Corissa Yasen passed away 10 years ago at age 27, and Donna Messenger thinks it's important to remind people of the tremendous athlete she was at Coeur d'Alene High - and beyond.

"How often does Idaho have - how often does any place have - an athlete that is as diverse as that girl?" Messenger said. "It didn't matter if it was basketball or jumping or sprinting - or remember, she won a cross country (state) title too - and then the next moment she'd be out on her mountain bike."

Today the region will be reminded of her accomplishments as Yasen, former North Idaho College wrestling coach John Owen and three others - former Lewis-Clark State baseball coach Ed Cheff, former Washington State and major league baseball standout John Olerud, and former Creston (Wash.) High and Gonzaga basketball player Tammy Tibbles - will be inducted into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame at the Spokane Arena.

The induction ceremony is at 10:30 a.m., followed by a no-host reception at 11 a.m. and a luncheon at 11:45.

At Coeur d'Alene High, where she graduated in 1992, Yasen won 10 state championships in track (eight individual), qualified for the Olympic Trials in the high jump in 1992 and the high jump and heptathlon in '96. She played on two state championship basketball teams, won an individual cross country championship, and was part of a state track team title.

At Purdue, she was a nine-time All-American and a 10-time Big 10 champion, and the 1996 NCAA heptathlon champion. After she exhausted her track eligibility, she played a year of basketball at Purdue, then played a year in the WNBA with the Sacramento Monarchs.

She was inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.

"I think it would not have mattered what sport she chose, she would have been phenomenal," Messenger said. "She was a risk taker, she was courageous, she wasn't afraid to try things. I really miss her. We (Donna and her husband Bill) knew her as an athlete but we really knew her as a person, and she was so much fun - the devil always in her eyes."

Messenger moved over to Lake City when the school opened in 1994, and she retired in 2002. But when she was coaching, young athletes would often come up and ask her about Yasen.

"I just always told them that she was a goal setter and she loved to compete," Messenger said, "and to excel you have to set goals and you have to enjoy what you're doing."

John Owen won eight national titles in 19 seasons as North Idaho College wrestling coach, piling up more than 300 coaching victories before resigning in 1997.

They say you don't want to be the person that succeeds the legendary coach - you want to be the one after that, the one that comes in and picks up the pieces - but there was Pat Whitcomb, succeeding Owen.

"Actually, with John Owen, it was pretty easy to follow him," Whitcomb said. "He was SO successful ... winning eight national titles, I don't think anyone expected myself to come in and win nine. It really did take the pressure off.

"And he really had things set up - it was a system that, still, we run today. He made things awful easy on being the next coach, instead of making things difficult. When he turned it over to me he stepped out of it."

Whitcomb, who won back-to-back NJCAA titles wrestling for Owen at NIC, said his former coach set the bar high at NIC and made no bones about it, something he has tried to continue as Cardinals coach. Entering his 15th season at NIC, Whitcomb has 199 career victories and has coached the Cardinals to three national titles.

"Probably the best advice I ever got from J.O. that I don't use just in wrestling is, he said 'worry about (stuff) you can do something about,' Whitcomb said. "Spend your time and focus on something you can have an effect on."

After leaving NIC, Owen coached at Central Valley and West Valley in Spokane. Whitcomb said he wasn't surprised Owen continued coaching after NIC.

"He's addicted to wrestling, and he's addicted to the chase," said Whitcomb, who said J.O. was interested in his wrestlers as people, too, not just athletes. "There are guys who probably wouldn't be college graduates if it wasn't for John Owen keeping them involved because of college wrestling."