News Release – Ohio High School Athletic Association
Executive Director Daniel B. Ross, Ph.D.
4080 Roselea Place, Columbus, OH 43214
Main: 614-267-2502 • Fax: 614-267-1677
For Immediate Release – March 20, 2018
OHSAA to Honor Six Former Greats in Circle of Champions at Boys State Basketball Tournament
Other Special Awards Recipients Will Also Be Recognized
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association will honor six former standout athletes who are either Ohio natives or have ties to the state during the finals of the 2018 Boys State Basketball Tournament Saturday, March 24. Headlining those being saluted as part of the OHSAA’s Circle of Champions recognition program is Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Anthony Munoz, along with his daughter, Michelle (Munoz) Trenz, and his son, Michael Munoz. Also to be recognized are Dennis Hopson, Dwight “Bo” Lamar and William White. The Munoz’s will be recognized at halftime of the Division II championship game that begins at 5:15 p.m., while Hopson, Lamar and White will be honored during halftime of the Division IV championship game that tips off at 10:45 a.m. The Circle of Champions program recognizes individuals who had prominent roles in the history of Ohio athletics.
Anthony Munoz grew up in Ontario, California, played college football at the University of Southern California but has been a resident of Ohio for the past 38 years after the Cincinnati Bengals selected him No. 3 overall in the first round of the 1980 NFL draft. One of the greatest NFL linemen in history, Munoz played 13 years with the Bengals between 1980 and 1992. Cincinnati won four division championships during that time and made two Super Bowl appearances. He was selected to 11 consecutive Pro Bowls, was All-Pro nine times and won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1991. Anthony was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998 and to the NFL 75th Anniversary Team in 1994. Prior to that, Munoz was a three-sport high school standout and, besides having an outstanding football career at USC, he pitched for the Trojans’ 1978 national championship baseball team. In 2002, he started the Anthony Munoz Foundation, which is committed to impacting the youth in the Greater Cincinnati area mentally, physically and spiritually through various initiatives. Anthony and his wife reside in Mason.
Michelle (Munoz) Trenz was a standout volleyball and basketball player at Mason High School. She led the Comets to a 27-0 record and the OHSAA Division I state basketball championship as a junior in 2000 after they were state runners-up the previous year. Michelle earned high school All-America honors, was twice named first team all-state and was a two-time Ohio Ms. Basketball recipient. Mason was 94-8 during her time as a four-year starter. Following high school, Trenz played on Pat Summit’s 2002 Tennessee team that finished 29-5, won the SEC championship and advanced to the NCAA Final Four. She then played two years at Ohio State before injuries forced her to end her career. She started in 27 games for the 2005 Buckeyes’ team that tied for the Big Ten championship and advanced to the Sweet 16. Michelle and her husband have four children and reside in Cincinnati.
Michael Munoz was a standout football player at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati. He helped the Crusaders finish as Division I state runners-up as a sophomore in 1997, was a three-time all-state selection as an offensive lineman and was selected to several All-America teams. He also was a four-time state qualifier in the discus and three-time state qualifier in the shot put. Munoz went on to play college football at the University of Tennessee, where he was a four-year starter, two-time team captain, was twice second team All-SEC and was consensus All- America. He won the 2004 National Football Foundation Draddy Award for athletic and academic success. A graduate of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Munoz earned his M.B.A. from Miami University. He was president of the Munoz Agency and executive director of the Anthony Munoz Foundation before being hired as vice president of character development by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2017. Michael and his wife have five children and reside in Cincinnati.
Dennis Hopson attended Bowsher High School in Toledo, where he was a standout basketball player. He was the Toledo player-of-the-year and earned first team all-state honors as a senior in 1983. Hopson then attended Ohio State, where he ended his career as the Buckeyes’ all-time scoring leader with 2,096 points after a senior year that saw his 29.0 average rank second nationally, and he was named to several All-America teams and was the Big Ten Player of the Year. He also served as a two-time Buckeye captain. The third overall pick of the 1987 NBA draft by New Jersey, Hopson played five seasons in the NBA. He led the Nets in scoring in 1990 and was a member of the 1991 World Champion Chicago Bulls. He then played overseas between 1992 and 2000. Following his playing career, Dennis remained around basketball, coaching at the professional, college and high school levels, including serving as an assistant at Bowling Green between 2009 and 2014, and he also spent a year as an NBA scout. Dennis earned his degree in education/sports leisure from Ohio State and is a member of both the Ohio State Athletic Hall of Fame and the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. He is currently director of basketball operations for the YMCA of Greater Toledo.
Dwight “Bo” Lamar was an outstanding basketball player who grew up in Columbus. In high school, “Bo” helped one of the state’s all-time best teams win the big-school state championship at East High School in 1969. The Tigers finished 25-0, and he earned all-state honors along with teammates Ed Ratleff and the late Nick Connor. Lamar then attended college at Southwestern Louisiana – today known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette – where he was a three-time All-American in two different divisions. During his career, he scored 3,493 points and averaged 31.2 points per game in an era before the three-point line. The team’s record of 74-13 his last three seasons was bettered only by UCLA during that time. Bo was drafted in the third round of the 1973 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons and he spent three seasons playing in the ABA and a year in the NBA with the Lakers. He spent several years back at Louisiana-Lafayette as a basketball color analyst on radio and now makes his home in Reynoldsburg
William White grew up in Lima and was a standout football and basketball player at Lima Senior High School. He then became a four-year starting cornerback at Ohio State, where he helped the Buckeyes win two Big Ten championships. He was a team captain his senior year in 1987, when he earned first team All-Big Ten honors and was an Academic All-Big Ten selection. A fourth-round pick of the Detroit Lions in the 1988 NFL draft, White spent 11 seasons in the NFL, including six years with the Lions. He started 132 games in his career, had 20 career interceptions and started for the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII against Denver. A 1987 graduate of Ohio State with a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering, White has been involved in several businesses since his playing days, including a concussion assessment company, and he has just begun the William White Family Foundation, where funds generated will go towards ALS research. William and his wife reside in Powell, and have two children, including son Brendon, a sophomore at Ohio State where he is a member of the Buckeye football team.
Other awards that will be presented during this year’s boys state tournament are as follows:
• The 2018 OHSAA Ethics and Integrity Award recipient is Jerry Snodgrass, an OHSAA staff member since 2008 and long-time member of the OHSAA Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Committee. He has been instrumental in initiating sporting behavior and other recognition programs at the OHSAA including the nationally recognized “Golden Megaphone” program, which promotes positive spirit from student cheering sections at basketball games across the state. He also has developed “Military Appreciation Night,” where student sections at all high schools across the state come together once a year during basketball season to show their support and appreciation for those in the armed forces. Jerry also serves as a frequent speaker at schools, conferences and leagues on sportsmanship and leadership. Before coming to the OHSAA, Jerry spent 31 years in education as a coach, teacher and administrator. A native of Upper Sandusky who holds degrees from Bowling Green State and Dayton, Jerry and his wife have two children and two grandchildren.
• The OHSAA Naismith Awards will be presented to two people for their meritorious service to the sport of basketball or interscholastic athletics. One recipient is David Waller, who began working at Dawson-Bryant High School in Coal Grove in 1967 before retiring in 1999. He served 22 years as the school’s athletic administrator and was selected to the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame in 1998. He also served in many coaching capacities at the school, including four years as assistant football coach, seven years as head basketball coach, 17 years as head baseball coach and 22 years as head of the cross country program, which he started in 1977. David is a graduate of Dawson-Bryant High School and holds a degree from Morehead State University. He served three years on the OHSAA’s Southeast District Athletic Board. He and his wife, Carol, have a son and two grandchildren.
The other Naismith Award will be presented to Joe Petrocelli became the first head boys basketball coach at Kettering Archbishop Alter High School in 1964 at the age of 26. He completed 50 years at Alter in 2013 and won 831 games, finishing second in Ohio boys history for coaching victories. His teams won three state championships, 24 district titles and eight regional crowns. He coached two future NBA players – brothers Jim and John Paxson – and many who received Division I college scholarships. Joe graduated from Purcell High School in Cincinnati in 1956 and earned two degrees from Xavier. He is a retired Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserves. He and his wife have three children.
• The OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Award will be presented to Hannibal River High School’s Mark Romick, who has been an educator in the Switzerland of Ohio School District for the past 37 years. Mark has been the athletic administrator at River High School for the past five years and the head boys basketball coach for the past 22 years. His teams have won seven sectional and one district championship during that time. He and his wife reside in New Matamoras.
• Ohio Athletic Trainers Association award winners to be recognized are Trainers-of-the-Year Courtney Powell, a certified athletic trainer with the Dayton Sports Medicine Institute; Eric Bortmas, a certified athletic trainer with OhioHealth in Columbus, and Jeff Sczpanski, a certified athletic trainer who is the supervisor for sports medicine with OhioHealth in Columbus who also has clinical responsibilities with MAX Sports Medicine in Hilliard, along with State Athletics Trainers Hall of Fame inductee Brian Hortz, part of the athletic training staff at Denison University since 1995 who has been head athletic trainer since 1997. He also serves as an associate professor in the university's Health, Exercise and Sport Studies department.
• A National Federation of State High School Associations Outstanding Service Award in Ohio will be presented to Harvey Alston, one of the country’s most dynamic motivational speakers on leadership and responsibility whose philosophy is “Be The Best.” He is instrumental in planning and organizing the annual OHSAA Foundation Student Leadership Conference that has grown into the largest such conference in the nation. In addition, Harvey’s messages have touched thousands of students in Ohio and nationally, where he is a frequent presenter at various state, league and conference student leadership seminars, and each year he takes an Ohio delegate and is part of the curriculum at the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Student Leadership Summit in Indianapolis. A graduate from Columbus East High School and Central State University, Harvey and his wife live in Westerville and have three children and five grandchildren.
• Inductees into the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Hall of Fame to be recognized are Mike Brown, who worked at The Alliance Review for 40 years, including the past 25 as sports editor, before retiring in 2017; Jeff Harrison, the sports editor of The Daily Jeffersonian in Cambridge, where he has worked since 2000, and Debbie Juniewicz, who has covered high school sports for the Dayton Daily News and other Ohio publications since 1992.
• In addition, the OHSAA will recognize the boys basketball teams from Fort Loramie (1993) and Marengo Highland (1998) for the anniversaries of their state championships and schools that have won the 2018 Golden Megaphone Award, which recognizes positive spirit from student cheering sections at basketball games, while special awards will also be presented by the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association.
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