Top 6-10 Central Athletes

6. Billy North Inducted into the Central athletics Hall of Fame in 1987. North is also a Seattle native who might have the most “bling” of any Central athlete.  He won two World Series titles with the Oakland Athletics in 1973 and 1974 on a team littered with hall-of-famers. North was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He was drafted in 1969 by the Chicago Cubs and spent two years with the Cubs before being traded to the Athletics. He spent the last four years of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. In 1974, North led the league in steals and swiped 395 bases in his career to go along with a .261 batting average and 1,016 hits.

7. Keith Baker is a 2014 Central athletics Hall of Fame inductee and won a National Championship in track and field.  He is a five-time All-American and to this day is the record holder for indoor 110-meter hurdles.  Before attending Central, Baker served in the United States Army. He spent four years in the service where he was trained to jump out of planes and use explosives. Baker was 22 years old when he first came to Central. While at Central, he played football for one season and earned an accounting degree. In 2011, baker began to enter “Men’s physique” competitions, which is a drug-free form of bodybuilding. He won some local competitions and began to compete on the national level and beat athletes half his age. Also, in 2011 he placed in the top ten in three competitions and in 2013 took the top prize.  Baker resides with his wife Rebekah and four kids.

8. Dave Heaverlo is a 1983 Central athletics Hall of Fame inductee and a former major league baseball player of seven years and an Ellensburg native. Heaverlo was drafted by the Giants in the first round of the 1973 amateur draft and made his major-league debut in 1975. His seven-year career included stints with the Giants, Athletics and Mariners. As a career reliever, Heaverlo perfected the sinking forkball. His career record was 26-26, with a 3.14 earned run average (ERA) and 288 strikeouts. Heaverlo now resides in Moses Lake, WA and is a local radio personality.

9. Dean Nicholson is a 1983 Central athletics Hall of Fame inductee. A Seattle native and Ellensburg High School grad, Nicholson is one of the most successful athletes in college sports history. Nicholson was inducted in the Central athletics Hall of Fame in 1983 and was inducted into the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.  While playing at  Central, he was named all-conference four straight seasons and led the Wildcats to a conference title in 1947 and their first National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national tournament berth in 1950.  He scored 1,377 points, which ranks ninth on the school’s all-time list. He also lettered in tennis and baseball. The son of longtime Central men’s basketball coach Leo Nicholson, they combined for 1,114 victories, which is a record for a father-son tandem in all of college sports. Dean Nicholson recorded 609 victories.

10. Rose Shaw is a 2014 Central athletics Hall of Fame inductee and is the all-time leading scorer in Central women’s basketball history.  Shaw chose Central because she wanted to play right away and five games into her freshman year she cracked the starting lineup. Shaw scored 1696 career points. One of Shaw’s most notable moments is when Central beat Western Washington for the first time in 20 years during her senior year. Shaw now works for the City of Kirkland as an office specialist in the engineering division.