LCAAA recognizes administrator, official, Chronicle staff member

VERMILION — The Lorain County Athletic Administrators Association members gathered Thursday night at German's Villa to recognize some of the men and women that make high school sports in the county possible. Keystone athletic director Jeff Holzhauer was honored by the group as the 2026 Athletic Administrator of the year. Holzhauer, who has coached track for 23 years and the boys basketball team for the past 14 seasons, has been the athletic director for five years. "It's always nice to be recognized," Holzhauer said. "And to have some like Chris (LCAAA president and Brookside athletic director Chris Adkins) get up and say nice things about you is a good feeling. "It's never why I do the thing I do. It's not for the recognition. I really enjoy helping kids. Everyone in our area is in it for the right reasons and that's what makes it so enjoyable." Holzhauer presented one of four service awards to Mike Conrad. Conrad, along with friends Rick Shaw, Ron Shaw, Chuck Sturgill and Chad Whitacre, founded the Keystone Athletic Team Supports (KATS) booster club in 1996. It has raised nearly $1.5 million for Keystone athletics over the last 30 years. Other service award winners were longtime Vermilion football and basketball public address announcer Todd Lezon, Lorain City Schools Safety Coordinator Darrel Smalls, former Midview coach and current football and soccer scoreboard operator Brad Whitesel and Ray Mariner, who has coached at various schools across Lorain County since starting his career as the freshman boys basketball coach at Lorain Catholic in 1996. Along the way Mariner coached at Brookside, Open Door, Black River and North Ridgeville, where he spent a decade on the bench with Rangers girls basketball coach Amy Esser. Mariner helps out with various tasks for the North Ridgeville athletic department and coaches CYO basketball. "It's a true blessing to be able to do this. And if it wasn't for Jim Lawhead (longtime Lorain Catholic coach) I wouldn't be doing it," Mariner said. "I got the coaching bug and quickly after learned it's not about me, it's about the kids. After that the rest is simple. There's so many great people here. To be thought of to be mentioned with them is an honor." Two special awards were also presented by the LCAAA. The Ed Dohanos Award was presented to longtime football, baseball and basketball official Tony Jordan. Jordan, who works in the Amherst school district, has been an official for 33 years and has worked 74 regional and state postseason assignments in his distinguished career. Jordan has served as president of the Elyria Umpires Association and the Northern Ohio Football Officials Association. The Jim Allen Award, which is presented annually to a local media member for service to local athletes, was given to Chronicle-Telegram photojournalist Kristin Bauer. In 13 years at The Chronicle, Bauer has been a consistent presence at sporting events across the county and behind the camera for programming at WEOL.com. "When I was at Kent State we photographed a lot of sports but I didn't think it would turn out to be such a big part of my job at The Chronicle-Telegram," said Bauer, who estimated she takes photos at well over 100 games a year. "News is kinda difficult to cover sometimes. You have good news and then you have some not so good news, but with sports even if the game doesn't go the way our home team wants it to go it's still a good day to be at a game." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.