ANDERSON, S.C. – Seven former Trojans are scheduled to be inducted into Anderson's coveted Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the school's Homecoming Weekend celebration on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
Whitney Bishoff, Blair Carson, Clay Huggins, Deidra Langston, Steve Lytton, Careef Robertson and Lasse Sohrweide will be honored at a banquet ceremony in the G. Ross Anderson Jr. Student Center Banquet Hall. Each inductee will be given a plaque and a medallion.
This is the first of a two-part look at the seven honorees, with a snapshot of the remaining three inductees to come on Tuesday.
Whitney Bishoff
(Women's Cross Country / Track & Field)
Bishoff, whose collegiate career spanned two years in Conference Carolinas and two years in the South Atlantic Conference, wasted no time in making an impact on both the regional and national levels. She was named Conference Carolinas Freshman of the Year in 2008 and was named Conference Runner of the Year (individual champion) on three occasions, while earning First-Team All-Conference honors during each of her four seasons and was an All-American in cross country in 2009.
She was named the AU Female Athlete of the Year in both 2011 and 2012, and remains one of only six student-athletes to claim the honor twice during their career, with three of those athletes being honored this fall.
The native of Winder, Ga., built a stellar resume with impressive outings in both cross country and track & field during her career, including earning the prestigious NCAA Elite 89 Award for the second time at the 2011 NCAA Division II Women's Cross Country Championships, while making her third career appearance in the championships. The Elite 89 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 89 championships.
As a junior during the 2010 season, Bishoff led the Trojans to the SAC Cross Country Championship in their first year as members of the South Atlantic Conference and the following year she helped lead the women's cross country team to its second consecutive South Atlantic Conference championship (in 2011) and also earned a spot on the NCAA All-Southeast Region Team for the second straight year.
She was a 12-time conference runner of the week and paced the Trojan cross country squad on 18 consecutive occasions, while posting 12 of the top 15 times in school history in the 5k.
As a member of the AU track & field team, she set the school record in the 5K and was a member of the school record-setting 4x800 relay team. Bishoff was a First-Team Academic All-America and finished 16th in the 10,000m at the 2011 NCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. At one time she held the indoor school record for the 3,000 meters (10:06.07) and still owns the outdoor school record in the 1,500m (4:33.03), 5,000m (16:53.04) and the 10,000m (35:37.97).
In 2012, Bishoff set the South Atlantic Conference record – which still stands today - for the outdoor 5,000m and still holds the second-best times in league history in both the 1,500m and the 10,000m.
Bishoff was just as successful in the classroom – being named the SAC Scholar-Athlete for Cross Country and was twice named to the NCAA DII Individual All-Academic Team. She is a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma Honorary Society and her dedication and work ethic also led to her being named as the 2012 NCAA Post-Graduate Award Winner.
Blair Carson
(Baseball)
Few baseball players want to be labeled as versatile for fear of being tagged as a "utility" player, but few players with as much talent and versatility as current Crescent High School Head Coach Blair Carson have roamed the field at Anderson Memorial Stadium. The Anderson native was a gifted, all-around standout on the diamond for the Trojans for four seasons (2006-09), while seeing action as a pitcher, first baseman and as an outfielder.
Carson, who hit .309 during the 2007 season, helped lead the team to 29 wins, which marks Anderson's fifth-highest win total of the NCAA DII era and no AU squad has equaled the mark over the past 15 seasons. Despite finishing two games under .500, the underdog Trojans, who finished fifth in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference regular-season standings, reached the 2007 CVAC Tournament Finals after winning four straight elimination games.
Following his junior campaign (2008), Carson was named First-Team All-Conference Carolinas and earned Rawlings/ABCA Second-Team South Atlantic Region recognition after posting a .326 batting average and notching three wins as a pitcher.
Carson capped off his collegiate career in 2009 by capturing All-Conference accolades for the second straight year, being named to the Conference Carolinas All-Tournament Team and again garnering Second-Team All‐Southeast Region honors.
He was named AU's Male Athlete of the Year in 2009 and was later selected as a pitcher by the Cincinnati Reds in the 42nd round of the 2009 MLB Draft. In the professional ranks, Carson finished with a 3.93 earned run average in 51 appearances over 151 innings. He struck out 87 batters and went 6-12 as a starter.
Carson led the Trojans in total bases during all four seasons and paced AU in home runs, hits and RBI in both 2008 and 2009 and is still at the top of the school record books in career at-bats, hits, home runs, total bases and extra-base hits, while ranking second in triples, RBI and runs scored and standing 10th with a .333 career batting average.
Following his professional career, Carson served as head coach at Hilton Head High School and led the Seahawks to the postseason each year, while notching an impressive 71-24 record. In 2016, Hilton Head won the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) District V championship and advanced to the lower-state semifinals. After his coaching stint in the low country, the Westside High School standout was tabbed to lead the Crescent baseball program in 2017.
After six seasons in Iva, Carson owns a 79-61 record at the helm of the Tiger program and has guided the Tigers to the postseason in two of the last three seasons, while capturing the regional and district championships both times. He was named the South Carolina 3A Coach of the Year after leading Crescent to the 2019 Upper State Championship.
Clay Huggins
(Men's Basketball)
Four-year starter and Anderson native Clay Huggins left as the school's all-time leader in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes played after leading the Trojans to 18 victories during the 2001-02 campaign, which was a record for the four-year program. The Trojans put together a nine-game win streak and won all 10 of their CVAC home games to earn a tie for the 2002 regular-season championship.
The durable 6-foot-6 guard started all 108 games for the Trojans from 1998-2002 and currently ranks seventh in the school record books with 1,314 points after averaging nearly a double-double during his career with 12.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Huggins recorded 26 double‐doubles and notched three triple‐doubles during his time with the Black and Gold, while pouring in a career-high 28 points against Coker during the 2000-01 season. His 12 assists against Emmanuel earlier that season still stands as one of the three highest assist totals in school history and he pulled down a career-best 16 rebounds against 10th-ranked Queens later that season.
Huggins was named the 1999 Carolinas Virginia Athletic Conference (CVAC) Freshman of the Year after averaging more than 12 points per contest. Two seasons later, he averaged a career-best 13.9 points per game and captured Second-Team All-CVAC honors after helping lead the Trojans to a 15-12 overall record and their first appearance in the CVAC Tournament.
He helped make the 2001-02 campaign even more memorable, as AU went 18-10 overall and tied perennial CVAC powerhouse Belmont Abbey for the regular-season championship with a 16-4 league mark. Huggins averaged more than 12 points per game during the season and earned first-team all-conference honors, while garnering CVAC All-Tournament accolades after second-seeded AU defeated Limestone in the CVAC Tournament Quarterfinals for the Trojans' first-ever CVAC Tournament victory.
Off the court, Huggins was among a league-leading 85 AU student-athletes named to the 2001-2002 CVAC Presidential Honor Roll.
Deidra Langston
(Women's Basketball)
Deidra Langston, who is synonymous with Anderson University women's basketball, helped lead the Trojans to their most successful four-year span in school history (2003-2007). The Trojans posted a 109-23 record during Langston's collegiate career, averaging more than 27 victories a season.
The 5-foot-10 forward from Gainesville, Ga., led AU to a pair of CVAC regular-season titles, three CVAC Tournament Championships and four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2005.
Following a freshman campaign (2003-04) that saw Langston lead AU to its first CVAC Tournament Championship, she garnered Honorable Mention All-Conference and All-CVAC Tournament recognition, with AU claiming its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
As a sophomore, Langston averaged nearly 16 points and eight rebounds, as the Trojans won the first of back-to-back regular season and tournament titles, while losing just three conference games over two seasons. The Trojans advanced to the NCAA's Sweet 16 with wins over Millersville and Fairmont State, before wrapping the season up with a 33-3 overall record.
Langston was named AU Female Athlete of the Year after finishing the 2005-06 season ranking 29th nationally in both scoring (18.2) and field-goal percentage (.541) and pacing the Trojans to both the regular-season title and the league's tournament championship.
As an encore, during her senior campaign (2006-07) Langston was named CVAC Female Athlete of the Year, the CVAC Women's Basketball Player of the Year, and brought home First-Team All-CVAC honors for the second straight year after leading the league in scoring at 20.6 points per game. She also averaged eight rebounds, two steals, and one block per game. She posted nine double-doubles, while notching 26 double-figure scoring games and scored at least 20 points on 16 occasions, while reaching the 30-point plateau four times, including two games in the 2007 CVAC Tournament.
She was named to the CVAC All-Tournament Team for the fourth consecutive year and went on to capture First-Team All-Region accolades for the second straight season. Langston gained national attention after being named a Second-Team All-American by the Division II Bulletin and was one of five finalists in Region 2 for Kodak All-American honors after averaging 19.8 points and 7.7 rebounds and was named AU Female Athlete of the Year for the second straight year.
Beginning in 2007-08, the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference (CVAC) became Conference Carolinas and in conjunction with the 2007 CVAC Women's Basketball Championships, Langston was one of ten players named to the All-Time CVAC Women's Basketball Team, in honor of the best of the best CVAC-era athletes.
She scored an eye-popping, career-high 40 points against Limestone during the 2005-2006 season, while also pulling down a career-best 16 rebounds against the Saints and finished her career with 24 double-doubles.
"What an exciting time to be a part of the Trojan Family," said Anderson Vice President for Athletics, Dr. Bert Epting. "This is a tremendous class of inductees and we are excited to be able to honor their achievements and thank them for their contributions to Anderson University and Trojan Athletics. We are blessed to be at a university where we have had great athletic success and we are looking forward to celebrating these inductees this fall."
The banquet is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour and is open to the public. Tickets for the ceremony are $20. Contact Emily Richards at erichards@andersonuniversity.edu by Saturday, Oct. 1.
The Hall of Fame was established in 1999 to recognize and preserve the outstanding achievements of selected Anderson athletes and coaches in intercollegiate sports. Eligibility is limited to former athletes and coaches who have brought acclaim to the University with consideration given to integrity, reputation and character.
Members of the Anderson Athletics Hall of Fame
Class of 2022: Whitney Bishoff, Blair Carson, Clay Huggins, Deidra Langston, Steve Lytton, Careef Robertson and Lasse Sohrweide.
Class of 2010: Katrina Anderson Sacoco, Glenn Corbit, Terry Poore, Frankie Porter, and Robbie Stanifer.
Class of 2000: Jim Boykin, David Buffamoyer and Donna Forester Reed.
Class of 1999: Al Daniel, Max Grubbs, Janie Ruth Lee, Dhiren Rathod, Annie Tribble and Jim Wiles.
