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Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame officially enshrines Class of 2026
BULLSKIN TWP. — The Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame officially welcomed 10 new individual members and two teams into its ranks on Friday at Pleasant Valley Golf Club.
Hall of Fame co-founder and Executive Chair George Von Benko introduced each new inductee and presented each with a Hall of Fame plaque to a large crowd at a luncheon following the annual golf outing.
Von Benko, who asked each inductee a set of questions, was pleased with the outcome.
“This is our 17th year — we missed one year because of covid and doubled up the next year — and I thought we had another tremendous crowd, 112 golfers and over 175 people for lunch,” Von Benko said. “It’s turned into an event that people circle on their calendar. I don’t know if I envisioned it that way when we first started but that’s what happened and I’m pleased.”
Individuals inducted were Rich Bierbower, Bill Buehner, the late Ron Fudala (represented by his son Ronnie Fudala), Shauntai Hall, Erica Hogan Gaster, the late John Kolar (represented by his son Chris Kolar), George Link, Brad McLee and Jason Tyska.
Also inducted were the 2005 Connellsville wrestling team (represented by assistant coach Marvin Snyder and team member Zach Snyder) and the Leckrone 1984-87 Fayette County Baseball League team (represented by Dennis Santella and Jack Gearing).
There was a moment of silence held at the beginning of the proceedings for the late Tom Sankovich, a inductee and Hall of Fame board member who died on April 30.
Also honored and presented with special Hall of Fame plaques were high school athletes Mallory Clemmer of Geibel Catholic (girls basketball, third team all-state), Aierra Jenkins of Uniontown (girls basketball, third team all-state), Kasey Mahoney of Laurel Highlands (boys swimming, WPIAL champion)and Emma Larkin, represented by her dad Russ Larkin, of Geibel Catholic (girls basketball, first team all-state, Fayette County alll-time scoring leader, and girls track and field, WPIAL champion). Also honored but not able to attend were Grant Brambley (boys track and field, WPIAL champion)and Diondra Brown (girls track and field, WPIAL champion) of Laurel Highlands and Kai Vielma (wrestling, WPIAL and PIAA champion) and Trinity Moore of Connellsville (girls wrestling, 100 career wins).
“I thought it went pretty smoothly today,” said Von Benko, who was the master of ceremonies for the event. “I thought all the inductees did a good job answering my questions. It’s really a great event.”
Von Benko has already set his sights on the Class of 2027.
“Looking forward to another stellar class next year,” Von Benko said. “Some people brought up some names already.
“There’s still a lot of deserving athletes out there.”