LEHIGH VALLEY BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCED

A good class of inductees. The late Art Perryman was part of one of the greatest, and certainly, most entertaining high school teams I've covered. He was a special player and left us much, much too soon. Bob Schlosser and Tom Fisher were outstanding high school coaches who did things in different ways, but got the most from their players. Schlosser is still doing well at Elizabethtown. And Lauren Mazza was part of the great Notre Dame girls basketball tradition.

These four should inductions should add to a special Via Tip-Off banquet on March 24.

Here's the release:

Hall of Fame Inductees Announces Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame
February 24, 2010


BETHLEHEM, PA – The Lehigh Valley High School Basketball Hall of Fame announced the 2010 inductees to be honored at the Via All-Star Banquet, presented by East Penn Bank, on March 24, 2010. The Hall of Fame was established in 1978 and honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to high school basketball in the Lehigh Valley. For a complete listing of inductees visit www.ViaNet.org. The 2010 Inductees are:


Tom Fisher: Phillipsburg HS coach | 1983 State Champs & 5 time coach of the year


Lauren Mazza Spigner: Notre Dame HS player, class of 1988 | 1674 pts & 24 point per game average


Arthur Perryman: E Stroudsburg HS player, class of 1994 | 1,736 pts & 2 State Titles

Robert Schlosser: Central Catholic HS coach | 1984 & 1986 State Champs


Contact information attached (not for public release), Bios below, photos in attached release. Biographical information was submitted by individual nominating inductees to the Hall of Fame.


Tom Fisher

• 1967, Easton High School, coach was Tom Sweeney

• Currently athletic director at Phillipsburg High School & Assistant Basketball Coach

• Married for 39 years to Linda, 3 daughters, Courtney, Brittany & Tiffany

• Coached at Phillipsburg for 28 years; 376 - 299 record

• 1 State Champion (1983); 3 Sectional Champions (1983, 1984, 1988); 4 Hunterdon/Warren County Championships (1989, 1995, 1999, 2001)

• Coach of the Year, Star Ledger, (1983, 1984, 1988, 1998, 2001)

• Coach of the Year, Express-Times, (1983, 1984, 1988, 2001)

• Skyland Conference Coach of the Year – 2002

• New Jersey Coaches Association Hall of Fame – 2007

• St. Louis University Hall of Fame – 2004

• Easton Area High School Hall of Fame – 1971

o East Penn Basketball League – All Time Scoring Records in 18 Game Season

o Points – season 443

o Field Goals – season 148

o Free Throws – season 139

o Average – season 24.2

• East Penn League All-Star First Team, 1965-66 & 1966-67


Lauren Mazza Spigner

• Graduation Year – 1988, Player, Marge Grube (High School Coach)

• 1674 points

• 1988 Express Times Player of the Year

• First Team Centennial League 2 years

• District Champs 1987

• Averaged 24 ppg junior and senior years

• 3rd team all state 1988

• Transferred from University of Penn to Lafayette College after first semester and sat out one year.

• Played 2 ½ years for Pat Fisher at Lafayette and scored 964 points.

• Was the JV basketball coach at Notre Dame HS under Traci Cyr for 2 years (1992-1994).

• Lauren is one of the best centers to ever play in the Lehigh Valley. She was a dominant player in high school and went on to play local ball at Lafayette where she almost scored 1000 pts in just 2 ½ years.

Arthur Perryman
• Deceased, Coach was Mark Brown

• Finished Career with 1,736 points

• All-Time leading scorer at East Stroudsburg South High School.

• In 1994, he led them to the first District 11 4A Title in the area and to two wins in the PIAA state playoffs, one over Richard Hamilton led Coatesville.

• He was heavily recruited to play college basketball but was stricken with cancer and passed away at 19 years of age.

• Arguably, he was the best basketball player in the history of East Stroudsburg HS (now ES South). He was a student first, then an athlete with tremendous character.

• In 2007 his jersey number was retired at ES South. Annually in late winter an all-star game is played in his honor for local seniors - The Perryman & Keglovits All Star Game.

• Arthur Perryman graduated from ESHS in 1994. He earned 4 varsity letters, and started all 105 varsity games played by the Cavaliers during his 4-year varsity basketball career.

• He is the leading scorer in ESHS basketball history with 1,735 points and was named Most Valuable Athlete in boys' basketball during his sophomore, junior and senior years, 1992, 1993 and 1994.

• Arthur was named First Team All-Monroe County in 1992, 1993 and 1994, First Team All-Centennial League in 1993 and 1994 and was named to the First Team All-Regional Team by the Allentown Morning Call newspaper in 1994.

• During his outstanding senior season, Arthur led the Cavaliers to their first District XI AAAA Basketball Championship, and averaged 28.3 points per game in the 1994 P.I.A.A. State Basketball Tournament, scoring 30 points vs. Reading, 33 vs. Coatesville and 22 vs. eventual State Champion Chester.

• Sportswriters and coaches statewide rewarded him, with his being named to the Third Team "Big School" All-State Team in 1994. Arthur passed away after a heroic year-long battle with cancer on April 21, 1995 at the age of 19.

• Loved and cared for all his peers, Arthur never used profanity; He was gentle, kind and loving. I never once heard anyone say anything negative about him. He was unselfish and thought of others before himself. His family was very important to him. He was a caring, thoughtful brother and son…Arthur was never alone always with his friends or his sisters.



Robert Schlosser

• Coach (High School, ACCHS) & currently college, Elizabethtown College.

• 1984 AA State Champs - 1986 East Penn League, Dist X1 and State Champs - 1989 East Penn League, District XI Champs and State runner-up.

• He won 2 state titles and took a 3rd team to the state title game - success that has not been matched in the Lehigh Valley in the recent era.

• Elizabethtown College named Robert Schlosser as the school’s 11th men’s basketball coach in May 1990, and in turn, got one of the most respected and talented scholastic coaches in Pennsylvania.

• Prior to taking over at Elizabethtown, Schlosser was the pilot of the highly successful Allentown Central Catholic High School boys’ basketball program. From 1981 through the conclusion of the 1989-90 season, he led the Vikings to a nine-year record of 204-73, including two PIAA Class AAA State Championships, in 1984 and 1986, and a runner-up finish in 1989.

• During his tenure, Elizabethtown's men's basketball program has soared to new heights. The team has registered 279 wins under Schlosser. His .600 career winning percentage is the best of any Elizabethtown head coach at the school for more than two seasons in the history of the men's basketball program. In 1992-93, he was named MAC Northwest Section Coach of the Year after guiding the Blue Jays to their best record in almost 30 years. He was named MAC Commonwealth League Coach of the Year in 1998-99 after leading the Blue Jays to a second-place league finish and a first-round MAC playoff victory. He earned the Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year award in 2000-01 after the Blue Jays' 20-6 season, and repeated as the conference's Coach of the Year following Elizabethtown's 29-3 effort in 2001-02.

• Including the Blue Jays' 2006 Commonwealth Conference semifinalist finish, Schlosser has now coached E-town in 29 postseason games over the past 18 years. From 2002 to 2004, he guided Elizabethtown to an unprecedented three consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearances and three straight Commonwealth Conference titles. The Blue Jays' 2001-02 team finished as the NCAA Division III national runner-up.

• Over the summer, Schlosser serves as a lecturer and coach at numerous clinics and camps.


The Lehigh Valley Hall of Fame inductions will be made at the Via All-Star Classic Banquet, an exciting evening that honors the top basketball players in the greater Lehigh Valley. The Via All-Star Banquet is at Freedom High School on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 6pm (doors open at 5pm). Via Super Sunday, a riveting game of end-to-end, high-spirited basketball, is on March 28, 2010 at 10:30am at Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Road, Bethlehem.


Source: Keith Groller