OPHS Booster Club to host Hall of Fame gala
Oak Park High School’s Athletic Booster Club will host its seventh annual Hall of Fame Banquet on Sat., Feb. 25 at the Calabasas Country Club.
This year’s Hall of Fame inductees include former three-sport AllCIF standout Jeff Gibbons, All-CIF volleyball star Kristine Butler and longtime Eagles sports announcer Ron Schneider.
Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. The evening will feature dinner, a silent auction and a raffle for a brand new Volvo S60.
Booster President David Puopolo said he hopes to raise a portion of the money needed to build a new $60,000 weight room for the high school’s athletic program.
Alicia Boretz, one of the event’s organizers, said big-ticket items for the auction include a signed Shaquille O’Neill basketball and tickets to a taping of the “Tonight Show” in Burbank. Additional items include dinners at a number of area restaurants.
Gibbons, a 1992 graduate, was named All-CIF in football, soccer and baseball while at Oak Park.
Gibbons, 32, said the highlight of his high school career was his senior year when he helped take the team to the CIF Southern Section Div. IA championship game, even though they lost in the final game to Valley Christian Cerritos
“We were the underdogs that year,” Gibbons said.
After graduating high school, Gibbons went on to Pepperdine University, where he earned a spot on the team’s baseball team as a relief pitcher and posted a collegiate record of 1-2 with a 6.35 ERA.
In 1993 and 1995, Pepperdine brought home the West Coast Conference Championship and went on to play in the College World Series tournament.
Gibbons lives in Anthem, Ariz., and works an executive recruiter.
Butler, also a 1992 grad of Oak Park, said one of her proudest moments as a high school athlete was earning a scholarship to the University of New Mexico.
As a college student, Butler was an All-Conference player in the Western Athletic Conference. A two-time team captain, Butler helped her team finish No. 8 in the nation her senior year and holds the university’s record for second most points scored in a season with 558.5.
Butler ranks in the top 10 at New Mexico in seven other scoring and defensive categories.
Upon graduation, Butler returned to Oak Park, where she coached the high school girls’ volleyball team for nearly five years. During that time, she started the Point West Mizuno Volleyball Club, now comprised of more than 100 players from across Southern California.
Most recently, Butler, 31, took over as head coach at The Master’s College in Valencia, where she will begin her second season this year.
Her mother, Grace, and brother, Stephen, 27, both live in Oak Park.
Schneider, 62, known as the “voice” of Oak Park, began announcing football, as well as boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball, over 11 years ago.
“What I get the biggest kick out of is seeing the reaction of the parents when their kid gets announced for doing something well on the football field or for scoring points on the court,” Schneider said.
His son, Dan, 24, played football, basketball and ran track at Oak Park. Schneider lives in Morrison Ranch with his wife of 27 years, Cathey. Schneider’s oldest son, Scott, 32, and grandson, Justin, 7, live in Chino Hills.
Tickets for the dinner cost $80 per person and $150 for two. Tables of 10 also are available for $750.
The raffle tickets for the Volvo cost $50 or $125 for three. Only 1,000 raffle tickets will be sold.
To purchase tickets or to donate items for the silent auction, call Boretz at (818) 879-0413.


