Tice, Schneider, Oman in line for Thiel honors

Three Mercer County sports standouts will be inducted into the Thiel College Athletic Hall of Fame on Feb. 11 in ceremonies to be conducted at the Howard Miller Student Center Lutheran Heritage Room on campus.
This year's inductees are: Marlana Tice, women's basketball; Dan Schneider, football; and Barry Oman, football.
Tice and Oman are graduates of Hickory High while Schneider is from Sharon.
Tice was sensational as a Hornette, going on to a sparkling career with the Tom Kittens. She was a three-year starter and a four-year letter-winner at Thiel. She served as a tri-captain her senior year.
Twice she was named All-President's Athletic Conference and her point total holds down seventh place in scoring and career field goals. She totaled 1,016 points and 348 field goals.
Oman was a four-year letterman and started for three of those years as a defensive back.
He was named All-PAC and All-Lutheran twice. A captain during his senior year, Oman closed out his sterling career with 13 pass interceptions, third in school history. He now serves as a volunteer assistant football coach.
Schneider was an offensive lineman for the Tomcats, lettering for four years and as a starter for three of those years.
He earned All-PAC honors as a junior and senior, and was a first-team All-Lutheran All-American as a senior when he served as a captain. He coached at Reynolds High for one year and as a long-time assistant coach at Sharon High.
Chrobak mending
Alex Chrobak, former Sharon High basketball and golf coach, is recuperating from recent surgery. We're sure that get-well cards would be appreciated.
The ex-Tigers coach had been spending a lot of his time at the VFW Golf Course where he is a member of the Thundering Herd.
Cignetti retires
One of the grand-daddies of football coaching in the Keystone State is stepping down.
Frank Cignetti, 68, football coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the past 20 years, has had enough. He announced that the game last weekend between Indiana and California University of Pennsylvania would be his final one.
Cignetti has guided IUP team to a Division II-record 28 post-season games. Indiana has reached the national semifinals five times and the championship game twice, in 1990 and 1993.
We were pulling for Frank to pull out a win over California, Pa., in his career-closer last weekend. He needed one more win to record his 200th career victory, however, his team lost to California, 38-23. His overall record will stand at 199-77-1. Earlier in his career, he posted a 17-27 mark at West Virginia.
We'll miss you
I really don't know if Ruth Orlandi was ever an athlete, but I do know she was well ahead of many in the knowledge of baseball, boxing and NASCAR proficiency.
Ruth passed away last week after an extended illness. She was 69. Our sincere sympathy to her husband, Lou, to daughter, Lisa, and to her sister, Mrs. Walter McIntyre.
Lou was a boxer in his younger days and he and Ruth made many trips to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.
She also was very knowledgeable about NASCAR. Ruth, a 1954 graduate of Sharpsville High, was a buyer for 16 years in the office of the G.C. Murphy Co.'s former Sharon store.