Worth the wait: Edison High School Hall of Fame’s newest inductees honored in delayed event
The coronavirus pandemic pushed the ceremony back a year. For the members of the Edison High School Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2020, though, it was worth the wait.
William Wang, Dan Kerins, Lisa Guerrero, Kelly Gallagher, Erin Tomblin Appleman and brothers Roger and Scott Wojahn were all inducted in a ceremony Wednesday night in the Edison cafeteria. Tomblin Appleman and Roger Wojahn couldn’t be in attendance, but their prerecorded speeches were shown.
The event, emceed by former Edison athletic director Bruce Belcher, was livestreamed by Edison. Guerrero, who was known as Lisa Coles when she graduated from Edison in 1982, is used to speaking in front of a camera. She is the chief investigative correspondent for “Inside Edition,” and previously spent more than a decade as a nationally recognized sports reporter who broadcast from seven Super Bowls and five World Series.
She said her nickname while at Edison was “Q-tip,” and she was bullied for a time growing up after her mom died when she was 8. But she found a spot as a member of the Chargers’ drill team, eventually becoming a Los Angeles Rams cheerleader.
“I wonder what I would tell my freshman self,” Guerrero said. “I would say, ‘Q-tip, Edison is going to be hard.’ But you will find achievement, you’ll find success, you’ll find your tribe and you will get through it ... I am so proud to be a Charger.”
Kerins, Edison class of 1979, has also made a name for himself in the world of sports. More specifically, he’s run a football pool for about 30 years that has raised nearly $83,000 for former and current Chargers and members of the south Huntington Beach community.
Wang, a 1982 Edison graduate who lives in Newport Beach, has had a distinguished career in the electronics industry. He founded the television brand VIZIO in Fountain Valley in 2002.
Gallagher (class of 1976) is an award-winning author and teacher, who taught English at Magnolia High in Anaheim for 35 years. Appleman (class of 1985) has coached the Yale University women’s volleyball program since 2003, winning 10 Ivy League championships during that time.
Appleman said in her taped speech that her father told her in eighth grade that she could play tennis or golf, “because they make money.” But she played volleyball at Edison, where she was coached by the late Dave Mohs, who now has a tournament named in his honor.
“Volleyball is what I picked, and thankfully I’ve been able to make a career out of it,” Appleman said.
The Wojahn twins, who graduated from Edison in 1974, went on to form Wojahn Bros. Music together in Santa Monica. They have written and produced music for national and global companies, as well as artists including Vince Gill, Buddy Guy and Shawn Colvin.
Scott Wojahn, who now lives in Cincinnati and said he was returning to campus for the first time since graduating, gave special thanks to Belcher and longtime Edison teacher and football coach Dave White.
“In seventh grade, [White] taught me how to make Nestle’s strawberry milk one day after school,” Wojahn said. “That was pretty much instant friendship.”
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