Elgin Sports Hall of Fame selects 5 for induction

Five new inductees will take their place in the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame when the organization holds its annual induction ceremony and banquet on Sunday, Nov. 1 at Villa Olivia.

All five inductees were chosen by the vote of the membership, and 168 ballots were cast. The individuals who have been elected to the Hall this year include Mike Coyle, Julie Kovacs Fisher, Corry Carter Irvin, Jim Perkins and Dick Stephens.

Coyle is a 1967 Larkin graduate who finished fourth in the 440-yard dash in the state meet his senior year. He went on to run track at Indiana University before injuries cut his college career short.

Kovacs Fisher is a 1987 Larkin graduate who played volleyball for the Royals before going on to a four-year career at Indiana State, where she is still in the top 10 in numerous statistical categories.

Carter Irvin is also a Larkin graduate (1992). She scored 1,142 points in her Larkin basketball career then went on to play at Division I Fresno State for four years. Carter Irvin, whose brother Deryn was recently named the new boys basketball coach at Larkin, is now the head girls basketball coach at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, where her teams won the 2008 Class AA state championship and finished second in Class 4A last year.

Perkins is the longtime former athletic director and boys golf coach at St. Edward High School. He was AD at St. Edward from 1972 to 1991. As boys golf coach, he led the Green Wave to the 1981 state championship, runner-up finishes in 1979 and 1983 and third place finishes in 1977 and 1978. The Wave finished in the top 10 in the state nine times under Perkins and six times finished in the top five. Perkins also coached at Streamwood and Bartlett. He is a 1992 inductee of the Illinois Golf Coaches Hall of Fame and a 2000 inductee of the St. Edward Hall of Fame.

Stephens is the winningest football coach in Elgin High history. In two separate nine-year stints he amassed a record of 90-80-2, winning three Upstate Eight Conference championships and a total of four playoff games. His 1979 team went 10-1 and advanced to the state quarterfinals. He also became Bartlett's first varsity football coach, a position he held for five years, qualifying for the playoffs three times.

More information on the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame can be found by logging on to www.eshof.org.