City Section chooses 23 athletes, coaches and others for Hall of Fame induction

Twenty-three boys and girls from Los Angeles Unified School District schools who made an impact in high school sports have been selected to be part of the seventh induction class into the City Section Hall of Fame.

A number of outstanding coaches were selected, including Darryl Stroh (Granada Hills) and Mike Maio (El Camino Real) for baseball, Nick Rodinoff (Birmingham) for swimming, Don Gambril (Wilson) for aquatics, Gordon Weisenburger (Belmont) and Bruce Thomson (San Pedro) for cross country, Dave Yanai (Fremont) and Judi Edwards (Fairfax) for basketball.

Among the athletes, Wesley Walker was a football standout in the 1970s at Carson. Kevin Holmes led Reseda Cleveland to prominence in the 1980s in basketball. Doreatha Conwell-Waitman was one of the top girls’ basketball players in the country at Locke in 1984. Roxanne DeMik (Westchester), Sharon McAlexander (Washington) and Tim Hovland (Westchester) were major volleyball contributors.

In baseball, Larry Dierker of Taft and Rene Lachemann of Dorsey became major leaguers. Greg Lee, a City player of the year in basketball at Reseda who’d go on to throw passes to Bill Walton at UCLA, was selected. Charles Lakes (Monroe) was a top gymnast. Billy Mullins of Hamilton was a top sprinter in the 1970s. Beth Silverman Kaminkow led El Camino Real to success in softball as a standout pitcher.

Mike Scyphers, a Canoga Park grad, was selected for his contributions as a top basketball official. Earnie Shelby from Los Angeles was chosen for track in the 1950s. Former City Section commissioner and football coach John Aguirre was chosen.

Seventeen individuals were selected for the legacy group, including sportswriter Pete Kokon (Van Nuys), football player Hal Bedsole (Reseda) and track promoter Al Franken (Fairfax).

An induction ceremony will take place April 16, 2023, at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills.

Here’s a link to the complete new class.

The City Section Hall of Fame class for 2023.

(City Section)