Beauchemin leads class of latest Glendale Community College Hall of Famers

GLENDALE — Less than six months after retiring as the men’s basketball coach at Glendale Community College, Brian Beauchemin was back in the Vaquero gym for a special occasion.

Surrounded by family and former athletes, Beauchemin stood in the gym and reflected on 35 seasons of pacing the sidelines, yelling out instructions, conducting practice and molding young men into more than just basketball players while relishing the honor of being inducted into the Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame on Sunday afternoon.

PHOTOS: 2015 Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony

“I’m proud that the induction happened so quickly after my retirement,” said Beauchemin, who was also inducted into the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame in 2014. “It’s an amazing privilege to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

Beauchemin, whose team went 22-6 in his last season, was selected for being an outstanding coach who left with 592 victories, third all-time in the state.

There were five other outstanding individuals — Freddy Sanchez, Tammy Panich, Victor Trujillo, Joe Puglia and Johnny Harrison —-and the talented 1977 football team that enjoyed being inducted into the hall of fame.

One of the best athletes to come out of GCC was Freddy Sanchez, a Burbank High graduate who was a Vaquero from 1997-98 and was the Western State Conference MVP in 1998. Sanchez played Major League Baseball for 10 years with the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and most recently the San Francisco Giants.

The former Vaquero had a stellar run in the majors with three all-star game appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2009 and a National League batting championship in 2006, when he batted .344 with the Pirates. The highlight of his career might have been in 2010 when he played on San Francisco’s World Series Championship team.

“Any time you get to be honored with other greats, it’s an incredible feeling,” said Sanchez, who was placed in the Pillar of Achievement category. “This was home. Burbank and Glendale is like home to me. To be able to be honored is humbling.”

Panich echoed similar thoughts before her acceptance speech for outstanding athletic achievement.

The GCC women’s golfer fired an even-par 74 to finish tied for first with Kayla Riede of Sacramento City College, but won in a card-off to capture the state crown at Los Serranos Country Club’s North Course in 2010. Panich finished her two-round competition with a 150 and became the first Vaquero — man or woman — to capture a state golf crown.

Panich, a Glendale High graduate, won the card-off on the strength of an even-par 36 on the back nine, compared to a 38 from Riede.

“I was honored and surprised when I got the call because I am still young,” said Panich, 24, who lives in Michigan. “I thought I had to be old to get this honor.”

Trujillo, who has been a member of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department for 30 years, didn’t have to travel far to make it to the hall of fame ceremony. He did recall a number of athletes who came from around the world to play for the Vaqueros’ 1979 team that won the state championship.

“We were an international team,” said Trujillo, who was an All-American and the state’s men’s soccer player of the year for the Vaqueros in 1979. “We had players from Greece, Italy, Turkey, Armenia, everywhere. I think I was the only American citizen on the team.”

Trujillo, honored for outstanding athletic achievement, was also a placekicker for the Vaqueros football team in 1979, scoring 31 points. His passion was soccer, though, and he helped the 1979 Vaqueros to a 14-1-4 record and a 2-1 win against Santa Rosa for the state championship in a match that was decided by penalty kicks.

“It’s probably the best soccer team I ever played on,” Trujillo said.

One of the best teams the school’s football team ever had was in 1977.

“It doesn’t hurt to have a quarterback who played in the NFL and two offensive linemen who played Division I football,” said Billy French, a La Crescenta resident who was a standout wide receiver on the 1977 Vaquero team that won the school’s first conference championship.

The 1977 football team was coached by GCC Hall of Fame Chairperson and 2012 inductee, Jim Sartoris, and was led by Hall of Famers Andy Reid (2003), Bob Gagliano (2005) and Jimmy Evangelatos (2011).

Gagliano, who played for eight NFL teams, was the starting quarterback and leader of a team that included Reid, currently the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Vaqueros went 6-1 in the conference before falling to Saddleback College in the Mission Bowl played at Glendale High.

“Everything we did, we did as a team,” French said. “It was a very tight group of guys. Yes, we had a lot of great athletes, but we played very well as a team.”

Before the induction ceremony, French spent time talking to Puglia, an academic counselor at the college for nearly 40 years and a counselor for athletics for 20 years.

“You’re the one who caught the pass in the Santa Monica game,” Puglia told French.

“How do you remember that?” French asked Puglia.

Puglia remembered many athletes who he mentored.

“These are my guys,” Puglia said. “I was their teacher. I found a home in the athletic department.”

Harrison has also been a key figure in making a difference for athletes at the school, despite not putting on a Vaquero uniform.

As the former vice president for Lexus of Glendale, Harrison donated more than $1.5 million to local schools, including being credited with helping the GCC Foundation net more than $100,000 for the first time ever in 2015 at the annual golf classic. For his generosity, Harrison received the inaugural Community Partnership Award.

“It’s for the kids,” Harrison said. “The kids are our future.”