North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame welcomes four new members, including standout QB Rob Young

Rob Young of Spokane, who was cut by his junior high and high school football teams in the 1960s, is one of four individuals who will be inducted as the 58th Class of the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame on April 25 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Young will be joined on the dais by another former Idaho football standout, Jason Shelt; former Coeur d’Alene High School three-sport star Ann Schwenke Jaworski; and Lakeland High School four-sport standout Dick Schultz, who extended his career at North Idaho College and Washington State University.

The induction banquet has been a year in the waiting. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it was postponed when the coronavirus pandemic interrupted events and lives around the world.

Tickets for the banquet, which also features the North Idaho High School Awards, are $29.43 and must be purchased online at nihof.org. No tickets will be sold at the door. Social distancing and other safety guidelines will be followed. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. with dinner starting at 6:30.

New this year will be the Hagadone High Character Award, which will be presented to one male and female athlete from each high school. It is named for Duane Hagadone, who, among many deep local ties, founded the hall of fame 58 years ago.

Former Sandpoint High School and University of Idaho great and Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer is the featured speaker.

As a sophomore at Idaho, where he played from 1965-68, Young was the backup to All-America running back Ray McDonald his sophomore year before taking on a much larger role.

In an article in The Spokesman-Review in 2009, sports writer Steve Bergum wrote that Young had been cut during his teen years by teams at Glover Middle School and Shadle Park before “graduating” to become the Vandals’ kicker and rushing leader in 1968.

Young ran for 979 yards on 206 carries (a 4.8 average), scoring four touchdowns (one on a pass reception) and earning first-team All-Big Sky.

After graduating, he signed a free-agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers but was cut before the season. He played with the semipro Spokane Shockers and spent half a season with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL.

Shelt, a Vandals linebacker from 1992-97, is the program’s second-leading tackler all time with 461, was a first-team All-Big West Conference selection in 1996 and second-team All-Big Sky in 1993. A knee injury forced him to redshirt in 1994, but he came back his final two seasons and finished his career with seven interceptions and six fumble recoveries.

Jaworski was a volleyball, basketball and softball standout in high school, earning numerous All-Inland Empire League honors. She went to the University of Montana in 1988, where she was a record-setting four-year volleyball starter as a setter, earning Big Sky Conference MVP as a senior and first-team all-league and AVCA All-Region second-team as a junior and senior.

Both Shelt and Jaworski will become second-generation hall of famers, joining their fathers. John Shelt was a three-sport star at Kellogg, who was inducted into the hall three years ago. Jaworski’s father, former long-time Coeur d’Alene High softball coach and athletic director Larry Schwenke, was inducted in 2009.

A 1964 graduate of Lakeland High School, Schultz lettered three years in football, basketball, baseball and track, where he was all-state in football and a state qualifier in the high jump. He walked on to play basketball at North Idaho College and was captain of the team his sophomore when the Cardinals went 26-2-1. He played shortstop on the NIC baseball team and excelled in the javelin, triple jump and high jump in track. He was inducted into the NIC Hall of Fame in 2015.

After NIC, Schultz played basketball for two seasons at WSU and football for one year, leading the Cougars in interceptions. Schultz went on to coach and teach for 35 years at the high school level, winning a state football title in 1980. He retired in 2004.

More than 160 athletes from 26 North Idaho District 1 and 2 high schools are represented by athletes, coaches and teams that have been chosen as finalists for the 2021 North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame High School Awards.