The Carbon County Hall of Sports Hall of Fame committee will hold its 2025 induction dinner and program on Sunday, May 25, at the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company hall.

The ceremony will honor 17 inductees from six Carbon County communities and Coaldale and Tamaqua who were selected for the honor by committees representing each of the towns. The doors will open at 12:30 p.m. and the banquet will commence at 1:45.

The inductees include:

Coaldale: Dennis Gildea and Sami Vavra.

Jim Thorpe: Corey Cinicola, Justin Young and Chris “Chopper” Figura.

Lansford: Bob Thomas and Charles “Sparky” Williams; special recognition: Brenda Banks.

Lehighton: Roger Neff, Jean Buskirk and Thomas A. Schaeffer.

Nesquehoning: Frank J. Damian, Bobby Agosti and Elizabeth “Lisa” (Evans) Johnson.

Summit Hill: Casey Lawrence and Richard D. Smith Jr.

Tamaqua: Michael W. Hromyak Jr. and Jon Bonner.

Tickets to the event are available from the following: Dan McGinley, 570-325- 3550, Vince Spisak, 570-645-4542, Jake Boyer, 610-751-6634, Trevor Lawrence, 570-645-4722, Bill Gardiner, 570-669- 6564, Bob Gelatko, 570-645-7565, and Evan Evans, 570-645-7716.

The Times News will begin running the biographies of the inductees by town on Saturdays. The inductees representing Jim Thorpe are as follows:

Corey Cinicola

Dr. Corey Cinicola, a 2010 graduate of Jim Thorpe Area High School, earned 11 varsity letters in three sports – football, basketball and baseball – during his time wearing the Red, White and Blue.

On the gridiron, he was a star quarterback who set numerous records for the Olympians, passing for over 1,000 yards for three consecutive seasons. He finished his career with 64 touchdown passes, 5,116 yards in the air, including 1,954 in a season, his sophomore campaign, all JTAHS records.

Corey lettered for four years in football and baseball and three years on the basketball court.

His football prowess started when he was in 10th grade, when he threw for 25 TDs in the record-setting yardage season, being named to the Times News First Team and an honorable mention All State QB. The following year, he became Jim Thorpe’s all-time leader in passing yards, throwing for 1,744 yards, and then followed it up in his senior year with 11 TD passes and 1,205 yards.

Corey’s quarterbacking skills earned him numerous honor, including being named player of the week by the Times News, Blue Ridge TV 13 and T-102. He was named the recipient of the Ed “Fuzzy” Fahey Memorial Award and as Jim Thorpe’s Offensive MVP, and was the Olympians’ Scholar-Athlete.

On the diamond, Corey started as a pitcher and first baseman in his freshman year and never looked back, becoming one of the premier hurlers in the area. He was selected to play in the USA Jr. Olympic Games representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

He finished in the top five percent in his class, was named recipient of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award and was a Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership representative before taking his talents to Lebanon Valley College, where he received a 6-1/2-year Presidential Scholarship to pursue a degree in physical therapy.

Corey was a four-year starter at LVC, playing first base, center field and pitcher. He was selected to the All Conference team as a senior, when he batted .313 and had a slugging percentage of .479 with seven doubles and three home runs, including a grand slam.

Corey graduated magna cum laude in 2016 from Lebanon Valley with a doctorate degree in physical therapy and was named to the MAC Conference Academic Honor Roll and the college’s National Honor Society. He is currently employed by the Lehigh Valley Health Network as a doctor of physical therapy and certified sports specialist, specializing in concussion rehabilitation and working with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.

He and his wife, Holly, reside in Mertztown. Corey is the son of Larry and Lori (Miller) Cinicola of Jim Thorpe.

Chris Figura

Chris “Chopper” Figura, who was inducted into the Jim Thorpe Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, became Jim Thorpe’s first state power lifting champion in 1990 and later that year became the area’s first National Champion as well.

Three sport athlete is what we were accustomed to, the big 3 … Basketball, Football, and Baseball back in the 90s. Today there are many other sports offered in High school, but having an athlete compete in five sports was unheard of. Figura comes from an athletic family. Sister Lisa played three sports, brother Dave played three sports and went on to play golf at Lehigh University and brother Jason was a standout three-sport athlete who became one of JTAHS’ 1,000-point scorers in basketball and went on to play in college.

“Chopper” was not only playing the big 3 but was recruited by Pip Rehrig to be on the gymnastics team to compete at Blue and White nights. He excelled in tumbling, rings and high bar. Chopper went on to train with a company out of Wilkes-Barre for a year to continue his gymnastics training. Near the end of high school, Coach John McGowan (the strength coach at JTAHS) recruited Figura to train and compete in powerlifting. He was already heavily involved in organized sports and was excelling to the point that Coach McGowan and coach Dave Malkin saw potential in Figura and asked him to give it a try. With typical enthusiasm he trained diligently for many months before entering his first competition.

After four months of hard training, he entered his first state competition which had dozens of powerhouse schools competing: Glen Mills, Hershey, Grove City, Nanticoke, Upper Perkiomen, Parkland etc. Figura exceeded the expectations of his coaches by competing at the highest level against competitors who have been competing for years. “Chris was my first JTAHS State Champion,” said Coach McGowan. Throughout the commonwealth of PA the state powerlifting competition is recognized as the premier event. After winning the state competition, he received a letter in the mail inviting him to compete in the national deadlift competition, as his score at the state competition qualified high enough to compete nationally.

Figura, thankfully declined to enter the national competition stating, “the training was grueling, and I do not want to put my body through that again and I am not sure I have trained long enough to compete with life-long competitors nationally.” Coach Malkin had other ideas. When he heard Figura had declined the invitation, he pulled him aside and said “Do you realize no one from this school has ever had this opportunity, you need to embrace it and we will work hard together to get you prepared” Without hesitation Figura agreed. This time around it was five months of six days a week of training.

Figura went on to win the National competition against competitors from Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey and Texas. He entered the competition in the 134 lb. weight class and performed a Dead Lift of 314.5 pounds to take the title. After returning to the weight room that following Monday, Coach McGowan shook his hand tightly and congratulated him again and right after that Coach Malkin gave him a “bear hug” saying “WE DID IT.” Figura said it was an emotional day and followed up with, “Those guys believed in me more than I believed in myself.”

Figura went on to continue his sports career following his first love basketball. He went on to play basketball for Coach Schlosser and the Elizabethtown Blue Jays in Hershey, PA. Figura was also part of the coaching staff for JTAHS that won the District 11 2A baseball championship in 1992.

Figura currently lives in Myrtle Beach, SC with his wife Billie Ann. He is a real estate developer and custom home builder while his wife owns and operates a very successful real estate Agency with over 25 agents. Their son Eric lives in Brooklyn with a very successful career of being a Creative director for an advertising agency while their daughter Mallory attends Clemson University.

The Apple did not fall far from the tree in that household. With Billie Ann’s dance background along with Figura’s athletic ability, their daughter secured her own place in history. Mallory, a long-time competitive dancer, just competed nationally in July of 2024, in Orlando Florida, at the highest level of dance and brought home her own first place National Title. She said, “Dad, that makes two now.”

Justin Young

Justin Young starred on the gridiron for the Jim Thorpe Area High School Olympians in the early 2000s.

In 2002, 2003 and 2004, he was named Defensive Most Valuable Player for the Red, White and Blue, and in 2003 he was the team’s Most Valuable Player, following that up in 2004 as the team co-MVP.

In 2004, he became the first Olympian to be named to the WNEP Super 16 Dream Team, and he finished his career with a school record 401 tackles.

At JTAHS, he also participated in the Olympians’ first-ever track and field team.

Justin went on to Georgetown University on an athletic and academic scholarship. He played linebacker there and graduated with honors.

He was also a four-time state champion powerlifter (2000-2004), and was a silver medalist in 2002 in the national competition held in Texas.

Justin attained Most Valuable Player powerlifting honors in 2003 and 2004 and set multiple state records and had multiple first place finishes in powerlifting competition.

He currently resides in Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife and two sons.