ACBF inducts 2023 Hall of Fame class
Apr. 2—Lenny Lattimer still has a killer crossover dribble that helps him get past players who are more than 50 years younger.
Lattimer, who will celebrate his 73rd birthday later this month, plays basketball at least once a week, and more if he can.
He averaged 24.1 points a game his senior season in 1968 at Pymatuning High School and led all county scorers that year as the Lakers finished the season 18-2.
He played 14 games at Kent State Ashtabula and later played for a semi-pro team.
The truth is, Lattimer never really stopped playing basketball after graduating from high school, which is why he believes he's still able to play to this day.
"I'm thankful God has given me good health to play. I played a couple weeks ago full court," Lattimer said. "Everybody wants to know when I'm going to quit. I said, 'Well, I don't know. When I am not competitive anymore, when you just leave me standing here in the corner and don't even come over by me, then it's time to quit.'"
Lattimer, who now resides in Flintstone, Md., was one of 11 individual inductees into the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame on Sunday at the New Leaf Event Center.
"The ACBF would like to congratulate all the young men and women who represented their schools, their communities, and their families with great class this year," said ACBF President Brad Ellis. "The ACBF would also like to congratulate all of our new Hall of Fame inductees."
Other inductees in the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Class of 2023 are:
—Geneva girls basketball coach Nancy Barbo who has coached the Eagles for 22 seasons posting a 341-148 record.
—Saint John graduate John Bleau led the county in scoring his senior year during the 1991-92 season averaging 24.3 points per game.
—Grand Valley graduate Don Childs scored 991 points for the Mustangs during his career.
—Harbor High School graduate Mike Ginn played on a team that went 17-7 and advanced to the districts his senior year. He continued playing basketball at Hiram College after high school.
—Conneaut High School graduate Barbara Gamble Gleason finished her career with 778 points and 574 rebounds and the Spartans finished 18-4 her senior year.
—Conneaut High School graduate Greg McGill was the second leading scoring in the county during the 1965-66 season and an honorable mention All-Ohio player.
—Ashtabula High School graduate Willie Osborne graduated was an All-Ashtabula County, All-Northeastern Conference, and second-team All-Ohio player his senior year.
—Joe Pete was named as a contributor, including hosting his own radio show on ESPN 970 called the Sports Report.
—Edgewood High School graduate Adam Schumann, who finished his career with 1,341 points and more than 500 rebounds and was a co-MVP of the Northeast Conference.
—Jefferson High School graduate Haley Kapferer Tegey finished her career with 1,733 points, which is second all-time in the county, and was the county player of the year in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
—The Pymatuning Valley Lakers 1961-62 team finished 22-2 and won both a sectional and district championship.
PREP PLAYERS RECOGNIZED
Named to the Ashtabula County first team girls were Kaci Kanicki of Edgewood, Kayla Farley of Conneaut, Brooke Richmond of Geneva, Carly James of Grand Valley, Alaina Neczeporenko of Pymatuning Valley and Alyysa Cevera of Saint John.
Named to the Ashtabula County first team on the boys side were: Tyler Britton of PV, Chance Loomis of Conneaut, Zack Vencill of Edgewood, Nathan Boiarski of Grand Valley, Joe DeGeorge of Jefferson, and Dasjuan Williams of Lakeside.
OTHERS HONORED
—Mike Zupp, Officials Appreciation Award.
—Cevera and DeGeorge, Edward Jones Flautt/Bowler Scholarship.
—Vencill and Neczeporenko, ACBF Scholarship Award.
—Britton, Vencill, and Kanicki as 1,000-point career scorers.
—Edgewood's Randy Vencill as county girls coach of the year and PV's Ryan Schontz, boys coach of the year.
—Kanicki as county girls player of the year and Britton, county boys player of the year.
A new award to be presented on an annual basis called the Founders Award was presented to ACBF President Brad Ellis and to ACBF Board of Director Chris Larick.
