2011-12 Men's Basketball and 2014-15 Varsity Crew teams, Kim Estes, Bryan Rooney, Mike Schindler and Chris Vilicich comprise inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame class

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• Nominations for teams, coaches and former cadet-athletes are eligible for Hall of Fame consideration five years after that individual/team's final competition. Friends of the department are eligible for consideration once nominations are received.
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VALLEJO, Calif. – The 2011-12 Men's Basketball and 2014-15 Varsity Crew teams, Kim Estes, Bryan Rooney, Mike Schindler, Chris Vilicich comprise the inaugural Cal Maritime Athletics Hall of Fame class, as announced by Director of Athletics Karen Lee Yoder on Monday.

The inaugural Cal Maritime Hall of Fame Banquet will take place on Saturday, October 7 from 9-11 a.m. on campus at the Compass Room as part of Keelhauler Days (formerly known as Keelhauler Family/Alumni Weekend).

Visit GoKeelhaulers.com later this week to learn how you can secure tickets for this historic event.

"I am excited to honor the teams and individuals who played a key role in creating a successful foundation for Cal Maritime Athletics, and thrilled the public submitted an outstanding group of nominations for consideration by the Hall of Fame committee," said Yoder.

"I also want to thank members of that committee for their time and hard work in selecting Athletics' inaugural Hall of Fame inductees. This was a challenging and difficult process due to the quality, and number of nominations received."

The 2011-12 Men's Basketball team, one of two squads Athletics will induct this year, captured the program's second California Pacific Conference regular season championship thanks to its undefeated league record.

By winning the first Cal Pac Men's Basketball Tournament title in school history, that roster is responsible for punching the Keelhaulers' inaugural NAIA National Tournament appearance.

Also capturing a championship during its respective season was the 2014-15 Varsity Crew team. In addition to finishing as the No. 1 team in the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association, the duo of Dan Olson and Ben Yuse won a title of their own by finishing first in the Varsity Pair Grand Final.

Olson and Yuse led that race the entire time, winning a title against the nation's top programs, a list that includes Oregon, Portland State, Santa Clara, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara.

Also earning a bronze medal at the WIRA Championship in the men's lightweight novice four were LeighAnne Dones (coxswain), Caelan Chaykin, Ben Potter, Jacob Boisse and Shane Coleman.

Estes, a former Division Commander and Corps Commander, was a standout cadet-athletes throughout his four years with the men's basketball team.

During his freshman year (1974-75 season), Estes led the Keelhaulers to 13 victories — the highest total in program history throughout a year that featured opponents whose enrollments were exponentially larger than CSUM's cadet population of just over 500 undergraduates.

In addition to ending each of his four years on campus as the team's top scorer, it was Estes' work ethic and leadership skills that, as former teammate William Andrew shared in his nomination, "that inspired the team, raise its game and make the program greater than the sum of its parts."

It was those traits that led to a successful post-Cal Maritime career for Estes: Following his tenure with Arco Marine as a chief engineer, he received the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2017.

Not only will he enter the Hall of Fame as a member of the 2011-12 men's basketball team, former CSUM head coach Bryan Rooney will receive individual distinction on October 7 as the only former head coach in this inaugural class.

It is no coincidence that Rooney's decade-long tenure was the most successful in school history: Not only did he lead the Keelhaulers to five consecutive NAIA National Tournament appearances, a string of postseason runs that started with the 2011-12 squad, former Cal Pac head men's basketball coaches selected him as the Coach of the Year six times in 10 seasons.

Throughout his tenure at Cal Maritime, Rooney coached five All-Americans, 10 Academic All-Americans and 32 all-conference selections.

Rooney also earned the Cal Pac's Champions of Character Coaching Award in 2016.

From 2003-07, no Keelhauler made his presence felt on the rugby field more than Schindler, a former MVP, all-conference selection and team captain.

"Mike was an influential captain for a young varsity program and was the most dominant player in any game he played," said head coach Steve Hiatt. "He destroyed opposing scrums, like someone who dismantles a defensive line in football."

Throughout his career as the team's helmsman, Vilicich captured a hat trick of college sailings top keelboat championships at the Harbor Cup (2015), Kennedy Cup (2015) and Shields Trophy (2014 and '15). It was that level of undeniable success that led to berths at the World College Sailing Keelboat Championship, first place at the Offshore Championship and second place at the Inshore Championship.

As a crew member, Vilicich was a member of teams responsible for additional championship-winning performances in the 2013 Harbor Cup and 2013 Kennedy Cup.