E-mail 
Print | PHOTOS | ||||||||
|
||||||||
| MORE ARTICLES | ||||||||
| » More | ||||||||
FORT WAYNE — James Bettcher, who has progressed from being an offensive lineman at Saint Francis to an assistant coach with the Indianapolis Colts, headlines the list of inductees who will go into the Saint Francis Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday.
Joining Bettcher at the induction ceremonies at 7 p.m. Friday at the Saint Francis North Campus gymnasium will be former quarterback Chris Brammell, former volleyball standout Allison Horn and former women’s tennis coach J. Webb Horton.
They comprise the 19th class of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, which began in 1989.
Bettcher, a 2003 graduate who was also a track standout with the Cougars, has risen through the coaching ranks in less than a decade. He is the assistant to the head coach/defensive assistant for the Colts, a position he acquired when Chuck Pagano was named the Colts’ head coach.
Last season, he was the linebackers/special teams coordinator at New Hampshire, and the season before that, was the defensive ends/special teams coach at Ball State. He spent three seasons as a defensive assistant at North Carolina, was a graduate assistant at Bowling Green in 2006, and after his graduation at Saint Francis, Bettcher was the special teams coordinator/defensive line coach through the 2005 season.
As an offensive lineman with the Cougars, Bettcher was a three-time NAIA All-American and Mid-States Football Association Scholar, a two-time NAIA Coaches’ All-American, and was an all-conference selection for three seasons.
He was also a five-time track All-American, placing second in the shot put at the 2001 NAIA championships.
As Bettcher was leaving Saint Francis, Chris Brammel was coming in, and he led the Cougars to back-to-back NAIA championship games in 2004 and 2005.
The 2006 graduate led Saint Francis to a 36-6 record of his three seasons as a starter, and he ranks No. 2 on the career list for passing yards (7,256), TD passes (66), passing yards per game (164.9) and passes completed (517) and attempted (1,818).
He was a three-time All-MSFA Mideast League first-team selection, and the 2005 player of the year.
Horn, a 2004 graduate, left with the school record in volleyball kills with 1,472 and led the 2003 Cougars to the Mid-Central College Conference regular-season championship. She was a three-time all-conference first-team selection and was the MCC player of the week five times.
In Horton’s tenure as the women’s tennis coach from 1983 to 1988, he led the Cougars to the 1985, ’86 and ’87 NAIA District 21 championships and was named the coach of the year three times. In the two years his teams did not qualify for the national tournament, Horton had individual qualifiers.
Trine punter Nick Muir was named to the national D3football.com team of the week for his performance Saturday against Concordia, Wis. In six attempts, Muir averaged 48.5 yards, including a school-record 81-yard punt.
