Elyria Sports Hall of Fame announces new class

Golden Helmet winners Danny Reaser of Elyria Catholic and Tracy Sprinkle of Elyria High highlight the newest class of inductees into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame. Along with Reaser and Sprinkle, Elyria Catholic Mr. Basketball award winner Erich Barnes, Elyria High volleyball and basketball star Lindsey Behne and longtime EC track coach Chuck Lynch will join the Hall of Fame at this year's induction ceremony at Lorain County Community College on May 3. Elyria Catholic's 2011 state tournament basketball team will be inducted along with the 1984 state champion Elyria West girls 4x100 relay team. Mark Meecha, a longtime employee of the city's recreation department, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Reaser owns the county passing record with 3,788 yards in 2010. He threw for 7,107 yards in his career with 69 touchdowns. He was named All-Ohio in 2010. Over the course of his career, Reaser threw for over 300 yards six times in a game and had two games with six touchdowns and three games with five. His most memorable outing was a 56-35 win over Elyria when he threw for 508 yards and six touchdowns. Sprinkle was the Ohio High School Defensive Player of the year in 2012, earning a scholarship to Ohio State, where he played on the Buckeyes' national championship team in 2014. He was named one of the captains of Ohio State's team in 2017. Sprinkle set the sack record at EHS with 19 during his senior season in 2012. Against Elyria Catholic, Sprinkle had a six tackles for loss and two sacks as the Pioneers won, 43-7. Sprinkle was named All-Ohio. Barnes won the Mr. Basketball award in 1990 and finished his career at Elyria Catholic as the school's third-highest scorer with 1,191 points. He averaged 27.9 points per game his senior year, hitting 52 percent of his field goal attempts and 83 percent of his free throws. He averaged 9.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists, as well. He was named to the Division III All-Ohio basketball team. Behne, a 2001 Elyria grad, was a four-year varsity basketball and three-year varsity volleyball standout for the Pioneers, earning honorable mention All-Ohio honors in basketball and third-team All-Ohio honors in volleyball. She averaged 12.7 points and 8.1 rebounds in basketball, while recording 146 career block kills and 74 block-kills as a senior for the volleyball team. She earned a scholarship in both sports to Indiana University in Pennsylvania before transferring to Akron to complete her volleyball career. She became a high school volleyball coach and still coaches at the AAU level. Lynch spent 32 years coaching the Elyria Catholic track and cross country teams. The Panthers won four team state cross country championships and finished runner-up another four times. He coached 19 All-Ohio runners and had 16 state qualifiers. The 2011 Elyria Catholic girls basketball team finished 24-3 under Eric Rothgery and qualified for the state tournament, where they were eliminated by Oak Hill, the state's top-ranked team. The Panthers defeated Gilmour Academy and Youngstown Ursuline at Cuyahoga Falls to earn the trip to Columbus. Emily Taylor and Ashley Schuster finished their careers with over 1,000 points each. Elyria West's 1984 4x100 relay team won the state championship with a school-record time of 49.6, just 6/10ths of a second from setting the state record. Marnelle Jackson, Sonya Lawrence, Collette Maren and Lynn McLeod were the team members. They won every relay event for Elyria West in 1984. For 36 years, Meecha maintained the ice at North Park in addition to his other duties for the City of Elyria over a 40-year career. He also maintained the soccer and softball fields at West Park and was responsible for the Finwood Estate Christmas light display. He was a volunteer coach at St. Jude in basketball and volleyball and has been Elyria Catholic's video photographer for the football team for many years. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.