Since its inception in 1953 North high has been blessed with many outstanding individuals who were Hall of Famers on the field, but many others who were Hall of Famers off the field. Such is the man Stan Moe. His nickname should have been “involved.”

Born in 1946, his family moved from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to the Bakersfield area in 1947. He attended
grammar school at St. Francis and then graduated from South High in 1964 where he was a member of the school’s first ever SYL Championship football team (Class C) in 1961.

After high school, Stan served three years in the US Army before returning home to serve in the Kern County
Sheriff’s Office for 32 years. After retiring in 2002 he began a 10-year teaching career at Porterville JC, teaching Criminal Justice.

After moving into the Olive Drive area in 1971 he became actively involved in organizations in the North of
the River community. He served 14 years as a Trustee with the Beardsley School District and started coaching youth baseball at NOR.

He developed his love and commitment for North High when his kids began attending school in 1984. He was a tireless volunteer for the North high Athletic Boosters Club for 8 years, serving as the President for 3 years.
He took on the job of reorganizing the Booster Club Bingo fundraising and along with the help of North High “Hall of Famer” Greg Fowler remodeled the Bingo Hall on Knudsen Drive. In addition, Stan spent many hours helping on the North High baseball fields while his sons were part of the program.

After his boys graduated from North , he began a 17-year baseball coaching career working for Tony Silver. He was the Freshmen coach for 8 years then served under Silver on the Varsity for 9 more years. But maybe his biggest contribution not only to North High but Kern County baseball as well might be his devotion to the annual Terrio Therapy Spring Classic Baseball Tournament. Tony Silver started the tournament and then turned it over to Stan who has run it for the past 29 years. It has raised over $260,000 for the North High baseball program during that time! It continues to be the biggest high school baseball tournament in the area.

Stan has been married to his wife Pat for 51 years and has three children. Kevin (Class of ’88), Randy (Class
of ’91) and Carrie (Class of 94) all graduated from North and were all athletes.

Congratulations Stan and thanks so much for all your wonderful contributions to North High.

Someone once said it’s the not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Truer words could never have been spoken about Jimmy Mitchell.

Raised in Oildale, he attended Standard Jr. High and entered North High in 1980, standing 5’3” and weighing 140 pounds. He left North stretched out at 5’8” tall and weighing all of 160 pounds Starring in football and baseball and was fortunate to play for three North High Hall of Famers, Turk Eliades, Tony Silver and Rick Harvick.

Jimmy did not go out for football as a freshman, instead electing to play basketball. But he played JV baseball that year under coach Harvick who talked him into playing football the next year. That turned out to be a good
decision. He played JV football as a sophomore and then made his mark on the varsity the next two years.

He played running back and defensive back under coach Eliades. He was named all-City defensive back as a junior in 1982. Then as a senior he was named the Stars’ co-MVP and all-Area Player of the Year. He received scholarship offers from several prominent D-I schools including Baylor, Oregon and Oregon State to name a few.

But baseball was his game. He started on the varsity in the middle infield for Coach Silver for three years. In 1982, the Stars won the SYL Championship and Mitchell was named “Rookie of the Year.” Then in both his junior and senior seasons he was an all-Area first team selection. In addition he was named to the All-California State team as a senior, the only one from Kern County to be selected.

After graduation from North he accepted a baseball scholarship from Cal State Northridge and played for local Arvin legend Terry Craven. As a freshman, CSUN was the only D-II team to win 40 games that year.

After leaving Northridge, Mitchell came home and enrolled at Cal State Bakersfield where he graduated with a degree in finance in 1990. After graduation he married Gina Jones, a South High grad, and took a job with GTE in Indiana. While in Indiana, Jimmy earned his MBA from Butler University.

Jimmy and Gina lived in Indiana for three years then were transferred to Highland Village, Texas (just outside Dallas) to take a job with Verizon in the finance department. He’s currently employed by the Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Mitchells have three children. Daughter Taylor (23) graduated from Lamar University where she earned a soccer scholarship and graduated with a degree in finance. She now works for Atmos Energy. Daughter Baylee (20) is a junior at Texas Tech where she is working towards her management degree. She also went to college (Abilene Christian) on a soccer scholarship but a knee injury ended her career. Son Parker (19) turned down baseball scholarships but instead decided to attend UCLA where he is majoring in biochemistry with plans to continue on to Medical School.

He credits his family and his North High mentors, Silver, Eliades, Harvick, Curt DeRossett and Jack O’Brien plus Coach Craven at CSUN and many others for his success. They could all tell you that big things do come in small packages.

Lori Miller Sundgren grew up off of Olive Drive and spent her childhood running around the neighborhood with her sister, Erin, and the Bimat, Silver kids. She started running at a young age, when her Aunt Tresa (Bumgarner) Rosenow and Uncle Brian Bumgarner would drop her off at their friend Howard’s house and she would chase their car all the way up dusty, unpaved Ethyl Street to their home on Shell Street.

Lori attended the Norris School Jr. High and in both seventh and eighth grade, Lori was second in the nation in the 1500 meters. She also set a county record of 4:44 in the 1500, which held for over 25 years.

At North, Lori was coached by the always patient Gary Kuster. During her freshman cross country season, she received a baptism by fire from Foothill athlete and true class act Mary Ann Martinez. Their matches pushed Lori to work hard and strive to be better. During the next four years, Lori went unbeaten in individual league track competition, won four SYL 800 meter titles, four SYL 1600 meter titles, a valley championship in both the 800 and 1600, qualified for the state meet all four years in both the 800 and 1600, and medaled at the state meet in both cross country (10th) and track (6th) her senior year. Lori was a four time MVP in both track and cross country while at North. She was All-Area Athlete of the Year and was the Bakersfield Californian Prep of the Week. Lori also attend the Olympic Training Center track and field camp in Colorado Springs. She received letters from 50 different colleges and eventually chose Cal State Northridge.

At CSUN, Lori set the school’s freshman record in the indoor mile. At the inaugural Cal-Nevada Championships at UCLA, she placed third in the 1500. Lori graduated from CSUN in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies. She cherishes the lifelong friends she made during her five years there. Lori earned her teaching credential and taught in the Bakersfield City School District for three years. She was also hired by Dale Tedrow to be an assistant track and cross coach at North. This is where she met her husband, longtime North High track and cross country coach, Darin Sundgren.

In 2003, they had Devon, their only child, who is a football player like his grandpa and North High Hall of Famer John Miller. Lori was a teacher and counselor in the Norris School District for 15 years. To this day, the highlight of her career was being on the team that opened William Bimat Elementary, alongside fellow North High grads Tonya Moore Sandoval, Sarah Bootman Barker, and Pam Roth Teagarden. These days Lori is a faculty member at Taft College, where she runs the Learning Center.

Lori credits her parents, John and Debbie Miller, with every success she has had in her life, from getting her college degrees and credentials, to her athletic success, to being a parent. Of her eleven years of cross country and track meets across the United States, she can only remember them missing one race. They were up and awake for her pre-dawn workouts with a stopwatch and cold water in hand. They have provided the unconditional love and support that every kid should be so lucky to have.

Gifted athletes will always amaze and inspire sports fans. However special they are, there are always a few that shine brighter than all the rest. The story of Lisa Johns (now Lisa Hewes) as an athlete was summed up well during her high school years by a local prep sports beat writer who said, “She is neither flamboyant, nor flashy… she quietly, consistently, effectively, and modestly gets the job done.”

Sports – and lots of them – were a way of life starting in her earliest childhood years. From AYSO soccer to NOR softball, ballet, swimming and diving, Norris School basketball, and volleyball, Lisa just played and demonstrated a special athletic talent from the beginning.

Entering North High as a freshman in 1988, Johns lettered in three varsity sports — volleyball, basketball, and softball. In subsequent years at North High, Johns collected a myriad of titles and accolades.

As a freshman, she was picked as an All-Area athlete in volleyball, the first of four such selections. Her teams would go on to win multiple SYL league titles and two CIF Central Section titles with bids in the state playoffs. As a senior team captain, Johns led the Lady Stars volleyball to a perfect SYL 12-0 league record and then to the section title. She was Area Player-of-the-year that year, was named to Volleyball Magazine’s “Fab 50” list, and USA Today picked Johns as one of the top two high school setters in the nation.

In basketball, she helped North High teams win back-to-back section titles her sophomore and junior seasons. Johns collected 12 varsity letters during her North High tenure and held a starting position on 10 out of 12 of those teams. She never missed a single game due to injury or illness in her entire high school athletic career.

She also excelled in academics and was selected to numerous scholar-athlete teams, won the Mayor’s Award, and was selected as girl scholar-athlete of the year for the CIF Central Section her senior season.

Finally, Johns garnered national recognition for both her athletic prowess and hard work in the classroom and was one of eight high school scholar-athletes selected as AAU/Mars MILKY WAY High School All-American. Johns completed her academic studies at North High with a 4.1 GPA her senior year.

Johns signed with national volleyball powerhouse University of the Pacific in 1990 and played four years for the Lady Tigers. She graduated from UOP in four years and moved to Tucson, where she coached high school club volleyball and assisted the University of Arizona women’s volleyball team. She earned an MBA from Arizona before to the Bay Area to work as a business consultant.

Johns currently resides in Arizona with her husband Josh (also NHS alum, ’91) and son Luke. She works as a professor of accounting in the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University.

Congratulations Lisa, just another amazing female student/athlete that helped make North High the great school that it is.

Terry Hill was raised with North High in his blood. He was the oldest son of the school’s very first Principal, Jack Hill. A member of the 1958 graduating class, he was an outstanding three-sport athlete. His father had hired several outstanding individuals as coaches. So, along with the coaches, Terry was part of a group of several top athletes who had a real impact on establishing North High’s athletic tradition.

In football, he played Class “B” as a freshman and sophomore, but a broken wrist kept him out of the season as a junior. Then as a senior and playing for coach Turk Eliades, was the starting fullback for a team that went 9-1 on the season, losing only to BHS. Terry played basketball his first three years, including varsity as a junior but did not go out as a senior so as to dedicate himself to baseball.

In baseball, he played on the freshman team, moved up to JV as a sophomore and played varsity as a junior and senior. Terry was one of the most feared hitters in the area and an outstanding catcher as well. Known as a tough competitor, he was team captain and an all-SYL selection as a senior. After graduation, Terry played football and baseball at Bakersfield College. He started in baseball both years at BC, playing for another legend, Gerry Collis. He was a 2nd team all-Metropolitan pick in 1960, and again the leading hitter on the team. Because of knee issues, he was moved from behind the plate to left field for the ‘Gades.

As a freshman he played fullback behind one of the all-time BC greats Ray Jackson, an all-American. As a sophomore he again played backup to another JC All-American, Don Hampton. He was part of the great BC team that won the 1959 Jr. Rose Bowl in Pasadena, defeating Del Mar, Texas 36-14. He also scored a touchdown in that game on an 11-yard run. On that team were former North High teammates Vern Burke and Bobby Ezell, Lloyd Mosley and Jim Rice, all members of the North High Athletics Hall of Fame.

Terry went on to Fresno state on a football scholarship, but a knee injury ended his career in 1961. He finished school there and graduated in 1963. He came back to North High to coach and teach physical education from 1966 to1980. For several years, he worked alongside, not only Eliades, but another North High legend, Sam Barton, and coached with Tony Silver and Jack O’Brien.

Since 1984, Terry has worked as a Life Insurance agent and is now semi-retired. His younger brother Steve was an outstanding football and baseball player at North High, graduating in 1963. Terry has two daughters, Tracy and Darcy, both of whom were graduates of North High and both of whom were athletes.

Like many of the early North High student athletes, Terry Hill had an intense love and passion for advancing the school’s “brand and tradition.” He was also an original member of the North High Athletics Hall of Fame Committee. Congratulations Terry, one of the early table-setters for the future of North High athletics.