Elgin Hall names 5 new inductees
The Elgin Sports Hall of Fame Foundation board of directors today announced the five inductees who will take their place in the Hall of Fame on Sunday, Nov. 6 when the Hall of Fame Foundation holds its annual Induction Banquet at The Centre of Elgin.
Jay Goedert, Gary Kane, Stacey Nagel-Cheek, Raul Rodriguez and Phil Sokody will all be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. Additionally, the board of directors voted Bob Pleticha to receive the Vic Masi Service Award.
ŸGoedert is an Elgin High School graduate and a former basketball player for the Maroons. He spent 19 years coaching basketball, 12 years at the NCAA Division I level. He served as assistant varsity coach at Elgin Community College before assisting Bill Chesbrough at Elgin High for five years. Jay became the assistant coach at Northern Illinois University for two years, and then took an assistant position under Joey Meyer at DePaul University for 10 years. During this time, Goedert helped develop eight players who played in the NBA. He was the recipient of the NABC “Guardians of the Game” Merit Award (2000) and was named “Most Visible Assistant Coach in America” (1994) by “Hoop Scoop” magazine. Goedert served as vice-president of the Assistant Coaches Committee of the NABC, was technical adviser on Gatorade’s “Be Like Mike” commercials and the CBS TV movie “Dreambreakers.” In addition, he was an instructor at numerous basketball camps in the Chicagoland area for over 20 years. In 2004 the Jay Goedert DePaul/NIU MVP Trophy was established in honor of his contributions to college basketball at those two institutions. Goedert passed away suddenly of a heart attack on July 4, 2004.
ŸKane is a 1958 Elgin High graduate and was an all-state performer in both football and basketball at Elgin. As a halfback, Kane was a Big 8 All-Conference selection from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News Conference Coaches Poll. He received All-State honors from the Chicago Tribune and Champaign News-Gazette and was a 1st Team selection on Coach Emery Ebbert’s All-Time EHS Football Team. In basketball, Kane played forward and received All-Conference honors his senior year from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago American, and Conference Coaches Poll. In addition, he was named All-State by Champaign News-Gazette and to the State All-Tournament Team. Kane was also named to Bill Chesbrough’s All-Time EHS Basketball Team. He attended the University of Michigan where he played football for two years and basketball one year.
ŸNagel-Cheek, a 1999 Larkin graduate, was a four-year softball player for Larkin. During that time, she was a standout catcher and offensive performer. She was named all-conference three times, including 1999 when she was 1st team all-state, participated in the Senior Girls High School All-Star Classic Super 60, and was a Fast Pitch World High School all-American. She played for Division I Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga., for four years, where she set numerous offensive records and received most valuable player awards at four different college tournaments in addition to numerous conference honors.
ŸRodriquez was nominated for gymnastics. Rodriguez excelled in gymnastics at Larkin High School. A three-time state qualifier, he won the Royals’ Most Valuable Gymnast award all four years in school. His highest state finish was 14th in the floor exercise his senior season. He went on to the University of Illinois, where the Illini twice won Big Ten championships and twice qualified the entire team for the NCAA finals. Rodriguez was a Big Ten finalist two of those years, placing eighth in the floor exercise in 1980. He graduated in 1983. He was also a member of the Mexican National team from 1980-83 and was a Caribbean Games silver medalist in 1982.
ŸSokody, an Elgin High grad who was the fifth leading scorer on the 1956-57 team that went 27-1, went on to play basketball at Lake Forest College. He was team captain both his junior and senior seasons and team MVP his senior year, when he averaged 17.4 points per game. He scored 1,023 points in his four-year college career, was an All-College Conference of Illinois first-team selection two years and was inducted into the Lake Forest College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.
The Vic Masi Service Award will be presented to Pleticha, who founded the Elgin Sharks running club in 1980 and has been the volunteer administrator of the club since. The Sharks have achieved exceptional results under Pleticha, winning the state championship the past 15 years.
The Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will include the awarding of the 2010-11 Outstanding Achievement Awards as well as the introduction of the Foundation’s annual scholarship winners. Twenty-five $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to students who live in and/or attend high school in the city of Elgin.
Through 2011, the Hall of Fame Foundation has awarded $282,000 in scholarships to student-athletes since 1981.
For further information on the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, log on to www.eshof.org.