‘Jess’ Kendall attains HSU Hall of Fame
All-American softball pitcher, mentor a graduate of IVHS
From our weekly issue dated November 5, 2008
Jess Kendall, All-American softball pitcher (Photo by IVN)
All-American softball pitcher Jessame Kendall, a graduate of Illinois Valley High School, has been inducted into the Humboldt State University (HSU) Sports Hall of Fame.
The honor came during a special homecoming ceremony Oct. 3 at her alma mater in Arcata, Calif.
What made “Jess” Kendall great among her peers besides her natural sports ability and consistently high performance, are the aspects of her inspiration to teammates and dedication to the sport.
She led the IVHS softball team to victories during the mid-1990s and later HSU’s Lumberjacks to the school’s first women’s national title in 1999. In 2001, she led the “Jacks” to a national third place.
In those days, competition was fierce in women’s softball on the West Coast, according to Ray Hamill of the Eureka Reporter. He recalled that Cal State Bakersfield and UC Davis were usually the top national contenders. Hamill wrote that “Kendall’s two trips to the nationals were even more impressive in light of the stiff competition.”
Hamill pegged her as the Top Athlete of the Past Decade for HSU.
Many softball fans remember that the Cave Junction native is a two-time Most Valuable Player in the Skyline Conference. She graduated from Illinois Valley High School in 1997. She was accepted at HSU, where she polished her game and achieved lasting fame in college softball.
She is the daughter of Doug & Alyce Kendall, of Cave Junction. Kendall won many softball awards, and her teams won many championship titles. She grew up involved in sports, taking after her athletic parents.
As HSU’s pitcher, she played on an All-Star team against the Olympic women’s softball team, the world champions, in Sacramento. She also helped take the Jacks to national titles while attending HSU and went on to coach girls’ softball pitching in schools in California and Oregon.
Kendall’s many fans call her “legendary, inspiring and always determined,” whether she is pitching or coaching a softball team. HSU’s softball coach Frank Cheek proudly says that she’s “in a class by herself.”
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Jess Kendall is a quiet, self-effacing young woman. She is a loving wife and mother to a baby girl, and someone who enjoys being outdoors on a fine day, pitching a softball or showing a young girl how to do it. She often mentored younger teammates in her pitching career, generously sharing her knowledge and her infectious love of the sport. She was a natural as a pitching coach, a vocation she still pursues.
At HSU, she majored in kinesthesiology, the medical and therapeutic study of the movement of muscles and joints in the body. After graduating from college, she was interested in rehabilitation from sports injuries. This led her to study therapeutic massage, her current work.
Kendall also coaches middle school and high school girls’ softball in Eugene, where she lives with her husband, Joe Don Ireland, also a graduate of IVHS.
Her husband is one of her greatest admirers and her official statistics-keeper. He was thrilled when his wife learned that she was being honored by the HSU Sports Hall of Fame and being recognized as a top athlete of the past decade.
Her parents and extended family also are proud of her accomplishments, and especially being inducted into the HSU Sports Hall of Fame for her softball triumphs.
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