PORT ANGELES — Four of the best athletes in the history of Port Angeles High School will be featured speakers as part of “Game On For Life” presentation at the First Fed Community Conversation at 5 p.m. June 3 at the Port Angeles Field Arts and Events Hall.
The event will focus on the how athletics and staying active in life supports physical health, mental well-being, personal development and a sense of community.
Four members of the Port Angeles Roughriders Hall of Fame will participate, including moderator Leigh Morgan. Guests include Mike Briggs, Sherri Felton and Barry Wilcox.
Leigh Morgan
Morgan was a three-sport star at Port Angeles High School and was the most valuable player of the 1986 state basketball tournament, in which the Riders finished second, their highest finish ever. In tennis, she played on Port Angeles High School’s only state championship team in 1986, finishing second in state tournament doubles behind teammates Mary Dill and Carolyn Chris.
She was also a two-time All-League soccer player. Morgan went on to play basketball at Duke University, where she was the starting point guard.
Morgan also has had a distinguished career in the business world, recently retiring as the COO for the Gates Foundation in Seattle. She also served in the North Carolina Governor’s office and as the Associate Chancellor at the University of San Francisco.
Mike Briggs
Briggs was also a three-sport star at Port Angeles High School and played on the 1959 football team that was arguably the best football team in Port Angeles history, losing only to Everett in the opening game of the season.
Briggs was also the Port Angeles High School salutatorian in 1960. He went on to be an All-Pacific Coast Conference tackle at the University of Washington in 1963. He was also an academic All-American and played for the Huskies in the 1964 Rose Bowl. After receiving a degree in physics at the UW, he went on to receive his MBA from Harvard and had an extremely successful business career, serving as the CEO for several companies.
Sherri Felton
Felton made the Seattle Times Golden Girl list of the top 40 female multi-sport athletes in State of Washington high school history in 1989. She was all-state in basketball, setting state tournament records for single-game scoring with 39 points.
She jumped 5-11 in the high jump during her senior year, which was the best in the nation. She qualified for the USA national team trials in the pentathlon and was all-league in volleyball, basketball and track.
Felton went on to become the first female to high jump over 6-0 at the University of Washington. She also set the Huskies single-game basketball scoring record of 36 points against WSU, which stood until all-time NCAA scoring leader and WNBA star Kelsey Plum broke it.
Barry Wilcox
A multiple national champion in the 15- to 16-year-old age category in the sport of road cycling and a member of the United States Junior National Cycling Team during his sophomore and junior years at Port Angeles High School.
Unfortunately, he was also involved in an automobile accident during his junior year that resulted in a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia. A few years later Barry would play wheelchair rugby with different teams across the nation, two of which won national championships.
He got his second chance to race again, this time with a hand-cycle bike in 2015. He has been on many world cup podiums with his greatest accomplishment at the 2023 World Paracycling Championships in Scotland where he claimed a bronze medal in the road race.
Tickets can be purchased for a pay-what-makes-you-happy price at fieldhallevents.org. The event will also be livestreams at www.youtube.com/live/jei4w9YczF0.
