Five new members were inducted into the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame recently during a ceremony at Pate’s Park.

This year’s hall of fame class includes Jim Adams, Patty (Walko) Mengel, Adrienne (Repsher) Kashner, Denny Hollinger and Bob Linn.

JIM ADAMS

Jim Adams never played or coached even one game of softball in his life, but he found his way to serving as the President of Patriot’s Park and being the driving force behind renovations that have made the facility one of the most used sports venues in the Lehigh Valley with teams from across the country coming to town for games.

Adams’ involvement in the sport for many years led him to be among five individuals inducted earlier this month into the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame at an induction ceremony at Patriot’s Park.

Adams has three daughters and two of them played high school softball at William Allen under legendary local coach Ed Stinner. His kid’s playing days got Adams involved in the sport. Through his involvement with his daughters, Adams became well acquainted with the park and the people involved in running the facility.

He noticed some shortcomings in the park and that the facility needed a definite upgrade. He then led those upgrades as the park’s president.

Among the items on Adams’ checklist were new lighting, more seating, a new drainage system for the field itself and a larger press box that would be able to hold more than the four people who could previously fit in the box. Adams was able to knock all those things and some others off his list.

Fans are close to the action and the drainage system allows games to be played even after substantial rainfall, while the lighting provides for better action.

All those things and especially the spacious press box – which was officially named after Adams - also contribute to the fact that games are well attended by fans and the media.

“Bill Gillingham and I went around the area and asked to see press boxes and we would even do that when we traveled,” said Adams. “When I was in Florida, I asked to go into a press box, and they let me check it out. We kept a list of all the features that we liked, and thought were important and then Bill drew up the plans. I found the windows for free, and we were able to get a few other things and it all came together.”

Gillingham recently passed away, but he and Adams became good friends who spent a lot of time together over the years. That friendship and many others form what Adams refers to as his favorite moment in his involvement with the park.

To fundraise for the upgrades, Adams was involved with events like bringing the U.S. Olympic softball team to Pate’s for three days, raising over $10,000 in t-shirt sales alone.

“I met so many great people at that ballpark,” said Adams, who is now 78. “It feels so good to see girls who played there and who I got to know and we’re friends on Facebook and now, I see them with daughters who are as old as they were when they played here. There are just so many people that I wouldn’t have met had I not spent so much time there.”

PATTY (WALKO) MENGEL

Former Northwestern Lehigh softball player and coach Patty (Walko) Mengel, who was a member of the 1985 Northwestern state championship team before serving as the team’s coach for nine seasons beginning in 1991. In 1996, Mengel was named the Colonial League Coach of the Year.

Mengel followed up the 1985 state championship by being a member of the ASA state title team the Lehigh Valley Panthers in travel league softball in 1986. She was also a member of the team that went to the national tournament in 1983. Later, she played with the Allentown Patriettes and Topton VIPs. Mengel won the ASA batting title in 1990 and was selected as a first-team All-American.

Mengel played college ball at Temple University where she was a starter in three of her four seasons with the team and was coached by Hall of Fame coach Ronnie Maurek.

“I’ve never been at the top echelon when it came to softball, but I always believed that you went out there and gave it 100-percent no matter what the situation was,” Mengel said. “I love to compete no matter what level I was at or whether it was as a player, or a coach and softball was an opportunity to do that, and I was very fortunate to have those opportunities.”

In addition to softball, Mengel played basketball and field hockey at Northwestern Lehigh. She was also a Tiger field hockey coach from 2008-2014 and following her softball head coach experience served as the assistant softball coach from 2005 to 2015. She also spent four seasons at Allentown Central Catholic and three seasons at Parkland.

The 1985 championship holds a special spot in her list of memories about softball. Teammate Candice (Snyder) Danner and coach Hope Donnell are also members of the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame. One of her players, Becky George, went on to play softball at the University of Massachusetts and serve as athletic director at Palisades before taking her current position as the AD at Emmaus.

“That was just such a special season for us,” said Mengel, who had key seventh-inning hits in two of the PIAA games. “We only lost one game and were league champions and district champions and then went on to win the state championship. That just goes back to being competitive. I always wanted to be in those types of situations.”

In her induction speech, Mengel saluted her father Don, who got her started in softball. Don Walko played minor league baseball in the Phillies organization in the 1960s and passed along his love of sports to his daughter.

“I really believe that my dad would have been proud that I was chosen to be a member of the Hall of Fame,” said Mengel. “He passed away over the past year and I sometimes wonder if he had anything to do with this. It’s kind of ironic in that sense.”

DENNY HOLLINGER

Hollinger made his mark in the local softball scene for more than 50 years.

In 1971 Hollinger pitched the BVFHA to a Bethlehem B League championship.

In 1975 Hollinger led the Allentown Patriots to an ASA Pennsylvania Major tournament runner up finish, pitching 19 innings in the event while allowing four hits, two earned runs and striking out 28 batters. In 1983 he led Hollinger’s Bar to a Bethlehem City League championship.

In 1989 Hollinger pitched for Ski Brothers of Trumbauersville and led the team to the ASA Class A state title, earning MVP honors by going 5-1 with a no-hitter and a one-hitter.

“That was probably my biggest highlight as a player,” he said. “The year before I didn’t have a good year. I wasn’t really concentrating on softball, but Ski Brothers asked me to come back and we had a good team and we had one of those weekends that everything went right. Winning a state championship was always a dream for me and i think getting that done was my biggest accomplishment.”

Hollinger got into coaching in 1997 at Freedom High School as an assistant coach and did stints at Notre Dame, Wilson and Nazareth. He was head coach at Freedom for two stints (2000-2003 and 2009-2012).

Hollinger served as pitching coach to players from around the Lehigh Valley. He coached players who went on to play in college, including Freedom’s Jen Slanovec, Kirby White, Tina Bartek, Cheryl Griffith, Audrey Bowen and Julianna Presto; Notre Dame’s Maria DeBonis; Wilson’s Chelsea Bock; and Emmaus’s Shannon Williams.

BOB LINN

Bob Linn was a versatile player in the Allentown Church League who could play third base and catcher.

Linn, an orphan who was raised at the Good Shepherd Home where he lived until college, raised three children (Melissa, Todd and Steve) as a single parent.

Linn won the Warren Knauss Award from the City of Allentown Recreation Bureau for good sportsmanship as a player, a trait he carried through his career as a player and coach.

Linn got into coaching when his daughter Melissa, who is a member of the LV Softball Hall of Fame, was a sixth-grader in the Salisbury Township School District.

Linn headed the Salisbury youth program and coached there for several years before joining the Banko-Miller Eagles 18U travel team, which won four state championships and several regional titles.

“That was in the mid-80s and everything I learned about being a coach I learned from Rich (Karluk),” Linn said. “He’s the guy that taught me how to treat kids, how to treat other parents, and various drills. I learned from him and then I learned from watching other college coaches when Melissa played at Notre Dame.”

Linn served as head coach at Central Catholic for 11 years, from 1992-2002. He posted a record of 174-94, winning a district title in 1992 and a league title in 2002.

Some of the prominent players that he coached include Sheelin Fisher, Lisa Gebino, Jenn Schellhamer, Akoua Lonegran and Meghan Wolfer.

He returned to coach at Dieruff in 2006.

“I just wanted to help the city kids because I was a city kid myself,” Linn said. “The city kids get ripped, but I thought they were pretty great people. I had a lot of fun there and I never had any trouble. The kids were always respectful and listened.”

He credited assistants like Bill Rosberry, Chuck Billy and Louie Frey for not just being part of his staff at both schools, but also for being great people.

ADRIENNE (REPSHER) KASHNER

Adrienne Kashner was a left-handed slugger for Nazareth High School in the early 2000s and a very good defensive first baseman.

In 2003 she batted .417 with 26 runs, 29 RBIs, 14 extra-base hits and a .995 fielding percentage. She also drew 18 walks as opposing coaches often decided a free pass was their best option.

She amassed more than 100 career hits and was the 2003 Gatorade Pennsylvania Softball Player of the Year. She also earned player of the year recognition from the Morning Call and the Express Times twice.

Kashner’s teams won three league titles and a district crown. As a junior in 2002 she helped the team reach the PIAA Class 4A semifinals.

She was also a four-year starter in basketball and volleyball.

Kashner played at Temple University, starting in all 227 games during her career.

In 2007 Kashner was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Temple’s Female Student-Athlete of the Year. During that season she started 39 games and batted .456, hit a school record 13 home runs and drove in 39 runs. She scored a school record 44 times that season and led Division I with a school record .951 slugging percentage that season. She also achieved a school record for on-base percentage (.578).

She also posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in 2007.

She has stayed involved in softball in Colorado Springs, CO, and Raleigh, NC, but will always remember her roots.

“This is such a hotbed for softball with great coaches and so many supporters and advocates for the sport,” Kashner said. “I learned how great the Lehigh Valley softball community is by coaching in other areas. The Lehigh Valley is a very special place.”