By MATT PIKE
After months of waiting, the 2026 class of the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame was officially enshrined into history on Sunday during a ceremony at the Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center.
The class, made up of 10 individuals, one team, and, the Special Olympics Area Athlete of the Year, joined the ranks of the unforgotten and spoke to a crowd gathered to celebrate them and all of their accomplishments. Also honored during the ceremony was the Bill Snyder Woman of Impact Award winner, Terra James.
James, an advocate for running in the St. Joseph community helping organize the St. Joseph Marathon, has also posted many running feats herself including completing the Boston Marathon, Memphis Marathon, Kansas City Marathon, and the Nashville Marathon twice, along with dozens of half-marathons and countless community races. James considers receiving the award an honor, especially when she knows the company she's around.
"The room I'm standing in is full of elite athletes, and I don't really consider myself an elite athlete, I try but I could warm the bench harder than anybody else but I've always been about teamwork, so that's really been my mindset," James told reporters at the ceremony. "I may not be the best athlete, but I'm going to be the strongest athlete that I can be by being a community member, a team member, finding things like St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital and doing my best to support a cause that's extremely important and bringing other people around, so yeah I'm not fast, but I'm committed and I have a long standing joke that you can beat me in a 5k anyday, but I can go for 50 miles."
James started her journey in philanthropy and raising money for St. Jude after meeting a little girl named Natalie while she worked at Chili's and James says she stepped on board with helping Chili's organize the first ever 5k for St. Jude in St. Joseph, helping to raise money for Natalie, and that led to James continuing her own journey to raise money through running. James is a member of the Measly Mile Mafia and has inspired countless others in the group to follow her footsteps by running for local and national charities, including seven fellow runners from the St. Joseph community who have become St. Jude Heroes.
All seven athletes will compete in the 2026 New York City and/or Memphis Marathons with James and will have raised over $110,000 by the end of 2026. Through her leadership, James has also organized numerous annual charitable races locally, including the Holiday Tutu Trot, Krug Castle Challenge, and the return of the Pony Express 5K.
Among the 10 individuals honored, while there were several elite athletes in the group, there were also two legendary coaches. Coach at Central HIgh School and Bishop LeBlond High School Tony Dudik and former MIssouri Western State University softball coach Jennifer Trotter, now the head coach at Division I St. Thomas.
Dudik began his career in 1977 at Central High School as the head wrestling coach, a title he held for 21 years. Dudik spent nine years as the assistant football coach, but in 1987 was promoted to Head Coach, where he led the Indians for 23 seasons. Following his time at Central, Dudik moved to lead the Bishop LeBlond football program, coaching for another nine seasons. He won 133 career games, made seven state playoff appearances, leading Central to its last district championship in the 1995 season.
As a wrestling coach his teams won the city championship 17 times, leading his team to two top 10 state finishes while leading 53 wrestlers to the state meet in which 22 finished as medalist. Along with his induction into the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame, Dudik is also a 2011 inductee into the Missouri Football Coaches Hall of Fame, a 2019 inductee into the Central High School Hall of Fame and 2023 inductee in the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Dudik says the feeling of coming into this Hall of Fame is indescribable.
"Saw so many players, heard so many stories, I look back at my life the journey," Dudik explains. "All these people, I know nine out of the 10 people on every one of these boards that were part of my journey as a coach, as a teacher, it doesn't mean we're always right, but the biggest thing for me is I loved everyone of my guys, and what that meant is I will the best for them, I want the best for you, and I'm going to help you get where you want to go, and I hope every young man that I was privileged, honored, and blessed to coach understands that."
When it comes to what he's most proud of through his exceptional career in St. Joseph, Dudik says it's the coaches he worked with, and that everyone bought into how the program should be run.
"We coached every kid. And what I mean by that, you know, the exceptional athlete, the very good athlete, the average athlete, you know, the below average kid, and maybe that young person that didn't have any ability at all, but we treated every one of them with dignity and respect," Dudik says. "And we challenged them, we pushed them. And those kids are the ones that I have a special place in my heart that just keep trying and keep trying, because that's the whole journey through life. It doesn't make any difference how many times you get knocked down, as long as you get up one more time and you're knocked down."
Trotter became the head coach of MoWest softball in 2002, her first college softball head coaching job. Through her 20 seasons at the helm for the Griffons, Trotter became one of the best coaches in MoWest history. Trotter recorded 676 career victories with 13 seasons of 30 victories or more and six seasons of 40 victories or more in which her 2005 team set a program record with 48 wins. Her teams won four MIAA Championships, two regular season and two postseason titles, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament 11 times. Trotter also brought in several good players as a recruiter, coaching 111 All-MIAA players, which includes five All-Americans, three MIAA Freshman of the Year, one MIAA Player of the Year, and one MIAA Pitcher of the Year.
Trotter is the all-time winningest coach in MoWest history and left as the all-time wins leader in MIAA history, a record that stood until this past season. For all of her accolades, she was inducted into the Missouri Western Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021. Trotter says its special to be enshrined into the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame, especially not having been back for some time, and says the St. Joseph community will always be special to her.
"Well, you know, this was my first head coaching job," Trotter says. "And so, both professionally and personally, this community has meant everything to me as an adult, from getting my first job and then getting all the experience that comes with that, all the players I coached, and then, you know, meeting my husband and getting my family. So, yeah, it means everything."
Trotter says easily what she's most proud of from her time at MoWest is all of the players that she got to lead and be alongside in the dugout for 20 seasons.
"You know, those relationships don't end when they graduate and, you know, being part of their lives during that period of time, you know, when they come in as, you know, freshmen that cry because they don't know how to do laundry, to them leaving and getting their first job and, I mean, it's really the reason why we do what we do," Trotter says.
Currently, Trotter is the Head Softball Coach at The University of St. Thomas and has led the Tommies in their transition to NCAA Division I Athletics, recording 67 wins over the last two seasons including winning the Summit League Regular Season Title in 2025.
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