Marv Scott Coaches Award Recipients: Barry Aden, Dennis Mullens, Joyce Wolf and Roy Young

Barry Aden

With more than 1,100 wins in a 30-plus-year coaching career, Barry Aden has left a mark on countless local semiprofessional players.

Born July 12, 1961, Aden was a three-sport star at Liberty High School in Renton, earning six total letters across football, basketball, and baseball. He earned All-KingCo honors as a pitecher his senior season before graduating in 1979. Aden continued his playing career in both baseball and basketball at Centralia College. In 1980, the St. Louis Cardinals selected him in the eighth round (No. 188 overall) of the draft, but Aden declined to turn pro. The following year, the Cardinals picked him in the second round (No. 33 overall) and offered a $40,000 signing bonus, but he again declined to sign and instead enrolled at Eastern Washington University.

Aden earned second-team all-con ference honors his fi nal season at EWU despite suffering a ruptured elbow ten don. His playing ca reer continued in the Western International League and Pacific International League, where he compiled a 100–32 record in a lengthy career span ning 1980–2007. Dur

Marv Scott Coaches

Award Recipients

2022 Barry Aden

Dennis Mullens

Joyce Wolf

Roy Young

2017 Bob Lightfoot

Bruce Nichols

2015 Holly Gee

Marco Malich

2014 No Banquet

2013 No Banquet

2012 Andy Helling

2011 No Banquet

2009 Roy Anderson

2008 Barry Crust

2007 John Heinrick

2005 Bill Mullen ing the 1995 MLB player’s strike, Aden briefly donned a Mariners uniform as a replacement player. He compiled 13 innings in 11 appearances.

While Aden’s playing career stands among the best of Puget Sound area athletes, it’s been as a manager that he has truly excelled. Across multiple teams and more than 30 years, Aden has compiled a 1,128–445–6 record—an outstanding .714 winning percentage.

Among the highlights of Aden’s managerial career included three National Baseball Congress World Series championships with the Seattle Cheney Studs, claiming the title in 2013, 2015, and 2019. He has managed the Seattle Studs, Tacoma Timbers and Seattle Cheney Studs to a fifth place or higher finish 13 times at the NBC World Series since 1992. His record at the NBC World Series is 88–45, qualifying for the NBC

World Series 25 times and finishing second five times.

Aden’s teams have won the Pacific International League championship 21 times and the Kamloops International Tournament title 13 times. Finally, he coached baseball at Liberty High, his alma mater, from 1985–95, compiling a 107–82 record and being named Seamount League Coach of the Year three times.

His tremendous coaching impact has earned Aden numerous hall of fame honors, including induction into the Hall of Fames of the National Baseball Congress (2011), Grand Forks Invitational Baseball Tournament (2012) and National Semi Pro Baseball (2014).

Dennis Mullens

Before decades as a coach and official in Pierce County, Dennis Mullens grew up in a town of his own name with a high school just the same. Mullens, West Virginia is a small mountain town in southwestern West Virginia. The town still exists, although it was nearly destroyed by flooding in 2001, but Mullens High School does not. It was merged into another in the 1990s.

Dennis Mullens graduated from Mullens High in 1968, eventually landing in Tacoma. Much of the time since, he has been on a softball diamond, basketball court or football field. Mullens has earned the Marv Scott Coaches Award for a career that started in 1980 with a Pierce County Parks and Recreation team called The Misfits. Mullens has been a player/coach for most of the past 40+ years and hopes to carry on many more.

The Misfits started a long line of league and tournament champions under Mullens. The Misfits qualified for national tournaments in 1984 and 1985 out of the C Metro ASA League. They won the top-level co-rec league at Pierce County Parks five times. In 1986, Mullens’s team was the first Metro Parks modified fastpitch

team to win the Fall league.

In 1993, Mullens started the first of several versions of a team called No Fence Too Far. The first ilteration of the squad played in the Pierce County C League, winning six league titles. A senior team followed that won the Pierce County Parks Half Century Plus Slowpitch League for five straight years. The Senior 50–60 age group A version of No Fence Too Far won five state senior tournaments from 2006 through 2014 and placed second twice. Players on those teams included: Tom Shaw, Tony Gagliardi, Karl Knable, Arnie Ikel, Ralph Tipton, Tom Palmer, Ron Matilla, Tully Swanberg, Skip Baebler, Dan Lowery, OJ Moe, Ken Laase and Earl Snell. The Senior team placed second in two world tournaments, 2012 and 2015, playing as a Major Team (SSUSA).

In 2010, playing in the first open senior league (SSUSA) at the RAC in Lacey, No Fence Too Far went 28–2 to win the league. No Fence Too Far won tournaments in Yakima and Wenatchee and has gone to Bullhead, Arizona for 14 years as a Major team (SSUSA), placing first six times.

In 2021, in the 70 and over group, No Fence Too Far won the championship game of the Bullhead tournament 15–0 in 5 innings. Players on that team included: Mike Spellman, Mike Moeller, Mike Ryan, Jim Glockner, Rick Littlejohn, OJ Moe, Tom Shaw, and Ralph Wyman.

When not swinging for the fences, Mullens often had a whistle in his mouth. He has refereered football for 44 years. He was the white hat (head referee) for the 2002 4A state championship football game. Mullens was the 2015 recipient of the Connelly Law Offices Excellence In Officiating Award for football. He has officiated basketball just as long, working nine WIAA state tournaments. Mullens has also been a long-time umpire for SSUSA, ASA, NSA and USSSA games.