The 25th Annual Carbon County Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and banquet will be held Sunday, May 27, at Franklin Township Fire Company social hall.

The doors will open at 1 p.m., with the dinner to start at 1:45, followed by individual inductions of 25 who attained athletic accomplishments.

This year’s inductees are:

Coaldale – Ted Bortnick, John Horoschak, Mike Paslawsky and Jack Sweeney.

Jim Thorpe – Clinton Getz and Danny McGinley.

Lansford – Gary Karnish, Emmett McCall and James Steber.

Lehighton – Corey Schaeffer, Matthew Schaeffer and Larry Stern.

Nesquehoning – Jimmy Mikovich, Jim Paluck and Gene Snisky.

Palmerton - Billy Cyr, Barbara (Jones) Larvey and Wendy (George) Nalesnik.

Summit Hill – Rodney Lechleitner, Tony Maholick and Tom Miller.

Tamaqua – Erika (Barron) Davis, Adam Knoblauch, Joseph Romano and Tom Rottet.

Banquet tickets can be purchased from the following Hall of Fame committee members: Danny McGinley 570-325-3550, Emmett McCall 570-645-2093, 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), Evan Evans (570-645-7716), Tom Bonner (570-386-2516), Herb Welsh (570-760-1744). Tickets are $35 for adults. For children under 12, the cost is $15.

The following will be inducted representing Summit Hill:

Rodney Lechleitner

Rodney Lechleitner graduated from Summit Hill High School in 1962, where he was a four-year letter winner in football and a three-year letter winner in basketball and baseball.

He was a member of the Summit Hill High School Band for eight years, and also played the trumpet for the Coaldale Victory Band, a professional marching band.

Rodney continued his education at Bloomsburg University, where he graduated in 1966 with a bachelor of science degree in social studies/history. While a teaching assistant, he went on to earn a master of education degree in European History in 1969, and, in 1987, he received a master of arts degree in American History with his thesis, “Bootlegging in Schuylkill County 1930-1936.” His thesis has been paraphrased numerous times due to its original research.

Lechleitner taught European History at Lehigh Carbon County Community College.

He was an assistant football coach for 23 years and a head football coach for five years, and also served as the strength and conditioning coach for each of those 28 years.

Rodney was inducted into the Jerry Wolman Northern Anthracite Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame in 2015.

He began his teaching and coaching career at Southern Columbia High School in 1966, when he was an assistant football coach to a team that won the Susquehanna Valley Conference Championship.

In 1970, Lechleitner began teaching in the Mahanoy Area School District, where he taught until retiring in 2007, completing 40 years of high school education. In 1971, he began coaching football at Mahanoy Area under Angie Konstas, and later was the offensive coordinator to Bill Fazio’s 1980 Golden Bears team that won the Eastern Conference Class B Division IV Championship.

Lechleitner then moved to an assistant coach position under Tom Bonner at Panther Valley High School in 1987. He was a receivers coach as well as an offensive and defensive backfield coach during those years. The coaching staff led the Panthers to triumphs such as the 1989 District 11 Class AA Championship, the 1991 Anthracite and Eastern Conference Division Championship and the 1992 Eastern Conference Southern Division 1 playoff qualifier. As head coach of the Panthers, he coached two All State players, Joseph Tout and Gregory Kosciolek, and Scholar Athlete Nathan Sharbaugh.

Lechleitner took over as head coach of Mahanoy Area in 1997, winning the Eastern Conference Class A Division Championship. He was named Coach of the Year by the Schuylkill County Coaches Association and coached the North team in the Schuylkill County All Star Game.

As head coach of the Golden Bears in 1999, the team won the 100th anniversary game against Shenandoah Valley and was a District 11 qualifier. During his tenure, he coached two All State Bears, Julius “Ziggy” Dudash and Kyle Sedan.

Rodney resides in Lake Hauto with his wife, Eileen (Evans) Lechleitner. He has a daughter, Rodeen Lechleitner, PhD, a son-in-law, Brent “Chuck” Andrews, and a granddaughter, Mautileen, who also reside in Lake Hauto.

Tony Maholick

TonyMaholick, a native of Summit Hill, was a member of the last class to graduate from Summit Hill High School in 1964. He played four years of football, basketball and baseball.

Tony was instrumental in leading his team to the last championship basketball game in the Black Diamond League. He averaged over 20 points per game in his senior season and just missed the Carbon County scoring title by less than a half point a game.

Tony once scored 40 points in a single game, against Cass Township, which was the highest individual point total in a game for the Hillers in many years, and led his team to the 110-point victory over Cass Township, which was the highest scoring tally in school history.

During his senior year, Tony had the second highest point total for one season in Summit Hill High School history, scoring 432 points. He also played on the Lions Club All Star basketball team, sharing the court with players from Carbon County and the Lehigh Valley.

Also, during his senior year, he had the 1964 highest batting average in the Black Diamond Baseball League, batting well over .400.

Tony had the privilege of playing for three Carbon County Hall of Fame coaches, Mike McCullion, Stan “Jake” Kozuch and Richard Davidyock.

After graduation, Tony attended the New York Institute of Technology and Penn State University’s Hazleton Campus. He moved to Connecticut and worked for several technical companies, including Pratt and Whitney Aircraft as a tool designer.

While in Connecticut, he played softball and organized and played on an adult recreational basketball team. After moving to Bethlehem, he played recreational softball and basketball and was an accomplished racquetball player, having won many league tournaments. He was on the staff and a racquetball instructor at the 24/7 Racquet Club, Bethlehem.

Tony coached and umpired Little League Baseball for many years and CYO basketball in the Allentown Diocese. He also umpired adult fast-pitch, modified pitch and slow pitch softball for various leagues in the Lehigh Valley for 35 years and has been a PIAA softball umpire for the past 10 years.

After retiring from Mack Trucks Engineering, he coached girls’ basketball at the Salisbury Middle School and assisted his son as an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Lehighton Area High School.

Tony and his wife, Jeanne, have been married for over 50 years and reside in Bethlehem, snowbird in Florida, and are the proud parents of two sons, Michael and Mark; a daughter-in-law Betsy; and four grandchildren, Samuel, Lucas, Calvin and Kathryn.

Tommy Miller

Tommy Miller, a 1989 graduate of Panther Valley High School, is one of the school’s most versatile athletes ever, having been a four-year star athlete who excelled in running and jumping events in track and field, shined on the baseball diamond, excelled on the court in basketball and, most notably, was a star on the football team for the Panthers’ back-to-back District 11 championship teams in the late 1980s.

Miller lettered in track and field in his freshman, sophomore and junior years and, as a senior, he “doubled up” in both track and field and baseball, paving the way for him to become one of the first four-sport athletes at Panther Valley in decades. He took full advantage of this opportunity as he helped the Panther Valley baseball team to a district playoff berth, while also setting the school record in the high jump with a leap of 6-3.

A testament to Miller’s versatility would occur a few times in his senior year, when he actually participated in baseball games and track meets at the same time. On one particular day, he cleared the bar in the high jump and then ran up to the baseball field to bunt in the game-winning run in a game against rival Marian Catholic.

In basketball, Miller was a three-year letter winner and was a key member of the Panther Valley teams that made the District 11 playoffs when he was a junior and senior. In his senior season, he led the Panthers in scoring. Perhaps the biggest highlight of his senior season was on Dec. 23 when he scored a career-high 32 points against West Hazleton on the same day he was named to the First Team All State squad in football.

It was on the gridiron where Miller left his biggest impression. As a junior, he caught 29 passes for 504 yards for Joe Leonzi’s 9-2-1 team that went on to defeat Pen Argyl in the District 11 championship game, bringing the district gold home to Panther Valley for the first time in its history. After the season, Miller received accolades from various media and coaches’ all star teams. He was named First Team All Area wide receiver by the Times News, Standard Speaker, Pottsville Republican and Reading Eagle newspapers sports staffs.

In his senior season, Miller had possibly the most impressive single season in Panther school history. On offense, he amassed a then school record 904 yards receiving. Perhaps most remarkable about that total is that it was compiled on only 38 receptions, for an amazing 23.8 yards per catch. Maybe even more impressive is that on 37 percent of those receptions, he hit paydirt for a total of 14 touchdowns, which still stands as the single-season school record for TD receptions.

Not only did Miller catch just about everything Panther quarterbacks threw at him, but it seemed he did the same with opponents’ signal callers as well. On defense, he intercepted 12 passes, which led the entire state of Pennsylvania in that category.

Miller’s efforts on offense, defense and special teams helped first-year head coach Tom Bonner’s team to a 9-3 record and a second straight District 11 championship for the Panthers, with a victory over Marian Catholic in the title game.

After the season, Miller was again recognized for his play on the field. He repeated as First Team wide receiver in the same publications that he earned in his junior year, but, in addition to those accolades, the area media and coaches recognized his defensive prowess. He was named First Team Defensive Back by the staffs at the Times News, Standard Speaker and Pottsville Republican.

The postseason awards reaches the pinnacle for Miller just before Christmas of 1988 when The Associated Press named him to its First Team on the annual Pennsylvania All Star Team.

Miller has remained very active in athletics since his graduation from Panther Valley. He has coached high school football for his Alma Mater and has also coached girls’ softball and participated in various adult softball and basketball leagues through the years. In 2006, Miller was named to the 15th Anniversary Team of the Evans-Zimardo Summer Basketball League in Summit Hill.

Miller resides in the White Bear section of Summit Hill and is married to the former Chrisey Novy, a 1992 graduate of Tamaqua High School. They have a daughter, Chloe, who is a senior at Panther Valley.