ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.
While sincere congratulations are in order for Wayland High School senior bowling standout Sydney Urben for winning the Division 2 individual state championship, plans must be made later this year to include her on the west wall of the gym for her achievement.
Anyone who attends a basketball game or an event at the gym has to be aware of the very visual displays honoring the following Wayland athletes and teams:
• Jessica Merchant, softball player of the year in 2001.
• Brittini Merchant, softball player of the year, 2007.
• Mallory Teunissen, softball player of the year (pitcher), 2015.
• Jessica Armstrong, state champion in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs, 2005.
• The 2010 Wildcat basketball that finished the regular season at 20-0 and won 23 games in a row.
And now, according to the criteria applied for these deserved displays, Sydney Urben’s tremendous accomplishment should be memorialized as well.
But this also provides the Wayland Athletic Department with a chance to right a wrong that has been allowed to exist for nearly 20 years. If the schools insist on bragging of these great deeds of bygone days, they must proudly add the name of Zeke Fletcher, who has been unjustly overlooked.
Fletcher in 1998 was individual state co-champion in Division 2 golf after carding a 74 in an 18-hole round in the state finals. Today he owns a legal firm and is one of the attorneys for the Gun Lake Tribe.
So I urge resolutely the Wayland Athletic Department to add two, not one, names to the that “Wall of Fame” on the west side of the gym.
