Two former athletes, including a former two-way Pittsburg State athlete, will be inducted into the Columbus Sports Hall of Fame at 7 p.m. Wednesday during the Columbus Chamber of Commerce Annual banquet.
The two new inductees for the Columbus Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2010 are Marc Eddington and Austin DeVoe.
Eddington was a multi-sport athlete at Columbus Unified High School from 1988-1992. During his high school sports career, he achieved First Team All Southeast Kansas League honors in basketball, football, and baseball. In addition, Eddington was named to the Joplin Globe All Area Baseball team as a First Team selection in 1992.
After high school, Eddington attended Coffeyville Junior College and played baseball, where he led the Red Ravens with a .351 batting average and helped the team win the Jayhawk East Division Championship.
After junior college, Eddington went on to play college sports at Pittsburg State University, where he lettered and excelled in two sports. As a basketball player at PSU, he was a two-time First Team MIAA and All-District selection. He broke the Gorillas’s basketball scoring record for a two-year career with 1,090 points. In addition, while at PSU, Eddington played baseball and pitched PSU to a 5-3 victory over Minnesota State to help the Gorillas in their first NCAA Regional appearance.
Eddington majored in printing while earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Technology from PSU in 1997. He was a two-sport letterman at the college level and because of his scholarship, athletics and involvement on campus, he was named Outstanding Senior Male Student at the PSU graduation ceremonies in 1997. In 2009, he was inducted into the PSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Marc and his wife Kami reside in Nixa, Mo.
DeVoe distinguished himself as an outstanding athlete at Columbus Unified High School from 1997-2001. During his high school sports career, he won multiple state championships in wrestling, and he placed 3rd at the Junior Nationals Freestyle Wrestling Championships and was named All American.
DeVoe was named the Kansas State High School Wrestler of the Year in 2001 after he earned his third state title during the 2000-2001 wrestling campaign. He was the Kansas State Champion in his weight division in 1999, 2000 and 2001. In addition, he finished second in the Kansas State Wrestling Championships as a freshman in 1998.
After high school, DeVoe went on to earn four wrestling letters at the University of Missouri and in 2002 he was named the Outstanding Freshman Wrestler of the Year at Missouri. As a Big XII wrestler, he also qualified for the NCAA National Wrestling Championships. While at Missouri, DeVoe won the Freestyle University National Championships and he was selected to travel to Bulgaria and Greece to wrestle in freestyle matches.
DeVoe majored in parks and recreation management while earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 2006. Since leaving Missouri, he has been instrumental in teaching wrestling to youngsters in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska in both camps and clinics. He is the assistant wrestling coach at the University of Northern Colorado, a Division I wrestling program.
COLUMBUS —
