Alumni Awards 2020: Athletic Hall of Fame

The Athletic Hall of Fame, founded in 2008, honors Fountain Valley School alumni, faculty and supporters who have made an impact on FVS’s athletic program. This year, the induction ceremony took a "virtual" route. Three athletes and a tennis team were awarded this year. Emy Hanna Koontz ’09, who was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014, emceed the event. 

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Brittney Moore Stroh ’06
Note: Stroh was nominated to the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, but was unable to be at the ceremony, and thus was honored in 2020.

Brittney Moore Stroh is driven, and her athletic accomplishments illustrate this brilliantly. She ran varsity track all four years at Fountain Valley and qualified for states each of these years. She competed in not just one or two events, but in the 100, 200 and 400-meter races, the long jump, and the 1600-meter relays. In 2005, she had five first-place finishes in the Black Forest League winning the 100, 200, 400-meter races, the long jump, and the 1600-meter relay. She was named FVS track and field MVP three years. She also played field hockey for four years, three on the varsity team, and was voted captain her junior year. At Commencement, she received the Varsity Club Award.

Her athletic career continued spectacularly at Colorado College, where she set school track records and won the top female athlete award at graduation. She was the first CC athlete, man or woman, to garner all-conference honors all four years in track and field. In her junior year, she set a school outdoor record in the 400-meter and earned a spot on the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference All-Academic Team while also serving as team captain. As a sophomore, she broke the school’s 60-meter record.

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Norm Jones ’62
Norm Jones is from the first and only four-generation Fountain Valley School family, which also includes his father Francis Jones ’36; daughter Beth Ashby ’89; and grandsons Nate Ashby ’18 and Gabe Ashby ’20.

Jones was an accomplished, all-around athlete while at Fountain Valley, playing four years of varsity hockey, three years of varsity baseball, three years of varsity football, and one year of varsity tennis.

His senior year, he won the Doc Romnes Hockey Award and was cited as being “a hustling left-wing” who earned the honor for “his outstanding sportsmanship, teamwork and personal improvement during the season.”

Jones parlayed his love of sports, especially hockey, into a 48-year broadcasting career, most notably as the voice of the Colorado Avalanche National Hockey League team from 1995 to 2009. His 12-year tenure with the Avalanche was his second NHL broadcasting job at the top level, having called games for the former Colorado Rockies hockey team. He also covered Colorado College sports, Denver Spurs hockey, the Denver Broncos, University of Colorado football, University of Denver basketball, hockey and gymnastics, Denver Zephyrs triple-A baseball and other Colorado sports teams.

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The 1964 Boys Varsity Tennis Team
This team went undefeated in their 1964 season and the top players were:

• Number 1 player, Brent Abel ’67
• Number 2, Tim Carnegie ’65
• Number 3, John Meek ’65
• Number 4, Jon Brewer ’66
• Number 5, Keith Balinger ’65
• Number 6, Jay Bird ’67
• Their coach was David Banks.

Because they were undefeated, they were invited by Colorado State University to play in a tournament in Fort Collins against all of the top schools in the state, including big public schools. The format was structured so the top five players competed in their own tournament based on their position on the team. The Danes won four of the five divisions to win the state title.

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Mark Seelye ’70
Seelye first broke the school record running the 880-yard in 1969 in 2:06.5. Then he broke his own record in 1970 with a 2:04.8, and broke it again later that year with a 2:02.8. And that record held for about 30 years.

In 1970, he went undefeated in the 880 at all five meets and also had a first-place finish in the 440-yard with a time of 56 seconds. He anchored the mile relay team and also competed in the long jump. Seelye was captain of the track team his senior year.

Seelye believes records are made to be broken. Why else would he run the grueling Ascent —13.2 miles to the top of Pikes Peak—36 consecutive times? It is a record that is unlikely to be eclipsed and he clocked his best time at 2:41:47 in 1994, followed by a first place finish in the master’s division in 1995.