A special Jan. 13 Geneva High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony will celebrate two of the most accomplished scholar-athletes in school history as well as the athletic achievements and community service of a Geneva family.
The 2023 inductees are two-time first-team All Big-Ten golfer Michael O’Neal, state champion and Magna Cum Laude Harvard pole vaulter Allie Pace McCoy and the Bashaw family, whose legacy includes the life’s work and athletic accomplishments of a Geneva teacher and coach, a teacher at every school in Geneva, a cheerleader and pom pon squad team member, three talented three-sport athletes and one college All-America cross-country runner.
All will be honored during the 22nd annual Geneva Community High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony at halftime of the Jan. 13, 2023, boys' basketball game. The varsity game between Geneva and Belvidere North tips off at 7 p.m. at Geneva High School’s main contest gymnasium.
After the game, all ticket holders are invited to meet the hall-of-fame inductees during a coffee-and-cake reception in their honor in the north balcony of Geneva High’s contest gymnasium.
Here are some details on this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, chosen by a committee of former Geneva sports journalists, Viking athletic alumni and coaches:
Michael O’Neal
(class of ‘01) is among the best Big Ten golfers of his generation and the first individual golfer to be inducted in the GHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
O’Neal made all-conference in the old Suburban Prairie League all four years of high school and led the Vikings to the conference championship all four years. He was Conference Player of the Year during his junior and senior years, and as a junior in 1999, he was named to the all-state team.
In fall 2000 as a senior, in an invitational, he shot a 10-under-par 62 at the 6,800-yard Links of Carillon in Plainfield — which remains a Viking scoring record 22 years later.
O’Neal earned a golf scholarship at the University of Illinois, and under legendary coach Mike Small, he was first-team All-Big Ten during his junior and senior years. He was named to the all-academic Big Ten Conference team in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
After earning his degree in Finance in 2004, O’Neal played on the Canadian pro tour for five years. He took a job as an assistant pro at a northwest-suburban course, where he met his future wife, Rebecca. He now lives in south-suburban Nashville, TN, with Rebecca and their two young sons and is a senior vice president for promotions with a Chicago-based sports marketing firm.
Allie Pace McCoyAllie Pace McCoy
Allie Pace (class of ‘10) stepped up to help the Geneva track team as needed in sprinting events — and as a senior she ran on the state-qualifying 4-by-4 relay team – but her laser focus was the pole vault.
As a sophomore, in spring 2008, she was Western Sun Conference and Kane County pole vault champion. She placed third in the IHSA Sectional meet, qualifying for the state meet in downstate Charleston, where she placed 11th.
She again ran the table of local pole-vault championships as a junior in spring 2009, this time winning the sectional championship. At the state meet that spring, her vault of 12 feet placed her second in all of Illinois, coming in just 3 inches short of that year’s champion.
By spring 2010, she was ready for her moment: On May 22 of that year, she captured the IHSA state track championship with a vault of 12 feet even.
She was recruited by a number of schools but chose Harvard University. There, she set school records in both the indoor and outdoor pole vault, ultimately reaching 12 feet, 9 ½ inches. She was able to compete internationally, and represented Harvard at the NCAA Division I qualifying meet in 2014.
Pace soared as high in the classroom as she did on the track. She earned her degree Magna Cum Laude in Human Evolutionary Biology, and launched a career in corporate research and strategy back home in Chicago, applying psychology and other social science to help evolve Fortune 500 brands.
Today, she is senior director of client experience for ADP. She married George McCoy in 2019 and is the mother of an infant son, Brooks.
The Bashaw Family The Bashaw Family
For the first time since the GHS Athletic Hall of Fame was formed in 2001, the committee will recognize a family’s legacy of athletic achievement as well as community service.
The Bashaw family will always be remembered for their kindness, humility, hard work and good-natured participation. The Bashaws were part of the fabric of the community, and either through teaching or coaching or team sports, they touched the lives of just about every student who attended Geneva schools in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.
Chuck Bashaw taught history and physical education, first at Sixth Street School and later at Coultrap Junior High, coached junior-high football and basketball, managed the Geneva Memorial Swimming Pool for 25 summers and served as PA announcer for virtually every sophomore football and basketball game. His wife, Jean, was equally well-known in the community, serving as a substitute teacher at every school in Geneva District 304 and ultimately teaching full-time at Geneva High School.
Their children were determined and gifted athletes, each worthy of Hall of Fame consideration in their own right. Three were three-sport athletes who starred on both offense and defense and captained their football teams. Another was a college All-America cross country runner.
Their oldest son, Bruce (class of ‘72), was a unanimous all-conference and special-mention all-state running back for Geneva’s fourth-consecutive Little Seven title team. In basketball, he was starting point guard as a junior and senior and won special-mention all-conference honors his senior year. On the track in the spring, Bruce set the school records in the low hurdles and on the mile medley relay team.
The second-oldest brother, Dave (class of ’73), took a different path, concentrating on cross-country. As a senior, he was undefeated during the regular season, finishing first in every dual and three-school cross country meet in which he competed. He went on to Waubonsee Community College, where he won all-conference and all-region awards and finished 39th in the National Junior Cross Country meet in Rochester, MN, in 1975.
Dave then attended Naperville’s North Central College, where he qualified for the Division III national meet in fall ’75, and as a senior in fall ’76, he finished 19th in the nation, helping North Central win its second consecutive D-III national title. During that senior year, Dave was named to the college cross country All-America team.
Tom Bashaw (class of ‘76) played flanker on offense and was a unanimous all-conference selection in the defensive backfield in fall 1975, when the Vikings tallied eight shutouts and went all the way to that year’s state championship game. He played forward on the varsity basketball team and lettered in track all four years.
Don Bashaw (class of ‘80) started both at tight end, where he made special mention all conference, and defensive end for the 7-2 Vikings, and Barb Bashaw (class of ‘82) was a cheerleader and pom pon team member.
Bruce, Tom and Don Bashaw will accept the award at the Jan. 13 induction ceremony, which affirms the value of sports and family and honors the memories of Chuck, Jean, Dave and Barb.