April 6, 2010
DAVIS, Calif. - Beloved assistant football coach Fred Arp joins six former UC Davis student-athletes for induction into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame, it was announced by Director of Athletics Greg Warzecka. They will be formally honored during induction ceremonies on Saturday, June 5 at Freeborn Hall.
The Hall of Fame honors those who have achieved or contributed to UC Davis intercollegiate athletics with outstanding distinction. The inductees are chosen by the CAAHOF Advisory Board, with final approval by Chancellor Linda Katehi.
Arp was a fixture with the Aggie football coaching staff for 40 years, serving as an assistant for four head coaches: Herb Schmalenberger (1967-69), Jim Sochor (1970-88), Bob Foster (1989-92) and Bob Biggs (1993-2007). He coached the defensive line for the majority of those four decades, while adding the title of assistant head coach during his final seasons. Arp's career spanned the entirety of the program's 37 consecutive winning seasons, 20 straight conference titles and 18 postseason appearances - arguably UC Davis football's most notable feats. In 2003, he was honored with an AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award.
Arp earns his induction under the CAAHOF's Non-Student-Athlete category. Alphabetically, the six honorees in the Student-Athlete classification comprise lacrosse player Kelly Albin, golfer Jason Boyd, water polo's Tiffany (Hodgens) Johnson, football's Michael Oliva, baseball's Justin Reid and softball's Amy Rosson, all of whom starred in their respective sports during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Albin is perhaps best known as the third UC Davis recipient of the NCAA Woman Of The Year award and the school's only winner of an NCAA Today's Top VIII honor, both of which she captured after her senior year in 2004. The midfielder from Fort Bragg, Calif. earned first-team All-America honors from three different organizations in that final season, highlighting a career in which she set school records for assists and ground balls. Academically, Albin graduated magna cum laude (top two percent), earning a Department Citation as the top graduating senior in food science. In fact, on the same night Albin was announced as the Division II Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the national coaches' association, she was at Freeborn Hall, accepting the W.P. Lindley Award as UC Davis' outstanding achiever in athletics, academics and leadership in the community.
Boyd, originally from Pleasanton, Calif., helped UC Davis men's golf notch three straight eight-place finishes at the NCAA Division II Championship from 2000 through 2002. He remains the only Aggie to earn first-team All-America honors in his sport, and one of just six UC Davis golfers to capture All-America distinction in two different seasons. As a senior in 2001-02, Boyd earned his All-America first-team nod, was named NCAA West Region Player of the Year, captured the California Collegiate Athletic Association title, set an Aggie record with a 72.92 per-round average and won his second straight Jerry Lilliedoll Award as team MVP.
Johnson, formerly Tiffany Hodgens, was a four-year All-American and a two-time American Water Polo Coaches Association Player of the Year in her record-setting career. She is also the only player from the Aggies' Division II era to earn Division I All-America accolades, a feat she accomplished in both 2001 and 2004. Hodgens set nearly every offensive mark in UC Davis history. She led the entire nation (all divisions) with 112 goals in her junior season, while her total of 355 lifetime goals unofficially stood as the NCAA career record for four years. Hodgens, a San Diego, Calif. native, earned the university's Hubert Heitman Award as the outstanding female athlete of the year in 2002 and 2004 (tied).
Oliva was one of many outstanding Aggie wide receivers during the program's final Division II years, setting school career records for receptions (192), receiving yards (3,379) and touchdowns (37) during his career from 1999 through 2002. He proved particuarly effective in the postseason, catching 66 passes for 1,052 yards and 11 touchdowns in 10 career playoff games, including an NCAA-postseason record of 233 yards against Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2001. Oliva, who hails from Tuolumne, Calif., captured third-team All-America honors from Associated Press in each of his last two seasons. In 2002, he was a national finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy, the Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
A local product (Folsom, Calif.) from nearby Jesuit High School, Reid stood as a dominant pitcher for UC Davis despite playing in the hitting-friendly late 1990s, leading the team in strikeouts and ERA in each of his three Aggie seasons. He remains one of only two players in program annals to earn two All-America awards, garnering second-team status in 1998 and 1999; and one of just four to capture multiple first-team all-conference nods. As a sophomore, Reid posted a 1.82 ERA - the team's lowest in 26 years - while leading the CCAA in strikeouts. A year later, he fanned a school-record 125 batters to lead the conference and rank 11th nationally, helping him claim a CCAA Pitcher of the Year award. Reid was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fourth round of the 1999 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, climbing as high as the Triple-A Pacific Coast League before retiring from professional ball in 2006.
Rosson carved her name in UC Davis athletics lore in the final week of her junior season when she issued two overpowering performances at the 2003 NCAA Championship. She fanned the side in three straight relief innings against North Dakota State, then fired a 12-strikeout gem against Georgia College and State a day later in helping the Aggies capture their only Division II team title. Rosson, originally from West Hills, Calif. and a protegé of CAAHOF enshrinee Julie Astrachan, ranks among UC Davis' all-time leaders in every pitching category. She finished with an 82-26 record and 0.87 ERA while striking out 754 batters in 720.1 innings. Rosson won All-America distinction from four different organizations in 2003, and was a four-time all-conference and three-time All-West Region pick.
The CAAHOF induction ceremonies take place during the same event in which the athletics department issues its annual student-athlete awards, namely the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Award for the outstanding male athlete of the year, the Hubert Heitman Award for the top female athlete of the year, the W.P. Lindley Award for scholar-athlete of the year, and the Lysle Leach and Marya Welch team GPA awards. Tickets for the June 5 banquet can be obtained by contacting Ashley Pierce in Athletics Development at (530) 754-7548.
