Best of the best in Hawaii high school sports since ’83

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association honors its Hall of Honor inductees for 2014 on Sunday evening.

And you can read all about the exploits of Alyssa Bettendorf, Evan Enriques, Dayton Furuta, Dakota Grossman, Sarah Liva, Jasmine Mau, Jacob McEnroe, Alohi Robins-Hardy, Ryan Stack, Joshua Terao, Alyssa Tobita and Larry Tuileta in Sunday’s paper.

They all are talented and deserving and have great potential to continue as sports stars after high school.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to look at the list of all the inductees, going back to the first class in 1983, and pick the top 12.

I did this based on what they did in sports after high school.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy. At least half are very debatable.

Some of my picks didn’t play professionally or, if they did, had little impact in the pros. But what they did otherwise was so impressive it doesn’t matter.

A couple of them are just breaking into their sport’s highest level now. And I’m sure if I were to do this again in a few years, the list would be different, as stars from recent classes build their legacies in college and beyond.

If you want to see the complete list these 12 were chosen from, go to hhsaa.org/hall_of_honor … and keep in mind that not every great athlete from Hawaii was selected to the Hall of Honor.

Here they are, the hall members who have shined the brightest since induction:

>> Benny Agbayani, 1989, Saint Louis. Five MLB seasons, mostly with the Mets, included game-winning homer in 2000 playoffs.

>> Tita Ahuna, 1984, Kamehameha. NCAA volleyball national champion as University of Hawaii player and twice as Hawaii Pacific coach.

>> Bryan Clay, 1998, Castle. Decathlon gold medal for United States in 2008, silver in 2004. Also the 2005 world champ.

>> Mike Fetters, 1983, ‘Iolani. Pitched 16 MLB seasons, racking up 100 saves.

>> Garrett Gabriel, 1986, Maryknoll. Quarterbacked UH to monumental wins over Brigham Young in 1989 and 1990 and to Hawaii’s first NCAA-sanctioned bowl game.

>> Jason Gesser, 1998, Saint Louis. Three-time captain quarterbacked Washington State to back-to-back 10-win seasons. Seventh in 2002 Heisman voting.

>> Natasha Kai, 2001, Kahuku. Olympic gold medalist for USA in soccer, three-time WAC Player of the Year at UH.

>> Debbie Lambert, 1994, Punahou. Three-time national volleyball champion at Stanford.

>> Adrian Murrell, 1989, Leilehua. Three-time NFL 1,000-yard rusher with Jets, Cardinals.

>> Manti Te’o, 2009, Punahou. Unanimous All-America linebacker, second in Heisman voting, led Notre Dame to 2012 national championship game and 12-1 record.

>> Shane Victorino, 1999, St. Anthony. World Series champ with Phillies and Red Sox. Two-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glover.

>> Kolten Wong, 2008, Kamehameha-Hawaii. Led UH to WAC baseball championships. First-rounder in 2011 draft batting .269 as Cardinals regular second baseman.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.