned to the sideline as the PHS girls basketball coach from 2013-18.
2002 Boys Basketball Team
Dave Garvin provided the backdrop to the 2001-02 season, including how the team had to work through illness during the state tournament. Philomath beat La Grande (44-28), Marist (58-57) and Astoria (52-37) to reach the championship game against Central.
“The end of the game comes down to a tie game. … We get the ball on the side, we run a play and we got a shot from Logan in the corner … hits the side of the rim,” Garvin recalled. “We were about a quarter of an inch off ending that game with a walk-off 3.”
The game went into overtime and the Warriors won, 40-38, at Gill Coliseum. Logan Garvin scored all seven of his team’s points in the extra period.
“In overtime, I wouldn’t say we destroyed them but we destroyed their point guard,” Garvin said about the team’s strategy in the extra time. “We made him play one-on-one and he couldn’t do it and we ended up winning the ballgame.”
1995 Girls Track and Field Team
The 1995 girls track and field team won the Class 3A title by a considerable margin over runner-up Henley, 75-48. Individual state champions on the team included Cathy McNeely in both the high jump and the triple jump, Kortni Murphree in the discus and Melisa Mellein in the pole vault.
PHS also had three runner-up performances with Boren in the pole vault, Murphree in the shot put and Melissa Gale in the javelin. Other placewinners included McNeely with third in the long jump and Whitney Bushnell with fourth in the 3,000-meter run.
“It is individual a lot,” McNeely said about track and field, “but at the same time, it’s a team effort to win the state meet, so it was a very exciting experience.”
The 1995 team also held a special place for the coach.
“This team was very important to me because it was my first year as a head coach of either track and field or cross-country,” Fulton said.
2001 Girls Cross-Country Team
Philomath won the Class 3A title in Eugene by 14 points over runner-up Rogue River, with sophomore Brianna Anderson-Gregg taking the individual championship. Senior Megan Czerny finished fifth for a top-10 result. The team’s other three scoring runners were senior Molly Malone, senior Nicole Miller and freshman Elise Nash. Senior Diana Shenberger and junior Krista Crampton also competed for the Warriors.
Czerny, whose married name is Hutchinson, took the podium to share recollections of the team and the championship season. She credited Fulton for the success she had in the sport.
“You taught me how to have a great work ethic that dedication and determination pays off,” she said. “You also shared with me your lifelong passion for running and my passion has enriched my life in so many ways.”
As part of her presentation, Hutchinson read a letter from Anderson-Gregg, now Sexton, who was unable to attend.
“I count myself lucky to have been part of this team and now I’m honored that the PHS Hall of Fame Committee has selected this team for induction,” Sexton wrote.
