The Long Beach Century Club will host its 68th Annual Sports Banquet on June 16 at The Grand in Long Beach, recognizing the city’s top high school athletes along with a host of special award winners including a new class of Hall of Fame inductees.
This year, the Century Club is inducting four new members into its Hall of Fame: Long Beach State volleyball legend Tara Cross-Battle; Wimbledon and US Open doubles champion and Long Beach Poly alumna Vania King; Olympic gold medalist and former Wilson track star Lashinda Demus; and Oklahoma softball coach and Long Beach State alumna Patty Gasso.
Cross-Battle led Long Beach State to an NCAA title in 1989 and was named AVCA Player of the Year in both 1988 and 1989. She won the 1990 Honda Sports Award as the nation’s top collegiate volleyball player and was a four-time All-American. Cross-Battle earned an Olympic bronze medal in 1992 and was later inducted into the Long Beach State Hall of Fame (1995) and the International Volleyball Hall of Fame (2014).
King was a top-10 doubles player during her professional tennis career, winning both the Wimbledon and US Open women’s doubles titles in 2010 with partner Yaroslava Shvedova. The pair also reached the final of the 2011 US Open, and King went on to win 15 doubles titles on the WTA Tour. King also won a singles WTA Tour title at the 2006 Bangkok Open.
Demus set multiple state and national records during her time at Wilson High School, where she was also named Track & Field News’ National Girls’ High School Athlete of the Year in both 1999 and 2001. She went on to compete for the University of South Carolina before winning multiple world titles and an Olympic gold in the 400-meter hurdles in 2012—becoming the first American woman to win the event.
Gasso played softball at Long Beach State from 1983 to 1984 and began her coaching career at Long Beach City College in 1990. She was hired as the head coach of Oklahoma softball in 1995, where she just wrapped up her 31st year with the program. She has led the Sooners to eight national championships and holds the record for most wins by a coach in program history.
“This is really, honestly, my real home,” Gasso said of Long Beach. “So to be remembered and honored by those here means a lot to me. It grabs my heart strings really hard because I miss it here. I’ve lived 31 years in Oklahoma, but I still know where I came from, and that’s the Beach.”
The Century Club will also recognize its Athletes of the Year at the banquet, including four Long Beach natives who helped the USA men’s water polo team win a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games: Max Irving, Chase Dodd, Ryder Dodd, and Hannes Daube.
Irving, a Wilson alum and two-time Olympian, was one of the team’s top leaders. The Dodd brothers grew up in Long Beach but attended high school in Orange County, with Ryder becoming the youngest member of the USA team since Long Beach legend Tony Azevedo. Daube also grew up in Long Beach and lists it as his hometown, though he attended high school in Orange County.
The Long Beach Century Club’s 68th Annual Sports Banquet will be held on June 16 at The Grand, located at 4101 E Willow St. in Long Beach. Reception will be at 5 p.m. and dinner and program at 6:30.
