The Mineola High School Athletic Hall of Fame will honor some of the many athletes of Mineola’s past.

The event will take place Oct. 4 at Hampton Stadium during halftime at the Mineola Varsity Football Game. The Hall of Fame will also induct five Mineola graduates for their athletic accomplishments, both in school and after graduating.

Dan Guido, during his 45th year as a wrestling coach in Mineola, started this event in 2017. After a break, Guido formed a committee in 2020 to help make this event bigger. Now the event is going into its fourth year, with three teams and five individuals being inducted.

The first three teams to be honored are nicknamed the “Pioneers of Mineola Girls Athletics.” They are the first three female teams to win championships in Mineola’s history. Many of these athletes played on two or all three of these teams.

The first team to be honored is the Girls 1977 Conference Champion Basketball Team. In only their third year as a varsity program, they went 14-0 and won the first female conference championship ever in Mineola.

The next team to be inducted is the 1978 Girls’ basketball team, which also went 14-0 to win the girls’ second basketball conference championship in a row. They then went on to place third in Nassau County.

The first two teams were both coached by Pete Kuchinsky.

In the following season, the 1978 Girls Softball Team — in the sport’s first year ever as a varsity team — went on to post a 13-3 record that led them all the way to the Nassau County championship finals. The championship game was a heartbreaker as the girls led 1-0 going into the late innings and were defeated 2-1 on a late-inning home run. This team was coached by Mineola science teacher Bob Schmidt.

“I followed that season and in their first year ever being allowed to play, they went to the county finals and they lost 2-1,” Dan Guido, one of the founding committee members of the Mineola High School Athletics Hall of Fame, said. “But to be one of the best teams in the county was hard at that time.”

Paul Popson and Bill Sbarra, both former lacrosse players from the class of 1962, will be the first individuals to be inducted into the 2024 Mineola High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

After graduating from Mineola High School, Sbarra became a defenseman for the University of Maryland during their 1967 national championships.

Popson, in his senior year, was named captain of the Rutgers Lacrosse team and played in the prestigious North-South All Star game. Popson’s record for assists is still in the Rutgers top 10 after 48 years.

Next to be inducted is Mac Ogilvie, a 1964 graduate and a three-time All-American goalie. During his senior year on the Navy Midshipmen men’s lacrosse team in Annapolis, Ogilvie was voted the top goalie in the nation.

“He was named as the most outstanding goalie in the whole country,” Guido said about Ogilvie. “And then he had to go to Vietnam and he finished his service as colonel.”

George Mecerod, Mineola graduate from the class of 1976, will be inducted after Ogilvie. Mecerod was one of the most versatile athletes from Mineola High School. He was an all-star soccer player in both high school and college.

Although he did not play on the Mineola High School Baseball team, Mecerod was a walk-on for Adelphi’s baseball team. In his first year, he was the team ace and after graduation, he became a professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.

Lastly, 1970 graduate Bob Redmond will be inducted. Redmond served the Mineola community and school district as a volunteer coach for 50 years. He also coached football for the Mineola Police Activity League for 50 years and lacrosse for the league for 31 years, as well as putting in countless hours as the president of the Mineola PAL for 46 years.

Redmond also coached football for the Mineola School District at the Middle School, junior varsity, and varsity levels for 35 years, 18 of which were as a volunteer.

“We get some money from the school, but we have to use a lot of our own money,” Guido said about the event. “So we’re trying to work that out and hopefully eventually get some donation money to help us.”

Guido said people from all over the country, like Florida, Virginia, Georgia and more come to this event. One person is flying from Rome to attend.

“People get pretty excited about it,” Guido said.

Guido said he hopes for a good turnout at this year’s event. After the game, families are invited to Cornerstone in Mineola to celebrate the new inductees.