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 The Madison Area Soccer Hall of Fame will welcome six new members this month, a class that features three players who learned the game in the Madison Area Youth Soccer Association, two well-known coaches and a longtime club official.
Jim Mullen, Kathleen O'Brien Kim, Debbie Treichel Duerst, Craig Webb, Ron Holzhueter and the late Charles Billings will be honored at a reception Nov. 27 at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Middleton. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.
The group's third induction class, which includes five members of the Wisconsin Soccer Association Hall of Fame, will bring the total number of Hall of Famers to 20.
Here's a look at the newest members, who also will be lauded with plaques detailing their accomplishments at Reddan Soccer Park in Verona.
Charles Billings
Category: Builder
Billings was a player and administrator for the Madison 56ers for four decades before he passed away July 27. A native of Marshfield, he learned the sport growing up on military bases in Germany and France before playing on the club teams at UW-Parkside and UW. Billings joined Madison SC, which was later renamed the 56ers, and served in several capacities over the years, including club president, secretary and adult program general manager. He also was a member of the WSA Board of Directors from 1981 to '97, served as commissioner of the WSA's Capitol Region, the WSA, the state Women's League and the Badger State Games. More recently, he was the National Premier Soccer League Midwest Division commissioner, a member of the NPSL Board of Directors and the GM for the club's teams in the NPSL and Women's Premier Soccer League. Billings was inducted into the WSA Hall of Fame in 2000.
Ron Holzhueter
Category: Coach and builder
Holzhueter, who started coaching prep soccer in 1969, was inducted into the WSA Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010. He started the Madison Memorial boys program, compiling a 319-116-48 record in 27 years with the Spartans, then coached at Waunakee for eight seasons and spent two years as the junior varsity coach at Verona. Holzhueter helped establish Madison's first indoor soccer facility and has served on several local soccer club boards and organizations, including the 56ers.
Jim Mullen
Category: Player
Mullen started playing for the South Side Rovers in MAYSA when he was 11, joined Rangers of the Madison Capital League when he was 15 and won the league title two years later and moved to the 56ers in the state Major League in 1976. He played for UW from 1977 to '79, being named team MVP in 1979 after having served as team captain in 1978. Mullen is tied for ninth in program history with 53 points, recording 19 goals and 15 assists in his career. He continued to play in the Major League until 1986, when he was forced to retire due to injury, and went into coaching and refereeing. He was an assistant for the Badgers for three seasons, led both the boys and girls programs at Madison Edgewood, was an assistant at Madison Memorial and coached for the 56ers and the U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program, and also officiated college and prep matches, including the first WIAA state girls final. Mullen, who also was a six-time member of U.S. Speedskating national teams, is now a doctor with a physical medicine and rehabilitation practice in Woodruff in northern Wisconsin. He also was inducted into the WSA Hall of Fame in 2007.
Kathleen O'Brien Kim
Category: Builder
O'Brien Kim, who played for her local Waunona team in MAYSA in the late 1960s, has made an impact on soccer in several areas in her career. She has coached at Madison La Follette, Madison East and Monona Grove on the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels, and now is the vice president and treasurer for the Madison Celtics SC youth program. In 1981, she became the first woman in Wisconsin to obtain a state-level refereeing license.
Debbie Treichel Duerst
Category: Player
A pioneering female player, Treichel Duerst grew up playing in boys leagues because there weren't girls teams at the time. She later played for the Shorewood Eagles men's team before helping form the first women's league in Madison in 1975, playing with the Madison 56ers into the late 1980s. A 1993 WSA Hall of Fame inductee, Treichel Duerst remains active on a men's team in the Madison-area Over-40 league.
Craig Webb
Category: Player and coach
Webb grew up in Madison after his family moved from Schenectady, N.Y., and starred at Madison Memorial and with the 56ers. He played at UW-Milwaukee and for Bavarian SC from 1977 to '81, then played professionally for the Chicago Horizon of the Major Indoor Soccer League – becoming the first former MAYSA player drafted by a professional team. He returned to Madison and was the first varsity UW women's coach, compiling a 44-16-2 record in five seasons. He now is an assistant professor at the Colorado State Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo.
The Madison Area Soccer Hall of Fame is sponsored by BreakAway Sports Center, Claddagh Irish Pub, Keva Sports Center and Middleton Sports and Fitness.
A complete list of Hall of Fame members is available here. For more information, visit the Hall of Fame's website.
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