The Gateway Sports Hall of Fame will induct the Class of 2013 at a banquet Nov. 9 at Edgewood Country Club in Churchill.

This year marks the 14th time a class will be inducted, and this year's group includes five athletes, one coach and two teams.

For more information on tickets, call Tony Petrocelli at 412-855-3905.

Over the next two weeks, the Times Express will take a closer look at each of the inductees.

Shannon Ruane

The 1995 Gateway graduate enjoyed a stellar golf career.

She played in her first golf tournament when she was 12 and was very competitive in the sport when she got to high school.

Ruane is the only Gators golfer in school history, male or female, to win the WPIAL individual golf championship.

She began her high school career as a sophomore in the fall of 1992 where she was the first and only girl to play on the boys varsity golf team. At that time, Gateway didn't have a girls squad.

Ruane finished fourth at the WPIAL individual championships as a junior, and that qualified her for the PIAA championships in State College.

At the challenging State College Elks Country Club, she shot a two-round total of 183 and finished 20th out of a field of 39 golfers.

As a senior, Ruane captured WPIAL individual gold, taking the title at the Fox Run Golf Course in Waterford with a score of 82 in a field of 30 golfers.

Ruane again qualified for states in State College where she shot a two-round total of 165 and placed fourth out of 40 golfers.

In July before her senior year at Gateway, Ruane won the Independent Insurance Agents Pennsylvania Junior Classic state championship at Hershey Country Club. She topped a field of 35 golfers.

By winning the tournament, she qualified for the national tournament in Austin, Texas, where she finished in the middle of the pack.

Ruane also played in four other national events, including the Hudson Junior Invitational in Ohio. Past tournament participants in the event for boys and girls include John Daley and Phil Mickelson.

In 1994, she qualified for the PGA Junior Championship in Palm Beach, Fla., and she finished in the middle part of the field.

After high school, Ruane continued her amateur golf career.

From 1995 to 2006, she was the ladies' golf champion at Alcoma Golf Club in Penn Hills.

She also teamed with Alcoma golf pro Dennis Myrick to win the 2004 Tri-State PGA Pro/Ladies Club Championship.

In 1995, Ruane won the Pa. Junior Girls Golf Championship and had a respectable finish at the AJGA Ping Myrtle Beach Classic.

In the summer of 1998, she played in the West Penn Open at Nevillewood Country Club and finished as runner-up.

Rege Laughlin

The famed Gateway boys basketball coach mentored competitive and successful teams in the 1960s.

Before he became a coach, Laughlin enjoyed a strong basketball career as a player, including three years at Ambridge High School and four years as a letterman at Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania).

After graduation from ISTC, he began a coaching and teaching career at Gateway.

He started as a Gators boys basketball assistant under head coach John Galagaza.

Laughlin's teams won two straight section titles in 1964 and 1965, and the 1964 team won 20 straight games — a Gateway record — and went undefeated in section play.

That squad — Dick Adipotti, Cliff Parsons, Bob Koester, Larry Mihalchik, Ken Checkman, Bill Wilshire, John Hull, Bob Lang, John Nemec, Rege Ruane, Bill Kelly, Don King and Russ Porter — was inducted into the Gateway Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

The 1965 team had a 20-4 record, won the section and made the WPIAL playoffs for a second straight season.

It set a team record for points in a game by scoring 99 in a win over Franklin Regional.

Throughout his coaching tenure with the Gators, Laughlin coached several of Gateway's individual hall of famers.

Laughlin also credits coaching colleagues Tony Forte, Bob O'Leary, Bob Holden, Rege Giles and Bill Murphy for helping the Gateway boys basketball program to success in the 1960s.

Vince Lamberti

The Pitcairn native and 1971 Gateway graduate developed a sporting foundation on youth baseball teams in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Lamberti was talked into going out for the football team for his ninth-grade year at South Junior High School.

Under coach Steve Statnick, he got his start in football on the offensive line. Bob Holden then helped Lamberti get started in Gateway basketball as a freshman.

Lamberti credits coach Ernie Quarzo for keeping him involved in football for the Gators.

He had a breakout football season as a junior in 1969. As a starting tight end, he helped Gateway capture its first WPIAL championship with an upset of heavily favored Altoona at Pitt Stadium.

The undefeated 1969 Gators squad was inducted into the Gateway Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Lamberti, as a junior, also helped the 1969-70 Gators boys basketball team win the section title. The Gators made the playoffs and lost a tough game to Clairton at the Civic Arena in front of more than 11,000 fans.

The Gateway football team fell short of another conference championship in the fall of 1970, but his senior basketball season was another memorable one.

The big and experienced Gators won the section title again, beating Laurel Highlands in a big upset and eventually losing to Farrell by one point in the WPIAL semifinals.

Lamberti won several awards in his senior year, and he gained college interest. He played football at Pitt for two and a half years. A back injury ended his collegiate football pursuits.

Lamberti got a job with Calgon Corporation in the environmental pollution control business in 1976 and met his future wife, Cynthia.

They've been married for 30 years and have two children, Alyssa and Michael.

Michael was an all-state basketball player on the South Fayette team that won the PIAA Class AA championship in 2010.

Gateway Varsity Wrestling 1965-66

In its third year of existence, the Gateway varsity wrestling program had a season to remember.

The program started with young and inexperienced wrestlers and an equally inexperienced coach in Any Bulazo in the 1963-64 season.

The 1964-65 Gators wrestling team went 10-1-1, and nine members of that team returned for the undefeated 1965-66 campaign.

Over a three-year period, Gateway went undefeated in 28 straight matches.

The 1965-66 team went 14-0 and scored at least 27 points in every match. It outscored its opponents by a combined 531-206.

Gateway tallied a season-best 55 points in a 55-8 victory over Southmoreland, and its closest win was a 27-26 triumph over Penn Hills.

The Gators also scored big wins over Churchill (32-16) and powerhouse Lower Burrell (29-19).

They came from behind with three victories in the upper weights to defeat Churchill.

The win over Lower Burrell was preserved when Paul Jagdmann came from behind after trailing 12-2 against a Burrell wrestler who placed at the PIAA tournament the previous season.

Jagdmann scored an upset pin in the 180-pound bout.

That season, more than 50 wrestlers competed for the 13 starting spots.

John Sattler, the starter at 145 pounds, was a Gateway Sports Hall of Fame individual inductee in 2004. Several team members went on to wrestle in college.

Rick Kotulak, at the unlimited/heavyweight class, won a section championship that season and qualified for states.

Sattler, Bob Fox (133), Walt Adams (154) and Kotulak won titles at the Christmas tournament.

The starting lineup that season also included Tony Santangelo (88 pounds), John Kudravy (95), Art Steinweg (103), Rick Shannon (112), John Rutledge (120), Rich Pecora (127), Rick Crousey (138) and Jim Zollner (165).

The varsity wrestling alternates were Chuck Carnish, Calvin Wilson, Rael Slutsky and Nathan Boring.

Coach Bulazo and the team received help from manager Art Trunzo.

Michael Love is a staff writer with Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-388-5825 or at mlove@tribweb.com.

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