Big South Inducts 2018 Hall of Fame Class
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – The Big South Conference inducted three former student-athletes and one former administrator into its Hall of Fame Thursday night, May 31, during a ceremony as part of the league’s annual Spring Meetings Awards and Hall of Fame Dinner at The Marriott Resort in Hilton Head, S.C. The inductions increase the Big South’s Hall of Fame membership to 69 former student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors.
The 15th Big South Hall of Fame class consists of Juha Miettinen (Campbell men’s soccer), Taylor Milne (High Point men’s track & field/cross country), Janiva Willis (Winthrop softball) and Mike Gore (UNC Asheville sports information director). Willis was inducted posthumously and was represented at the ceremony by her mother, Kathy Silvea. The 2018 Hall of Fame class was first announced on April 10.
JUHA MIETTINEN, Campbell, Men’s Soccer, 1987-90
The 1988 Big South Player of the Year as a sophomore, Miettinen was a three-time All-Conference selection, All-Tournament honoree and All-South Region pick in 1988, 1989 and 1990. A Second-Team NSCAA All-American in 1988, he ranked fourth in the nation that season with 49 points (21 goals, 7 assists). Campbell’s leading scorer in 1988, 1989 and 1990, Miettinen still ranks third in Big South history with 156 career points, while his 62 career goals rank fourth all-time in league annals. Voted to the Big South’s Men’s Soccer 1984-89 All-Decade Team, he helped lead the Camels to wins over third-ranked North Carolina and 10th-ranked Duke in 1988, pushing the Camels into the national rankings for the first time at the Division I level and rising to as high as No. 14. During his junior season in 1989, Miettinen helped lead the Camels to the Big South championship game -- their first since 1986, while as a senior he ranked fourth nationally with 53 points (20 goals, 13 assists) and sixth in goals scored.
Miettinen ranks sixth all-time in Campbell history in career points (156), which occurred in 76 games for an average of 2.05 points per appearance. It is the fourth-highest point total in the program’s Division I era (since 1977), while his 62 scores are fifth. His 32 career assists are seventh in school annals and tied for ninth in the Big South record book, while his four career hat tricks are tied for fourth-most in Campbell history. Campbell’s Outstanding Male Athlete in 1988-89, Miettinen scored a career-high 10 points in a game on four goals and two assists against No. 1-ranked NAIA program West Virginia Wesleyan. A Big South Presidential Honor Roll recipient, Miettinen played professional soccer in the National Indoor Soccer League (NISL), was the NISL Rookie of the Year in 1995 and led the league in scoring in each of his three seasons on the circuit. He was inducted into the Campbell Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
TAYLOR MILNE, High Point, Men’s Track & Field, 2001-05
Milne is High Point’s first-ever inductee into the Big South Conference Hall of Fame as he was a six-time Big South champion and eight-time All-Conference honoree. Voted to the Big South Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field 2000-09 All-Decade Teams, Milne was the Big South champion in the 2003 indoor 800-meter and mile, the 2004 indoor champion in the 3,000-meters, and twice won the outdoor 1,500-meter event (2002 and 2005). Named the Big South’s Most Outstanding Track Performer for the 2003 Indoor Track & Field Championships, Milne’s four indoor titles set the Big South Championship meet records at the time -- a 1:54.15 in the 800m (2003), a 4:10.40 in the mile (2003), followed by 4:05.50 in 2004 and an 8:20.36 effort in the 3,000m (2004). Milne also earned Cross Country All-Conference honors in 2002 while leading HPU to the Big South title with a fifth-place finish. Milne became High Point's first NCAA Division I national track & field qualifier when he qualified for the indoor mile in 2004 and finished 13th. He still holds three school records: indoor mile (4:02.18), indoor 3,000-meters (8:13.43) and outdoor 1,500-meters (3:43.99). Milne’s indoor mile time and outdoor 1,500-meters performance both remain the second-fastest in Big South history.
After graduating from High Point, Milne has been a two-time Olympian for Team Canada, having competed in the 2008 Beijing Games and 2016 Rio Games. He set his personal best time and equaled the Olympic A-standard of 3:36.00 by winning the 1,500 meters at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby, British Columbia to qualify for the 2008 Olympics Games. He also ran in the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 and qualified for the IAAF Diamond League Meet in London in summer 2015. Milne’s international competition includes the 3,000m steeplechase in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
JANIVA WILLIS, Winthrop, Softball, 2002-05
Willis was a four-time First-Team All-Big South selection as an outfielder, the ninth player at the time to achieve this feat in league history. She was the second student-athlete in Winthrop history to be named All-Conference four times, and was voted to the Big South Softball 2000-09 All-Decade Team. A two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region Second-Team honoree in 2004 and 2005, Willis played 234 career games and batted .345 with 30 home runs, 103 runs batted in and a .574 slugging percentage. She ranks 12th in Big South history in career runs (174), is tied for seventh in doubles (51), and finished her career in the conference’s top 10 in career hits with 245 (now 13th). Willis remains Winthrop’s all-time leader in doubles, total bases (408) and walks (90), and her program career rankings also include 3rd in hits, 3rd in triples, 2nd in home runs, 2nd in runs, 3rd in games played, 4th in at-bats, 5th in batting average, 6th in on-base percentage, and 5th in stolen bases. In 2004, she led the Big South in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, total bases and walks, and helped the 2005 squad win Big South regular-season championship. Following her graduation from Winthrop, she was drafted by the Harlem Diamonds in June 2005, was a member of the Canadian National Team in 2005 and 2007, played in the 2004 World Games for Canada, and was an alternate for the 2004 Canadian Olympic Team.
Willis’ performance off the field was just as impressive. A three-time CoSIDA-Academic All-District and Big South Softball All-Academic Team pick (2003, 2004, 2005), she was voted a CoSIDA Third-Team Academic All-American in 2004, was an Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Recipient and the Big South Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2005, and was a four-time NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete. Willis was the state of South Carolina’s NCAA Woman of the Year in 2005 and was named a finalist for the NCAA’s Woman of the Year national award -- still the Big South Conference’s only finalist to date. Inducted into Winthrop’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012, Willis began a non-profit youth mentoring program in Charlotte, N.C., called I Dream in Color. She was tragically killed in April 2016 while on a cross country fundraising bicycle trip to raise $1 million.
MIKE GORE, UNC Asheville, Sports Information Director, 1986-2015
Gore was honored in the Significant Contributor category for his 29 years of service as the longest tenured Sports Information Director in Big South Conference history. A College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) Lifetime Achievement Award & 25-Year Award recipient, he received the 2016 WNC Mountain Athletic Club Ochsenreiter Award for Lifetime Achievement. The first Sports Information Director to be inducted into the Big South Hall of Fame, Gore served Asheville as Associate Athletics Director of External Affairs, Sports Information Director and Interim Athletics Director (2003-04), among other roles during his time with the university. For three decades, he exhibited unwavering commitment to his duties and the student-athletes he encountered, and helped guide the athletics department through the transition to Division I and the numerous changes that ensued. Gore oversaw media coverage of the Bulldogs’ athletics programs with exemplary dedication as the department’s media liaison, and handled all media-related activities. He meticulously compiled statistics for women’s sports by longhand before required by the NCAA. His long-standing media efforts around Asheville athletics propelled him as a longtime contributor to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Hendersonville Times-News and Blue Ribbon Basketball Magazine. He has served as the voice of the Bulldogs on radio, handling play-by-play and analysis for most of his career for Asheville men’s basketball, and recently for women’s basketball, and never missed a home basketball game during his time at Asheville.
Gore served as the Host Media Coordinator for several Big South Conference Championship events, including a total of six Men’s and Women’s Basketball tournaments -- two of which were combined events for the first time. He attended and covered the first 29 Big South Men’s Basketball Championships, and assisted in an array of game day media operations roles -- notably as postgame interview moderator. He has served as Chair of the Big South Hall of Fame Committee since the inception of the conference’s Hall of Fame in 2003. Gore joined Asheville’s staff on July 1, 1986 as the Sports Information and Promotions Director. He was named Assistant AD in the summer of 1993, advanced to Associate AD in 1996, and elevated to his final title of Associate AD of External Affairs in 2007. In 2005, UNC Asheville’s athletics department created the Mike Gore Bulldog Service Award, and named him the first recipient. Gore also was appointed Head Softball Coach for the program’s final season in 1992, and was voted Big South Co-Coach of the Year as the team led the nation in stolen bases. He was inducted into UNC Asheville’s Athletics Hall of Fame in October 2015.