The IBCA Basketball Hall of Fame Class for 2020 was announced yesterday. Many locally recognizable names were on the list.
Former Southern and West Central High School coach, Jay Blender will bring his 35 years in coaching and 400 wins to Hall.
He will be joined by current Wethersfield High School boys basketball coach, Jeff Parsons. Parsons has won over 300 games as the head coach of the Flying Geese.
Former Peoria Richwoods girls basketball coach, Carl Sandburg College women’s basketball coach and Louisiana Tech women’s assistant coach, Mary Kay Hungate will be inducted this year as well. Hungate spent four seasons at CSC, winning 80 games and finished 11th in the 1976 NJCAA National Tournament. She took over the Richwoods girls program in 1978, where she won an amazing 63 games in a row.
Long-time coach in the area, Neil Alexander will recieve the Chuck Rolinski Award. The award recognizes continued contributions to basketball coaching in the state. This is not an annual award, just one given when the IBCA deems it is merited. Alexander went over the 800 career win mark in February of 2018 and is still on the sidelines of the Lincoln Railer boys basketball sidelines. Before going to Lincoln, Alexander coached at many area schools, including Westmer, Yorkwood and Bushnell-Prairie City. Congratulations to all of this year’s inductees. They’ll officially be inducted on May 2nd, 2020 at Redbird Arena in Bloomington.
Inducted as a team will be the 2007-2008 Warsaw girls basketball team that won a class 2A state championship behind sophomore Marley Hall and coached by Ken Schuster.
