The Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame will hold its 27th Annual Induction Ceremony on Sunday, May 29, at the Franklin Township Fire Company hall.

Doors will open at 12:30 p.m. and the banquet will begin at 1:45 p.m.

Tickets to the dinner program are $35 for adults and $15 for children under 12 and can be purchased from the following committee members: Danny McGinley, 570-325-3550, Vince Spisak, 570-645-4542, Art George, 610-826-2830, Jake Boyer, 610-751-6634, Trevor Lawrence, 570-645-4722, Bill Gardiner, 570-669-6564, Bob Gelatko, 570-645-8652, and Evan Evans, 570-645-7716.

Inductees were selected in 2020 but because of COVID-19, no ceremonies were held in the past two years. They include:

Coaldale

– Gene Collier, Bob “Bogie” Griffiths and Bernie Radocha.

Jim Thorpe

– August “Matt” Long, Jim McHugh and Eric Schrantz.

Lansford

– Michael Lukac Jr., Brian Raabe, George Neyer and Peter Prosper (George LaRover).

Lehighton

– Suzanne (Rehrig) Howland, Tom Keer and George E. Zellers Jr.

Nesquehoning

– Dr. Michael S. Bales, Gerry M. Farnsworth and Dr. Richard G. Miller.

Palmerton

– Jeff Dobias, Amanda (Samok) Rex, Rodney Strohl and George Schmidt.

Summit Hill

– Robert Bydlon, Joseph Gillespie and David McAndrew.

The Palmerton inductees include:

Jeff Dobias

Jeff Dobias was one of the finest cross country and track and field distance runners to have ever participated in the Palmerton school sports programs.

In track in 1998, as a junior, he helped his team win the championship of the Colonial League Meet by placing first in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. At the District 11 AAA Meet that year, he placed second in the 3200 run.

As a senior in 1999 at the Colonial League Meet, he placed first in the 1600 meter run, setting the school record in the event at 4:23.2. This record held until broken in the 2019 spring season. Also that year, he placed first in the 3200 meter run in the District 11 AA Meet with a time of 9:28.94, setting the then-district meet record and qualifying for the PIAA state meet, where he placed fourth.

Running in the school’s cross country program in 1996-97 as a sophomore, Dobias placed sixth at the Colonial League Meet, placed 11th in the District 11 Meet and finished 80th in the PIAA State Meet. As a junior in 97-98, he won the Colonial League and District 11 meets and finished 11th in the state AA Meet. He followed that up with repeat championships in the league and District 11 meets in his senior year of 98-99, and placed a respectable fourth in the state meet. That year, he earned Second Team All State honors.

Other runs Jeff won that year were the Moravian Academy, Bulldog, Kutztown and Northeast PA Invitational runs. His accomplishments at the season’s end resulted in the Times News naming him its “Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year.”

At Penn State University, Jeff participated in various cross country races between his freshman and sophomore years, finishing as high as the fourth member of the men’s team. The meets included the 1999 and 2000 Big Ten Cross Country Championship Meets hosted by Penn State and the University of Wisconsin respectively.

Jeff was also a member of Penn State’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams as a freshman and sophomore, running the 3,000 meters (indoors), 5,000 meters (indoors and outdoors) and the 10,000 meters (outdoors).

Running various road races, he was the winner of the South Mountain (PA) 10-Miler in 2003, the Tallahassee (FL) Marathon in 2005, the Macon (GA) Labor Day 10K Road Race in both 2008 and 2009 and the Museum of Aviation Half Marathon in Warner Robins, GA, in 2009.

Jeff coached cross country and track and field at Mount De Sales Academy in Macon. He was an assistant boys/girls cross country coach in 2006 and 2007 and he head coached the teams from 2008-2016. His teams were 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Georgia Independent School Association AAA Boys Cross Country State Team Champions. He also head coached the 2013 Georgia Independent School Association AAA Girls Cross Country State Team champions.

Jeff was a member of the track and field coaching staff at the school from 2006-2017 season and finished up as head coach. Jeff was inducted into the Mount De Sales Cavalier Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

Amanda (Samok) Rex

Amanda (Samok) Rex was one of the finest cross country and track and field distance runners and basketball players to have ever participated in the Palmerton Area School District’s girls’ sports programs.

In cross country, running in the Fall of 1995, Amanda was the Colonial League Meet Champion, completing the run in 21:06. She also placed sixth in the District 11 meet in a time of 20:42.5, qualifying for the PIAA state meet where she placed 76th out of 215 runners. Her accom-plishments earned her the Times News Cross Country Most Valuable Runner of the Year honors.

In 1996, she placed third in the Colonial League Meet with a time of 21:30, was sixth in districts in 20:23.3 and placed 92nd out of 215 runners in the state meet.

In 1997, she placed fifth at the Colonial League Meet in a time of 20:57.8. At the District 11 AA Meet, problems arose and she did not qualify for the state meet, missing going by one place due to illness. In her overall cross country ca-reer, she had a best course time of 20:19. She also won the Whitehall Invitational one year and placed third in the Bulldog Invitational.

In the Colonial League Track and Field Meet of the 1994-95 school year, she placed third in the 1600-meter run in a time of 5:29 and sixth in the 3200-meter run in a time of 12:35. At the District 11 meet, she was the silver medal winner in the 1600-meter run in a time of 5:24, qualifying for the state meet where she placed 10th in her heat with a time of 5:40.85.

The following campaign (95-96), she won the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs in the Colonial League Meet with times of 5:34.6 and 12:34.1, respectively, while also an-choring the gold medal winning Bomber team in the 3200-meter relay that was clocked at 10:23.4. She went on to win the gold medal in the 1600-meter run in the District 11 meet with a time of 5:34.6, qualifying for the state meet, and then anchored the 3200-relay team in the District 11 meet where it copped the silver medal. At states, she finished in sixth place in her heat in the 1600-meter run, eventually finishing 12th in the finals.

In 1996-97, Amanda broke the PAHS record and field record in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:23.2. At the Colonial League Meet, she placed first in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:22.5 and first in the 1600-meter run at 5:15.6. She won the District 11 1600 meter run that year in a time of 5:17.9, again qualifying for the state meet, where she placed eighth in her heat in the trials and did not move on. She also placed fifth in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:30.3.

Amanda helped the Bombers do great in the 1997-98 Catasauqua Relays competitions, anchoring two relay teams - the 3200-meter relay and sprint relay teams - to first place finishes. The same season, she re-set a school record which still stands today when she was clocked at 2:21.4 in the 800-meter run while winning the District 11 championship and qualifying for the state meet, where she placed 13th.

Amanda is the only known athlete in Palmerton High history to have qualified and participated in four straight state track and field meets, plus two years of cross country running at “states.”

In basketball, she was an honorable mention Colonial League player as a junior in the 1996-97 season, followed by being named to the league’s First Team All Stars in 1997-98. She led the team in scoring as a senior with 387 points and also was the team’s top rebounder.

Amanda was selected to the First Team by the Times News on its All Area Girls’ Basketball Team as both a junior and senior.

During her playing years, the Bombers won the Colonial League championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997, when they were District 11 champions with a 31-1 record.

At the season’s end, she was selected to play in the VIA All Star Girls Basketball Game.

Rodney Strohl

Rodney Strohl graduated from Palmerton Area High School in 1978, but not before earning varsity letters in baseball, basketball and golf.

He played varsity baseball in his sophomore, junior and senior years, holding down the centerfield and pitching as-ignments. The team won the Centennial League Baseball Championship in 1976 and 1978 and Rodney was selected First Team All Centennial League as an outfielder during the 1978 season.

He then attended East Stroudsburg University, where he majored in health and physical education, grades K-12. While there, he played four years of collegiate baseball as an outfielder.

He began a teaching career in 1984 in the Palmerton Ar-ea School District, where he taught for 35 years before retiring in 2019.

Rodney’s coaching career at the school began as an assistant coach for numerous sports, which included football, baseball, softball and basketball. From there, he later became the head of numerous sports at times including golf, softball, girls’ basketball and boys’/girls’ track and field. Most of his coaching accomplishments came during his career as the head varsity basketball coach of the Lady Bombers.

Under his helm, the 1996, 1997 and 1998 teams won the Colonial League championships and compiled a record of 57-3 during that time. The most bright side of those years was the 1997 team winning the District 11 AA champion-ship and continuing to the Eastern Finals before losing. En-route, they defeated Upper Dauphin, Villa Joseph Marie and ELCO before losing to Trinity Catholic, that being the Lady Bombers’ only blemish on a great 31-3 season.

His 1994-95 and 1995-96 teams also won the Quakertown Christmas tournaments during his coaching tenure.

Rodney coached the Lade Bombers in two stints, first from 1992-99 and then from 2013-16. His overall coaching record during those years was 169-72, including a 120-45 mark in league play.

He had the privilege of coaching All State player Nicole Levandusky from 1993-97. She holds the all-time school scoring record among both boys’ and girls’ play with 2,662 points. He’s proud to say she went on to play at Xavier University and was drafted to play in the WNBA by the Los Angeles Sparks.

George Schmidt

George Schmidt, a 1986 graduate of Palmerton Area High School, was one of the finest athletes to have participated at the school in football, basketball and baseball, having started in all three sports from his sophomore year forward.

In the 1984 football season, George was selected at sea-son’s end “honorable mention” to the Second Team All Centennial League. The following year, he was selected “honorable mention” as quarterback, was a “unanimous First Team selection” as a linebacker and was named “honorable mention” All State.

In the 1985-86 season, George played on the school’s first team to have competed in a District 11 AA champion-ship game on a team that went 9-3. It was the best regular season for the Bombers since an 8-2 finish in 1960. George played quarterback and linebacker for the team.

As a sophomore prepping for the basketball season, George was named “MVP” at the Lehigh Valley Basketball Camp. In the n1983-84 season, he was part of a team that win the District 11 AA championship. IN a first round state playoff game that year, he scored 19 points in a loss to Hanover.

As a junior in 1984-85, George averaged 10.8 points per game, scoring 248 points. His play placed him on the Second Team All Centennial League.

As a senior the following season, he scored 398 points, averaging 17.3 points per game and scoring a game high 32 points in a District 11 playoff loss to Marian. In the Slatington Rotary Christmas Basketball Tournament that year, he was selected MVP. At the season’s end, he was named to the First Team All Centennial League and was chosen to play in the LARC All Star Game. He was the point guard on the team, ending his career scoring near 1,000 points.

As a baseball player in the spring of 1984, George was selected Honorable Mention All Centennial League as a second baseman. IN both 1985, batting .407, and 1986, hitting, .422, he was selected All Centennial League at the second base position. George’s glove was good at the position, as was his hitting and his .400 average helped the Bombers get into District 11 play in both 1985 and 1986. He also played shortstop and pitched that year, when Palmerton won its first game at district’s inn 1986 vs. Schuylkill Haven, 4-0.

George ended his high school athletic career by starting for the Centennial League team in the American Cancer Society All Star Baseball Tournament.