• Editor’s Note: This article was updated Feb. 4, 2016.

The Class of 2016 inductees into the Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Feb. 5 include one of Geneva’s most inspiring and all-time winningest coaches, a three-sport star who went on to shape his alma mater’s sports legacy as athletic director and principal, and a woman who is arguably the finest girls basketball players in Viking history.

They are, respectively, girls basketball coach Gina Nolan, Tom Rogers (‘85) and Taylor Whitley Fieser (‘09). All three will be present for the 16th annual Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony Feb. 5, 2016, in the school’s main contest gymnasium, during halftime of the Geneva-vs.-Batavia boys’ varsity basketball game set to tip off at 7 p.m.

Here are some details on this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, chosen by a committee of former Geneva sports journalists, Viking athletic alumni and coaches:

Gina Nolan

Gina Nolan is without a doubt one of the greatest coaches in Geneva High School history, with a remarkable career record of 173-38 over seven seasons.

Gina Nolan. CREDIT: GHS Athletics Department

During that amazing seven-year stretch, she coached Geneva’s girls basketball team to five conference championships, four regional championships, three sectional championships, one supersectional crown  and a fourth-place finish in Illinois’ largest high-school division in 2009.

The 2008-09 and 2009-10 teams were undefeated during the regular season and finished with a combined record of 63-3.

Nolan was named District 5 IBCA Coach of the Year four times. Her teams were known for their discipline, defense and hard work, and she helped develop some of the best players in Geneva history, including but not limited to Bailey Hansen, Lauren Wicinski, Kat Yelle and Ashley Santos.

Perhaps Nolan’s most-inspiring season was her last, in 2010-11, when she led the Vikings to Elite 8 finish while undergoing treatments for breast cancer.

“I’m so overwhelmed with the generosity, kindness and compassion of the Geneva community in general,” Nolan told the Chicago Tribune at that time. “It’s incredible the love and support I’ve received. It’s very touching. I couldn’t have made it through without that support.”

A 1986 graduate of Glenbard East High School, Nolan is an accomplished and beloved teacher. Earning a master’s degree in education from Northwestern University, she taught and coached for two years at her alma mater, Glenbard East, then came to Geneva as a Spanish teacher in 2002, where she now serves as chair of the World Languages Department.

Nolan is now cancer free, and since 2011, she’s been a volunteer with the Imerman Angels, a cancer-survivor support group.

Tom Rogers

Few people, if any, have had more impact on Geneva High School’s athletic success than its present principal, Tom Rogers.

As a player, Rogers was a three-sport star, playing quarterback in football, forward in basketball and starting pitcher in baseball.

Geneva High School Principal Tom Rogers. CREDIT: GHS Athletics Department

Under Hall of Fame Coach Jerry Auchstetter, he led the Viking football team during his senior year in the fall of 1984. In basketball, he was one of the top scorers for another Hall of Fame coach, the late John Barton, helping the Vikings to a Regional title in 1984. During that 1983-84 season, the Vikings defeated St. Charles High School for the first time in 19 games. His senior year, he was named team MVP and was a unanimous all-conference selection. As a baseball pitcher, Rogers earned all-conference special mention in ’85.

He was named top male athlete and scholar-athlete in his graduating GHS class of 1985.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in educational leadership from National Louis University, Rogers returned home to Geneva as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, while he coached at Geneva High School in a variety of assistant positions in football, basketball and baseball, from 1990 through ’97, serving also as girls’ head basketball coach for two years.

In 1995 at the age of just 28, he came to Geneva High School full-time as athletic director. He served as GHS assistant principal for nine years – and since 2007 he has served as principal here at his alma mater, where he has helped shape the school’s academic and athletics success.

Taylor Whitley Fieser

Taylor Whitley. CREDIT: Indiana State University, courtesy of GHS Athletics Department

Beginning a decade ago, Taylor Whitley spent four years obliterating the record book for Geneva High girls’ basketball.

Whitley was a starter from her first game as a freshman in fall 2005 and made it clear she’d spend her career shooting the lights out. She was all-conference and all-area all four years, conference MVP as a sophomore and again as a senior, and as a senior finished fourth statewide in the voting for Illinois’ Ms. Basketball.

That senior year of 2008-09, Whitley led the Vikings to their perfect 32-0 regular-season record before finishing fourth in the state. She set and tied the school single-game scoring record, scoring 38 points in both her junior and senior seasons. During her four-year varsity career, she amassed 2,130 points, obliterating the former Viking career scoring mark by nearly 700 points. She finished her career with an average of 20.4 points per game.

Among the many accomplishments of her high school athletic career was Whitley’s selection to The Beacon-News All-Decade Team for 2000-2010.

Along the way, Whitley was twice named to the all-conference team in volleyball, but she stuck with basketball when she went to Indiana State University on a full basketball scholarship. At Terre Haute, she was again a four-year starter, finishing with 1,105 career points while also clearing the 400 mark in steals, rebounds and assists – all while earning her degree in education, Magna Cum Laude, and making the Missouri Valley Conference All-Academic Team all four years.

Whitley graduated from Indiana State in 2013, and today she’s a P.E. teacher and assistant basketball coach at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, SC, where she lives with her husband, Luke.

Hall of Fame Ceremony

• When: Feb. 5, 2016, during halftime of the Geneva-vs.-Batavia boys’ varsity basketball game set to tip off at 7 p.m.
• Where: Geneva High School main contest gymnasium, 416 Mckinley Ave, Geneva, IL.
• Post-Game Celebration: After the Feb. 5 induction ceremony, and conclusion of the basketball game with Batavia, friends and fans will have the opportunity to visit with the 2016 inductees as well as past Hall of Fame inductees at a coffee-and-cake reception in the north balcony of Geneva High’s contest gymnasium.

About the Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame

The Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame selection committee, chaired by Athletic Director Jim Kafer, consists of Jerry Auchstetter, retired Geneva High head football coach who compiled an .801 record over 21 seasons from the 1960s into the 1990s, Rick Nagel, Class of 1975, outreach coordinator for Kane County, IL, who has covered Viking sports since 1985; Dr. Peter Temple, Class of 1981, a clinical psychologist in local private practice who led the Viking football team to 17 victories over nearly three seasons as its starting quarterback; and Kurt Wehrmeister, Class of 1975, who began his professional career covering Viking athletics for six years as the sports editor of The Geneva Republican, and who served for more than 30 years as the Vikings’ varsity football and basketball public-address announcer.

Auchstetter, Temple and Wehrmeister are themselves previous Viking Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.

• Editor’s Note: Kane County Connects welcomes news releases from Kane County High School athletic hall of fame committees. To submit a release, email kanecountyconnects@gmail.com.