(l to r) Glenn Armstrong, Jessica Hewitt and Kelly Hunter. (Image Credit: (l to r) Cypress Funeral and Cremation Services, Team Canada and Facebook/Softball BC)

By Aaron Schulze

Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame in 2026

Armstrong, Hewitt and Hunter elected to Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame in 2026

Mar 10, 2026 | 9:34 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame will welcome three more individuals in its class of 2026. 

The Kamloops Sports Council announced Tuesday (March 10) that longtime football coach Glenn Armstrong, Olympian speed skater Jessica Hewitt, international baseball and softball umpire Kelly Hunter will be enshrined on the second floor of the Tournament Capital Centre for 2026. 

Teaching in the Kamloops-Thompson School District for 32 years, Armstrong was named Secondary School Coach of the Year in 2007 by the Coaches Association of B.C. and recognized as a Coach of the Year and a Community Coach of Excellence in 2008. 

Armstrong began his coaching career with the Sahali Rams and Dallas Cowboys in Kamloops Minor Football, led the Valleyview Secondary Vikings to a city championship in 1988, resurrected the NorKam Secondary Saints football program and led the senior team to a provincial championship final in 1995. He’s also credited with helping restore the Vikings football program when he returned to Valleyview Secondary in 1998. Armstrong passed away after a bout with cancer in 2023. 

Hewitt won a silver medal in the women’s 3,000-metre relay at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as a part of Canada’s short track speed skating team. She also won 11 World Cup medals, along with two silver and two bronze medals at the World Short Track Speed Skating championships. 

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Hewitt began skating with the Kamloops Long Blades in 1996. Nine years later, Hewitt moved to Calgary at the age of 19 to train at the Olympic Oval, Canada’s national training centre for speed skating. She was named to the national development short track speed skating team in her first year. 

Hunter, a BC Softball Hame of Fame inductee in 2025, registered for her first umpiring clinic in 1990 and gained international certification in 2001. Between 1996 and 2020, her assignments included the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, where she umpired the gold medal game. 

Hunter also umpired provincial, national and world softball championship events, along with NCAA games in the United States. In baseball, she umpired national and world baseball championships, was the first female umpire to work the Kamloops International Baseball Tournament and named female umpire of the year in 2018 by the BC Baseball Umpire Association. 

The 2026 Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony, along with unveiling the winners of the Kamloops Athletic Awards, will take place at a banquet on April 11, 2026, from the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre.