Four new members to be added to Mitchell High School athletic hall of fame

Marcus Traxler, The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
·5 min read

Aug. 31—MITCHELL — Mitchell High School and the Mitchell Athletic Booster Club will induct four members to the Mitchell High School Athletic Hall of Fame this weekend in activities around the Kernel Bowl.

The Class of 2022 inductees include the late Ron Wiblemo Sr. (1947), Ron Wiblemo Jr. (1971), Phil Collins (1976) and Carla Snedeker (1983).

An open house will be held at The Depot on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, from 6 to 8 p.m., with a program being held at 7 p.m. Inductees will also be recognized at halftime of the Kernel Bowl football game on Saturday, Sept. 3.

The inductees will bring the total number of hall of fame members to 48 individuals, along with six former Kernel teams, since the MHS Athletic Hall of Fame was created in 2007.

The inductees include:

* Ron Wiblemo Sr. was a three-sport letter winner in football, basketball and track, receiving nine varsity letters throughout his high school career. He was named to all-conference teams as a guard in basketball and as a quarterback in football. He was also a standout baseball player for the Legion baseball team and was signed as a pitcher by the Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 17, spending two years in the Dodgers organization. He went on to play seven years of semi-pro baseball in South Dakota, first for Fairfax and then the Mitchell Kernels of the Basin League. After his stint with the Dodgers, Ron attended Mankato State Teachers College (now Minnesota State-Mankato) for two years, playing football and baseball. He then transferred to Dakota Wesleyan University where he was an all-conference basketball player. He coached basketball for 16 years at Alexandria, Fedora and Wagner, while also coaching baseball most of his adult life. He was named to the Class A all-decade 1940s high school basketball team in South Dakota. He died Dec. 2, 1983 at age 54 and his family today includes his 10 children, 42 grandchildren and 71 great-grandchildren.

* Ron Wiblemo Jr. participated in football, basketball, golf and track and field during his time at Mitchell High School. He led the basketball team to a runner-up finish at the 1971 Class A state basketball tournament and the track and field team to the 1971 Eastern South Dakota Conference Championship. As a senior, he was a first-team all-state defensive back and led ESD in scoring in boys basketball, where he was first team all-ESD, first-team all-state and MVP of the Class A state tournament in 1971, finishing as an honorable mention All-American. Like his father, he was selected to the state's all-decade team for the 1970s. In the spring, he was ESD champion in the triple jump and finished in fifth in the high jump at the Class AA state track meet. Ron went on to a successful collegiate basketball career at South Dakota State. He became a member of the 1,000 point club, finishing fourth on the career scoring list at the time, and was selected to the all-North Central Conference first team as a senior. Currently retired, Ron lives in Camdenton, Missouri with his wife Lana. He joins his father Ron Wiblemo Sr., as the first father-son duo to be named to the Mitchell High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

* Phil Collins was a three-sport letterwinner at MHS, competing in football, basketball and track and field. He was a three-time recipient of the Golden M Award, given to those student-athletes who letter in three sports in a year. He was named MVP of the football team in 1975 and selected to the all-state team that same year at linebacker. He led his basketball teams to state tournament appearances in 1974 and 1976, an ESD Championship in 1975 and was named second team all-state in 1976. He was on the second place Sprint Medley relay at the state track meet in 1974 and 1976, setting the school record in 1976, and was third in the state in the discus and shot put in 1976. He went on to play football and run track at Dakota Wesleyan University, where he was a four-year starter in football, a three-time conference discus champion — setting the school record in the discus — and won the shot put conference title in 1981, plus helped set DWU's school record Sprint Medley relay record in 1979. Phil currently lives in Mitchell with his wife Sue, working in commercial insurance.

* Carla Snedeker began running on the varsity MHS track and cross country teams as an eighth grader. She won many races throughout her five years, including the 1600-meter run at Howard Wood Relays and the South Dakota State Meet in 1980, breaking several school and meet records along the way. She was a five-year letterwinner and her highest finishes in the state cross-country meet were 4th and 10th, along with being in the top-25 four times.

After graduating in 1983, she went on to compete on the cross-country and track teams at South Dakota State University, where she qualified for the national championship meet for cross country and was part of a school record team in the 4x800 relay at Drake Relays. Carla still runs today competing in road races and marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2015. From 2016 to 2019, she served as an assistant track coach at MHS and a volunteer cross-country coach helping out on days she wasn't officiating high school volleyball in an effort to give back to MHS and make an impact on students like coaches Keith Christensen and Marcy Jones did for her. Carla resides in Mitchell and is the purchasing manager at AKG North American Operations.