Bulldog leaders inducted into Hall of Fame
Jackie Fuller, John Kalbfleisch and Marrin Audet Hafner were inducted into the Whitefish High School Hall of Fame Friday night. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Three Bulldogs leaders have been inducted into the Whitefish High School Hall of Fame.
Jackie Fuller, Marrin Audet Hafner and John Kalbfleisch are this year’s inductees.
The induction ceremony was held at the Whitefish High School gym Friday night between the boys and girls basketball games.
Fuller is retiring at the end of this school year as Whitefish Middle School assistant principal after a 27-year career in Whitefish Schools.
She had her biggest successes on the volleyball court, where she coached from 1993 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2017. In that time, she won five state championships in a six-year span, eight conference championships and won Class A Coach of the Year five times.
She was inducted into the Montana Coaches Hall of Fame in 2008, received the Montana High School Service Citation Award in 2015 and was inducted into the University of Montana Western Education Hall of Fame in 2019.
She came to the middle school in 2016 after serving as assistant principal in the high school from 2011 to 2016 and WHS activities director before that from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that she was a physical education instructor at the high school from 1991 to 2011.
She is married to her husband, Ken, and has three children, Colin, Connor and Kennah.
Marrin Audet Hafner is a 2001 WHS graduate and four-sport letter winner.
She was a four-year letter winner in both basketball and volleyball, a two year letter winner in track and tennis, and a 10-time Academic All State winner.
In 2000, she helped lead her team to be Western A Divisional Championships in basketball and secured her second straight year as the team’s MVP and leading rebounder.
In volleyball, Audet Hafner helped bring Whitefish a state title in 2001 and divisional titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001. She was named an All State and All Conference player in 1999, 2000 and 2001, and in her senior season was named the team’s best offensive player, MVP and the state tournament’s MVP.
She was also awarded the WHS Jack Zerr Outstanding Female Athlete Memorial Award in 2001.
Audet Hafner earned a volleyball scholarship to the University of Montana, and in 2003 she transferred to Montana Tech, where she was named first team Frontier Conference Volleyball and first team Pacific Northwest All Regional.
She was an Academic All American in 2003 and 2004 and holds the second highest record at the school for single season kills with 480.
She served as the assistant volleyball coach at Dickinson State University in 2017 and 2018.
She is married to Jerel Hafner and is mother to Barrett and Bayle.
John Kalbfleisch has been the Medical Director for North Valley Hospital and the Whitefish High School athletic program since 2004 and originated the WHS athletic training program.
He has been a medical supervisor for Bulldogs sports since 1990, and has helped implement annual screening for reduced cost physicals and concussion policies for Bulldog athletes.
He was named a Whitefish Booster Club Hall of Fame Member in 2018, Whitefish Citizen of the Year in 2008, and Whitefish Winter Carnival Prime Minister in 2007.
He’s also coached Little Dribbler basketball and youth volleyball for 10 years.
Kalbfleisch has served with the Shepherd’s Hand free clinic since 1995 and has been on the North Valley Hospital Board from 2000 to 2008.
Kalbfleisch received the University of Washington Family Medicine Outstanding Faculty award in 2018 and is president of Glacier Medical Associates.
He is married to his wife, Lisa, and the father of five children and three grandchildren.