HUNTSVILLE — The Sam Houston Letterwinners Association will recognize eight student-athletes who left their footprints on Bearkat Athletics when these individuals are inducted into the Hall of Honor this fall.  

The 2024 class —consisting of Neishka Cardona (bowling), Gilberto Clavell (men's basketball), Daniell Demas (women's track and field), Randy Flach (men's track and field), Kevin Kirk (men's golf), Dustin Long (football), Sequeena Thomas (women's basketball), Bobby Verbick (baseball) — will be publicly recognized at the Sept. 21 Homecoming football game against New Mexico State at Bowers Stadium.

Along with the class of former student-athletes, the Letterwinners Association will also honor Randy Stewart with a Distinguished Service Award. Stewart's honor will be celebrated Sept. 28 during the football game against Texas State in Houston at NRG Stadium.

The class will also be recognized at the Hall of Honor Reception on campus in the White Ballroom of the Lowman Student Center before the game. The event will begin with a social welcome gathering for attendees beginning at 1:30 p.m. with the official program honoring the inductees scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

Hors d'ourves and drinks will be served, with tickets available for $25 per person. Tickets for the event may be purchased by contacting the Sam Houston Ticket Office at (936) 294-1729 or by clicking on the following link.
 
2024 Sam Houston Letterwinners Association Hall of Honor Induction Class

Neishka Cardona
Bowling (2010-2014)
Neishka Cardona was a key member of the foundation of the Sam Houston bowling program. The native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, was the Bearkats' first international signing and helped the team claim the school's first-ever NCAA Division I national championship in 2014. The Kats made the NCAA Tournament in three of her four seasons as she earned academic honors from the National Tenpin Coaches Association.

One of her best seasons came as a junior in 2012-13 when she raised her average to a career best 199.76 for 54 games and her best finish was at the Southern ITRC Invitational where she not only made the All-Tournament Team but had a personal career tournament best average of 223.40.
 
Cardona won numerous medals while competing on the international stage and the Puerto Rician national team as a Bearkat. She was also named as the winner of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee's "Female Athlete-of-the-Year" award for bowling in 2013.
 
Gilberto Clavell
Men's Basketball (2010-2011)
Gilberto Clavell is one of the most decorated players and was a member of one of the greatest men's basketball teams in school history.

The Mayaquez, Puerto Rico native started all 64 games he played in after transferring from Collin County CC. He earned All-American honors, Southland Conference Player of the Year and was a first-team All-SLC selection in 2011. Clavell was the league Newcomer of the Year and a second-team honoree in helping lead Sam Houston to the 2009-10 Southland regular season and tournament championships to earn the program's its second-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.

He had plenty of firsts as a Bearkat. He was the first player in SHSU history named to the Southland Conference All-Tournament team in back-to-back years in 2010 and 2011. He was the first Bearkat junior college transfer to score more than 1,000 points in his two years as a Bearkat and is ranked 17th in all-time SHSU scoring with 1,166 points in only 64 career games.

In his final season, Clavell helped get his team become Southland Conference West Division co-champions by scoring 603 points, third-best all-time in a single season, in 31 games in 2011. He ranks No. 4 in school history in field goal percentage (56.6 percent) and scored a career-best 35 points against Texas State and 34 against Auburn in 2009-10.
 
Danielle Demas
Women's Track & Field (2013-2016)
Danielle Demas is one of the most decorated runners in Sam Houston history. She won three individual conference championships and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials as a Bearkat.
 
She was the Southland Conference's Women's Outstanding Indoor track performer and high point scorer (28 points) in leading the Bearkats to the 2016 indoor league championship. Demas won both the SLC indoor 60-meter dash with a time of 7.48 second and the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.23 and was second in the 200-meter dash. She placed 16^th in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. In 2015, she also won the 60-meter hurdles at the SLC indoor meet with a time of 8.30.
 
During her outdoor career, Demas was the 2016 Southland Conference women's championship events high scorer with 22 points as the Bearkats won the league title. She was the 2016 100-meter hurdles champion with a time of 13.08 seconds and was second in the 200-meter dash. She placed fifth in the 100-meter hurdles at the NCAA West Preliminary to earn a spot at the NCAA outdoor championships in 2016 where she placed seventh in the nation to earn first-team All-America honors.
 
Her preliminary time of 12.97 seconds at the NCAA outdoor championships earned her a berth to the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials where she placed 28^th. Demas was the Southland Conference Women's Track and Field Athlete of the Year and Student-Athlete of the Year in 2016, highlighting her accomplishments in the classroom.
 
Demas still holds the school record in the 100 hurdles after she clocked 13.03 seconds at the 2015 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships. She also holds the top nine times in the 100 hurdles in school history. She was part of the 4x100 relay team that holds the Sam Houston record with a time of 44.98 seconds at the NCAA West Preliminary in 2015.
 
Randy Flach
Men's Track & Field (2002-2005)
Flach is one of the pioneers of what has become one of the Sam Houston men's track and field's premier events — the pole vault.
Flach broke onto the scene by winning the pole vault at the 2003 Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field championships with a jump of 16 feet, 8 ¾ inches. He would repeat as champion in 2004 with a mark of 16 feet, 10 ¾ inches.

Not to be outdone, Flach was just as impressive in outdoor competition. He was named the 2005 Outstanding Field Events Performer to lead Sam Houston to the Southland Conference Outdoor championship in 2005 by winning the pole vault with a height of 18 feet, ½ inches.
 
Kevin Kirk
Men's Golf (1979-1983)
Kirk played four seasons for the Bearkats, helping the Bearkats to 17 team victories over that span. The seven team wins in the 1979-80 season still stands as an SHSU single-season record.

He closed out his career with a 76.9 stroke average with a career-low round of 66. He turned in that card after the final round of the 1981 NAIA Nationals, held in Huntsville, where he led the Kats to a runner-up finish.

Kirk was a member of Lone Star Conference championships in both 1980 and 1981 and claimed his lone career medalist victory in 1983 when he won the Southwest Texas Invitational by shooting 74-70 in the 36-hole event.
 
Dustin Long
Football (2004)
Long joined the Bearkats for the 2004 season from Texas A&M and made an immediate and immense impact in his lone year on campus.

Up to his arrival on campus, no other Bearkat signal caller had compiled the numbers that Long put up in 2004. The former Port Neches-Groves HS quarterback led the Bearkats to an 11-3 record and a berth in the semifinals of the Division 1-AA playoffs.

Long finished the year completing 333 of his 531 passes for 4,588 yards and 39 touchdowns. At the year's completion, each of those marks stood as the single season record at SHSU and those marks stood until the 2016 or 2017 seasons.

He totaled eight games with 300 yards passing and four with five touchdown passes. He still holds SHSU single-game records with 577 passing yards and 598 yards of total offense in the Kats' win over McNeese that season.

Along the way he was named the Southland Conference Player of the Year and was the runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, given annually to the top offensive player in the nation at the FCS/1-AA level. Additionally, Long was named a second team All-American by the Sporting News and a third team All-American by the AP.
 
Sequeena Thomas
Women's Basketball (2010-2013)
Thomas was a key member of the program's first regular season Southland Conference championship team. She was a two-time, first-team All-SLC and Academic All-SLC selection who left an unforgettable mark on the court, becoming the school's all-time leader in career rebounds with 1,168.

As a junior, Thomas ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division I women's basketball rebounding, averaging 12.6 boards per game. Throughout her career, she scored in double figures in 47 games and recorded 37 double-digit rebound performances.

In 2013, she ranked eighth in the Southland in single-season rebounds with 410 and fourth in double-doubles with 21. That followed up an impressive 2012 season where she ranked 10th with 18 double-doubles.

Her 1,168 career rebounds place her sixth in Southland Conference history, and her 54-career double-doubles rank second. Thomas also earned a spot on the Southland Conference All-Tournament Team in 2013.
 
Bobby Verbick
Baseball (2007-2008)
Verbick was a force to be reckoned with during his two seasons at Sam Houston.

The right-handed slugger was part of a pair of NCAA Regional teams for the Bearkats in 2007 and 2008, winning the Southland Conference Tournament each season.
Verbick hit .357 in 126 career starts, finishing his stint in Huntsville with 28 home runs, 138 RBI, 37 doubles, 10 triples and 85 walks. He also slugged .649 and had a .461 career on-base percentage.

A two-time All-Southland Conference first team choice, his breakout season came in 2007, his first year on campus, when he was named an NCBWA first team All-American. That season he posted a .370/.460/.665 slash line and had 23 doubles, five triples and crushed 14 home runs on his way to 80 RBI.

Verbick was named to the all-tournament team at the Southland Conference Tournament in Natchitoches, La., before the Kats took their act to the NCAA Oxford Regional. A year later the Kats were in the NCAA Rice Regional with Verbick posting a season which included a .343/.463/.630 slash line along with 14 doubles, five triples, 14 home runs and 58 RBI.
Along the way Verbick led the Kats in home runs in both seasons and had the fourth three-homer game in program history vs Lamar in 2008. His eight RBI vs UCA in 2007 stood as the SHSU single-game record until it was broken in 2022.

He was selected in the 30^th round of the 2008 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres and still ranks in the all-time top 10 in Bearkat history in home runs and RBI.