Cullowhee, N.C. – A championship team that launched a program, a Major League Baseball All-Star, one of the most dominant defensive players in Catamount football history, and a legendary North Carolina high school coach comprise the Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2026 officially announced today.
 
Western Carolina's inaugural fast-pitch softball team from 2006, former MLB standout Greg Holland (2005-07), record-setting football defensive end Michale Spicer (2000-03), and longtime South Point High School coach Phil Tate (1963-66) will be formally inducted during Hall of Fame Weekend, Nov. 20-21, in Cullowhee.
 
Together, the quartet represents excellence on the field, in the classroom, and throughout distinguished professional careers while leaving lasting impacts on Catamount Athletics and beyond.
 
The ceremony will be held on the evening of Friday, Nov. 20, with a special on-field celebration during Western Carolina's final home football game against The Citadel, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field. Additional details surrounding the Friday night ceremony will be released soon.
 
Holland is the 26th Catamount baseball student-athlete to be inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame, while Spicer is the 61st individual representative of the Catamount football program to garner recognition. The 2006 softball team marks WCU's eighth team to be inducted all-time, and the first since the 2003 women's golf team was enshrined back in 2022.
 
Tate joins a list that includes Dave Bristol (2007), Jim Garrison (2007), Gerald Austin (2021), and Ray "Slim" Davis (2025) on the Hall's career achievement honor list.
 
 Read below for individual bios on the three individuals and team inductees for 2026:
 
Greg Holland (Baseball, 2005-07)
Within Western Carolina's rich baseball tradition, few names resonate like Greg Holland.
 
A dominant late-inning reliever for the Catamounts from 2005-07, Holland emerged as one of the Southern Conference's top bullpen arms, helping lead Western Carolina to the 2007 SoCon regular-season championship and a NCAA at-large tournament berth, while earning first-team All-SoCon honors.
 
Selected in the 10th round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals, the Marion native went on to author one of the most decorated professional careers by a former Catamount. Over 12 Major League seasons, Holland earned three MLB All-Star selections, became one of baseball's premier closers, and helped the Royals capture the 2015 World Series title.
 
Holland established a Royals franchise record with 47 saves in 2013, earned consecutive All-Star selections in 2013 and 2014, and later added a third All-Star appearance with Colorado in 2017 after leading the National League with 41 saves and earning Comeback Player of the Year honors.
 
His professional career included stops with the Royals (2010-15, 2020-21), the Colorado Rockies (2017), St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals (2018), the Arizona Diamondbacks (2019), and finished with the Texas Rangers in 2022.
 
Over three seasons as a Catamount, Holland collected 19 career saves – sixth in the program record books – over 82 appearances. He recorded a SoCon-best 10 saves for the 2007 SoCon regular-season champion and 42-win Catamounts, collecting first-team All-SoCon honors from the league's head coaches. He also twice garnered SoCon Pitcher of the Week plaudits between 2006 and '07.
 
Holland's 10 saves in 2007 are tied for fourth in the program's seasonal history, while his nine saves from 2006 rank him tied for sixth in the school's ledger. He also paced the SoCon with a 2.51 collective ERA as a sophomore, limiting opponents to a .225 batting average against. He was also named to the SoCon's Spring Academic All-Conference team in both 2006 and '07.
 
As a professional, Holland rapidly progressed through the farm system and made his MLB debut against Oakland on Aug. 2, 2010, appearing in 15 games as a rookie. After winning five games and producing four saves over 46 games in 2011, the eventual three-time MLB All-Star Holland began his exponential rise a year later with seven victories and 16 saves in 2012. The following season, he set the Royals' franchise record with 47 saves in 2013 – a mark he challenged the very next season with 46. Holland struck out a single-season personal best 103 in 2013 – the most by an American League reliever that season as part of an All-Star performance, returning to the mid-season classic in 2014 to represent KC, where he was twice named the Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year for the franchise.
 
The 2015 MLB season was bittersweet for Holland, who saved 32 games for Kansas City during the regular season, but was sidelined by injury during the team's World Series championship run.
 
After missing the 2016 season due to injury, the resurgent Holland enamored another fanbase with a move to the National League's Colorado Rockies, as he led the NL with 41 saves as part of garnering the Comeback Player of the Year Award. He also landed his third All-Star nod with Colorado in 2017.
 
Michale Spicer (Football, 2000-03)
Few defenders have wreaked more havoc on opposing offenses than Michale Spicer.
 
A two-time All-Southern Conference selection at defensive end, Spicer remains Western Carolina's all-time leader with 56.5 career tackles for loss and ranks second in program history with 29 career sacks. His relentless play helped define Catamount defenses in the early 2000s and established him as one of the most disruptive defenders ever to wear the Purple and Gold.
 
Spicer closed his WCU career with 148 career tackles. Tagging with counterpart Nick McNeil, he recorded a WCU single season record 26 TFLs in 2002. Spicer was just one career sack behind fellow WCU Hall of Fame honoree, Louis Cooper (30.0, 1981-84). He added four fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles, and one career interception as a Catamount.
 
Spicer launched his collegiate career with six sacks as a true freshman in 2000, tied for the second-most by a Catamount rookie defender all-time. He had a banner year in 2002, recording a program record 26 tackles for loss, including 11 sacks, tied for the second-most in a single season. He was a consensus first-team All-SoCon selection in '02, averaging 2.36 TFLs per game to lead the conference and rank seventh in the NCAA. Spicer was named to the second-team All-Region and a third-team All-America selection by Don Hansen's Football Gazette.
 
Dubbed the SoCon's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and tagged as the sixth-best returning defensive end in the country by The Sports Network going into his senior season in 2003, Spicer helped the Catamounts lead the conference in rushing defense that fall. He was credited with 14.5 tackles for loss as a senior, the 13th-best single-season total in WCU football history and was invited to the Blue-Gray Classic all-star game.
 
Following his Catamount career, Spicer enjoyed a lengthy professional career that included time in the NFL, Arena Football League, and United Football League, earning AFL All-Rookie honors and later first-team All-UFL recognition.
 
The Goldsboro, N.C., native played two seasons with the Los Angeles Avengers (2005-06), earning AFL All-Rookie Team recognition. He also played for both the New Orleans VooDoo and Columbus Destroyers of the AFL between 2007 and 2008, earning the team's Defensive Lineman of the Year honors from New Orleans. He then spent two seasons in the United Football League with the New York Sentinels / Hartford Colonials franchise in 2009 and 2010, collecting first-team All-UFL honors.
 
Spicer returned indoors in 2012, with a brief stint with the Spokane Shock before joining the practice squad of perennial AFL powerhouse Arizona Rattlers. He later closed his professional career with the Los Angeles KISS in 2014-15. All told, he played in 88 career AFL games with 56 total tackles. with 13.5 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles.
 
Since his playing days concluded, Spicer has continued impacting young athletes through coaching, helping develop all-conference, all-region, and All-America performers at both the high school and collegiate levels. He began at Bishop Montgomery High as the defensive line coach and special teams coordinator. He helped guide the prep team to four-straight playoff berths while coaching four all-league defensive linemen.
 
Spicer has coached the defensive line for the NCAA Division III combined programs of Pomona-Pitzer College since 2017, mentoring numerous All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) selections, a pair of All-Region honorees, and an All-American on special teams.
 
2006 Catamount softball team
Some teams build a foundation. The 2006 Catamount softball team built an entire program.
 
Revived as a fast-pitch program in the spring of 2006, Western Carolina softball wasted no time making history. The inaugural squad finished 41-20, captured the Southern Conference regular-season championship, and became the first first-year program in league history to win a conference title.
 
Twenty years later, that pioneering team remains one of the most significant squads in Catamount Athletics history.
 
In a season filled with milestones, the Catamounts recorded the program's first victory, first home run, first home win, first conference championship, and first regional honors. That remarkable squad won 20 of its 23 home games in their first season and swept second-place College of Charleston on the final home weekend to win the regular-season title.
 
The 2006 Catamounts won their inaugural game with a 3-1 victory over Tennessee Tech at Georgia State's First Pitch Classic in Atlanta. Mendy McKenzie tossed a strike on the first-ever live pitch for the team on the way to striking out the first batter faced by WCU pitching. Lauren Ross later recorded not only the first base hit for the program but also the first home run for WCU and scored the first-ever run on a blast that cleared the centerfield fence. Ross collected the WCU's first multi-homer game in the same opener, belting a game-winning home run in the sixth inning of the opener.
 
Six players earned All-SoCon recognition while freshman pitcher Mendy McKenzie, freshman standout Jenny Jackson, and head coach Megan Smith swept three of the conference's major individual awards.
 
A first-team all-conference selection in the circle, McKenzie was named the SoCon Pitcher of the Year in 2006 as a freshman for the first-year program. Jackson, a two-way player, was named the SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2006, all for the program's first-ever head coach, Smith, who was dubbed the SoCon Coach of the Year. Smith went on to coach at LSU, UNC, and Charlotte as an assistant, and as the head coach at both Kansas and Marshall and is now the head coach at her alma mater, North Carolina.
 
Infielder Heather Pritchard, catcher Allyson McCubbins, and outfielder Ashley Adams joined McKenzie and Jackson on the first-team All-SoCon, as selected by the league's head coaches. Adams hit a school and SoCon single-season record 21 home runs, slugging .685 in 2006, while McCubbins hit 12 and drew a program single-season record 49 walks. Designated player Savannah Filley earned second-team plaudits on the inaugural squad, adding 14 homers to the powerhouse.
 
Through the course of the season, the 2006 Catamounts collected six of the 11 SoCon Pitcher of the Week honors – five by McKenzie, who was also twice dubbed SoCon Pitcher of the Month in 2006, and once by Jackson, who also earned one of WCU's three SoCon Player of the Week awards. Jackson was joined by Ross, who earned WCU's first-ever weekly award, and Filley. McCubbins collected the top monthly award for WCU in March of 2006.
 
McKenzie and Adams were additionally dubbed WCU's first-ever selections to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) second-team All-Southeast Region.
 
The 2006 Catamounts batted .283 (461-for-1,627) overall, while boasting a .476 slugging percentage that included a program-record 81 home runs, a mark that stood as a SoCon record until 2021. The team's .476 slugging, 322 runs, and 293 RBI are all currently second in school history behind the offense of the 2026 squad. WCU's pitching staff combined for a school-record 39 complete games with nine shutouts, the latter tied for the most in program history. They also produced a program-low 2.84 ERA over 396.1 innings.
 
Led by Megan Smith, Western Carolina's 16-member, 2006 roster included 14 players from North Carolina. The first-year squad was comprised of 12 freshmen, a sophomore, and two junior transfers. In addition to winning its first-ever game, 3-1 over Tennessee Tech, the Catamounts swept their home-opening doubleheader over South Carolina State, including a 10-0 victory in the first-ever game played in Cullowhee.
 
Phil Tate (1963-66)
For more than five decades, Phil Tate dedicated his life to developing young athletes across North Carolina.
 
A 1966 Western Carolina graduate and later recipient of a master's degree from the university, Tate spent 52 years coaching football, baseball, and basketball while becoming one of the most respected figures in North Carolina high school athletics.
 
Tate coached at South Point High in Belmont, N.C., joining the school's inaugural coaching staff in 1969 before retiring in January of 2019, the school's longest tenured assistant football coach.
During his illustrious prep coaching career, Tate spent time on the staff at Hunter Huss, Shelby, West Mecklenburg, and Clover (S.C.) high schools, in addition to South Point High. He was also a head coach for the Belmont Post 144 American Legion squad – a team he played for in the early 1960s – as well as the Charlotte Post 262 and Gaston Braves Post 144-266. Combined, Tate compiled a 458-311-1 career coaching record overall, with three baseball and five football state titles, including South Point's first in 1971.
 
Tate posted a 219-81 record as the South Point High baseball coach, winning nine conference championships, two WNCH titles, and a state championship. He was voted conference Coach of the Year six times. The 1962 Belmont High graduate was an assistant football coach at South Point from 1969-82, and again from 2002 through 2019. He served as the program's head coach from 1990-95, collecting 38 victories.
 
During his coaching career, he was chosen to coach the NCHS East/West All-Star football game in 1994 and coached the North Carolina Shrine Bowl in 2013. In 2008, Tate received the Distinguished Service Award from both the American Legion and the North Carolina Officials Association, having worked as a high school and Legion umpire from 1985 through 2011.
 
Tate adds Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame to a litany of honors. He was inducted into the Belmont (1996) and Gaston County (2015) Sports Halls of Fame, as well as the North Carolina American Legion Hall of Fame in 2022.
 
About the Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame:
The Class of 2026 joins a distinguished group of Catamount legends whose accomplishments have shaped Western Carolina Athletics across generations.
 
Founded in 1990, the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame honors former student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and supporters whose achievements have brought distinction to the university and its athletics programs. With the addition of the Class of 2026, 137 individuals, eight teams, 11 Patron Award recipients, and four career-achievement honorees have been recognized.
 
To be considered for induction into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame, nominations must be submitted in writing to the Hall of Fame committee, where they are kept on file for five years before the nomination needs to be refreshed to remain active. A file for every nominee is kept and includes items such as biographical information and letters of support that the committee considers during the voting process.
 
Each spring, the committee convenes to vote upon a list of nominees that are approved by the Hall's executive committee, which vets those nominated against the criteria put forth by the Athletics Hall of Fame Constitution. The appropriate nomination forms are available at CatamountSports.com as an online form and as a PDF.
 
 

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