Former Men's Basketball Coach Steve Solomone leads the Class of 2012 into the GCC Sports Hall of Fame.

Nine new members of the Gloucester County College Sports Hall of Fame will be inducted on Friday evening, September 28, 2012 at a dinner and induction ceremony that will be held at Adelphia’s Restaurant in Deptford.  GCC will also honor the 1992 National Championship Baseball Team on the 20^th anniversary of the Team winning the College’s first ever NJCAA National Championship in school history on the same evening.

Led by National Championship Coach (1994) and NJCAA Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame member, Steve Solomone, some of the College’s top athletes and coaches will be honored at this year’s induction ceremony.  

The nine new members will join forty-five previous Hall of Fame members that were inducted between 1987 and 2010.

Included in this year’s Hall of Fame class will be:

Ø  Tara Hicken Hartwyk, an All-American Women’s Basketball Player in 2000 when she helped lead the Roadrunners to their only Region 19 Championship and National Championship Tournament appearance.

Ø  Joe Hollywood, a two-time All-American in Wrestling in 1988 and 1989 who finished 2^nd and 5^th respectively in the NJCAA National Championship Tournament in those years

Ø  Valerie Banks Garrison, GCC’s first women’s individual NJCAA National Champion in 1994 in Cross Country, an All-American in both 1994 and 1995

Ø  Wykeen Kelly, an All-American in Men’s Basketball in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 when he was named the NJCAA Division III National Player of the Year, GCC’s all-time leading scorer with 1,295 points, who enjoyed a long and highly successful career playing professional basketball in Europe

Ø  Terrence Mack, an All-American in Men’s Basketball in 1994-95 and 1995-96, one of GCC’s top all-around players who continued his playing career at Philadelphia Textile

Ø  Spencer Paulson, an All-American in Men’s Basketball in 1997, one of GCC’s top playmakers and clutch players, led the Roadrunners to the National Championship Game in  1997 and later went on to play at East Stroudsburg University

Ø  Ed Ross, a two-time All-American in Track and Field in 1981 and 1982 in the high hurdles, who continued his track & field career at the University of Nebraska

Ø  Joe Scopio, an All-American in Baseball in 1993, helped lead the Roadrunners to two consecutive National Championships in Baseball in 1992 and 1993

Ø  Steve Solomone, inducted into the NJCAA Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2011, GCC’s Men’s Basketball Coaching leader with 294 career wins, produced 8 All-Americans, 2 National Players of the Year, won six Region 19 Championships and made six National Championship Tournament appearances, had five seasons with 30 or more wins including the 1994 National Championship Team which was the only undefeated college basketball team in the country that year

Ø  Coach Barry Davis’s 1992 Baseball Team had the original season to remember when they won the 1992 Region 19 Baseball Tournament and moved on to participate in the NJCAA’s Innaugural Division III World Series in Jamestown, NY.  After three nail-biting victories the team coasted to a big win over the College of DuPage in the National Championship Game and brought home the first of GCC’s 20 NJCAA National Titles.  On the 20^th Anniversary of the very first national championship the College is pleased to offer “the team that taught us we could”  the opportunity for a reunion of the athletes and coach that made it all happen.

Tickets for the Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony may be obtained by contacting the GCC Athletic Office at 856-415-2207 or contacting GCC Athletic Director, Ron Case via e-mail at rcase@gccnj.edu.