Gordy Opitz
Gordy Opitz is one of the top all-around athletes produced at Lakeview High School. He earned 7 varsity letters in basketball, baseball and football at Lakeview.
In basketball, he was the team’s leading scorer as a junior and senior, earning 2nd Team and then 1st Team All-Mercer County those two seasons. In 1975, he was voted the team’s Most Valuable Player and he was named to Mercer County All-Star Game.
In baseball, he was a three-year letter winner. In 1975 he was the team’s leading hitter, batting over .450 and was named team MVP. During the summer, he played on four county championship baseball teams in Junior Legion, American Legion and Senior American Legion leagues.
He played football as a sophomore, before concentrating on the other sports. He was awarded the Mark Perch Outstanding Senior Athlete Award his final year.
He went onto to an outstanding basketball and baseball career at Westminster College, where he won 7 letters. In 1979 as team captain he led the team and District 18 in assists and steals. He was the single season all-time assist leader (201) and 4th career assists (341). He was 3rd all-time single-season steal leader (74).
In baseball, he made a great start as a freshman, hitting a homer in his first at-bat. He was All-Conference NAIA District 18 as a junior and senior. He was team captain in 1979. His sophomore year he batted .429, 5th in the nation.
He went on to play independent baseball in the Mercer-Crawford County League and Lawrence County League as well as Warren (Ohio) AA League. He served as assistant GM of the Savannah Braves, the AA farm team of the Atlanta Braves, in 1982.
He was assistant basketball coach at Mentor High School (Ohio) and Slippery Rock University. An outstanding golfer, he was club championship runner-up three times at the Pittsburgh Field Club, Fox Chapel. He was senior club champ in 2008 and 2009.
He served for 2 years on the strategic planning committee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.