A girls’ coach who amassed nearly 300 victories and quartet of high-scoring players who combined for nearly 6,000 career points in high school have been selected to the District 12 Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

Named to this year’s class are long-time Fort Frye girls’ coach Don Strahler and four athletes — Ann Mooney of New Lexington (Class of 1985) and Jessie Slack of Sheridan (Class of 2005) on the female side along with Todd Antill of Shadyside (Class of 1988) and Tyler Engle of Fort Frye (Class of 2007) on the male side.

Those five will be honored at the Pepsi/District 12 All-Star Basketball Classic on Friday, April 4 at Buckeye Trail High School in Old Washington. The girls’ game tips off at 6 p.m. followed by the boys’ game at 8.

Don Strahler

(Coach – Fort Frye High School)

A 1959 graduate of Fort Frye High School and a graduate of Salem College, he served as head coach of the Fort Frye girls’ basketball team from 1976-94, compiling a career record of 292-95.

Strahler-coached teams won 13 Pioneer Valley Conference championships (1977, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’85, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’92, ’93, ’94); seven OHSAA Class A Sectional titles (1980, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’86, ’88, ’94) and one Ohio Valley Athletic Conference crown (1978). His teams won 19 or more games six times including a sparkling 23-1 record in 1988.

He was named District 12 “Coach of the Year” three times and received OVAC’s Rich Saffield Girls’ Basketball Coaches Award in 2009.

Strahler was also Fort Frye’s softball coach for six years, posting a career record of 111-36 with three PVC titles, two sectional titles, two district titles and two regional appearances.

He also spent time as the junior varsity girls’ coach at Bloom-Carroll and Frontier.

Strahler was inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Ann Mooney

(New Lexington High School, Class of 1985)

Not only did Mooney excel on the hardwood in high school, but she also proved very successful at the collegiate level.

A 5-7 guard, Mooney finished her prep career with 1,505 points, a New Lex record at the time she graduated which stood for 38 years before being surpassed in 2023 by Aubrey Spicer (1588).

As a senior, Mooney averaged a whopping 28.2 points per game along with 11 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 5.4 steals, scoring 756 points for the season including a single-game record of 47. She shot 67 percent from the field and 84 percent at the free throw line. That season, the Lady Panthers won sectional, district and regional titles en route to an OHSAA Class AA “Final Four” berth where they beat Coldwater (62-43) in the semifinals before falling to West Holmes (54-29) in the championship game to finish with a 23-4 record.

Mooney’s senior accolades included first team AP All-Ohio Class AA, and she was also first team All-Southeast District Class AA, all-District 12 Class AA and all-Muskingum Valley League. She played in the OHSBCA North-South All-Star Game and was an AAU All-America selection.

As a junior, she averaged 21 points per game and received second team AP All-Ohio honors along with first team All-Southeast District, All-District 12 and All-Muskingum Valley League.

A charter class inductee into the New Lexington Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005, she was also a track standout who finished third in the OHSAA Class AA State Meet in the 800-meter run in a school record time of 2:14.4) and was also on the school-record setting 400-meter relay team (48.0).

Mooney continued her career at Indiana University where she was a three-year starter/letterwinner finishing with 797 career points along with 264 rebounds, 238 assists and 124 steals.

Jessie Slack

(Sheridan High School,

Class of 2005)

A two-time first team All-Ohioan, Slack proved to be a prolific scorer both in high school and college.

At Sheridan, she broke the school record for points with 1,255 points which stood for 14 years and is now fifth all-time (Jamisyn Stinson, Class of 2024, holds the record with 1,779 points). Slack has two existing records – steals in a game (13) and career (396) – and she also set records for three-point goals in a season (48) and career (301) which have since been surpassed.

Slack averaged 16.4 points per game as both a junior and senior and was named first team all-Ohio Division II (AP & OHSBCA), All-Southeast District Division II (Co-Player of the Year), All-District 12 Division II both years. She was also a three-time All-Muskingum Valley League selection.

During her career, Sheridan was ranked No. 3 in the AP Division II State Poll after a 20-0 regular season in 2002-03 and No. 6 after a 19-1 regular season in 2003-04, reaching the OHSAA Division II State “Final Four” that year where they lost to Beloit West Branch (57-44) in the semifinals. The Lady Generals lost in the D-II Regional semifinals in Slack’s senior season and were three-time MVL champions.

She was inducted into the Sheridan Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.

Slack’s collegiate career began at Est Carolina where she averaged 7.8 points as a freshman (2005-06) and 6.7 points as a sophomore (2006-07) on the ECU team that won the Conference USA Championship.

She transferred to Northern Kentucky University, scoring 1,006 points in two seasons with 135 three-pointers and 187 assists. The first year (2007-08), she averaged 13.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game as NKU won the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional and were NCAA Division National Champions, defeating South Dakota (63-58) in the title game to finish with a 28-8 overall record. Slack was named third team all-GLVC and to the GLVC All-Tournament Team.

As of 2024, she is the school’s all-time free throw percentage leader for a season (96-of-103, 93.2%) and career (181-of-203, 89.2%) and stands sixth all-time in career three-pointers (135).

Todd Antill

(Shadyside High School, Class of 1988)

This Tiger could put the ball in the hoop, evident by his 1,363 career points which stood as the Shadyside school record for 32 years until it was eclipsed by Kelly Hendershot in 2020 (1,469 points). He also had 334 career assists and 218 career rebounds.

As a sophomore, Antill earned honorable mention All-OVAC Class A honors and followed that up with several junior accolades including second team All-Eastern District Division IV, first team All-District 12 Division IV and first team All-OVAC Class A.

Antill capped off his career averaging 23.1 points per game as a senior to garner second team AP All-Ohio Class A and third team UPI All-Ohio Class A recognition. He was also selected first team All-District 12 Division IV and All-OVAC Class A, named Player of the Year on both squads, and first team All-Eastern District Division IV.

Tyler Engle

Fort Frye High School

(Class of 2007)

On the basketball court, Engle left a lasting mark as he helped Coach Dan Liedtke’s program to 65 victories by scoring 1,760 career points. He grabbed 400 rebounds, passed out 240 assists and had 130 steals during his career. He also drained 329 three-point goals, which ranks second all-time in the OHSAA state record book behind Zach Rasile of McDonald (485 from 2016-2020)

During his senior season, Engle averaged 19.8 points en route to first-team all-Ohio, all-Eastern District, all-OVAC and District 12. He also took part in the Ohio North-South and OVAC All-Star Games. That followed a junior campaign in which he was named third-team all-Ohio. He was actually listed on the all-state team each year of his career.

Engle continued his career in baseball at Ohio State University, lettering four times as a shortstop. He played in 193 career games and batted .256 with four home runs, 82 RBI and 155 hits.

With his playing days behind him, Engle entered coaching. He coached at Ohio Valley University, where he finished his master’s degree, Elon University and Marietta College; and two years in the Shenandoah Valley Summer Collegiate League in Virginia (2012 as an assistant; 2013 as head coach).

He returned to the area and was head baseball coach at Meadowbrook High School for three years (2017-19) and two years as head baseball coach at Shenandoah (2020-21).