Jack Mansell
Jack Mansell is one of the greatest basketball players ever produced at Sharon High School.
He was Sharon’s leading scorer his junior and senior seasons and led all of Mercer County in scoring average (18.8 points per game) and total points (433) his senior year.
Jack accumulated numerous high school honors, including All-American honorable mention, All-State and All-WPIAL 1st team. He was also First Team All-Section 2 for two years. His senior year, Mansell scored 29 points and pulled down 21 rebounds when Sharon upset the state’s top-ranked team Center, 66-65. He scored the winning basket with 2 seconds left in overtime in a 56-54 victory over rival Farrell, where he tallied 30 points had had more than 20 rebounds.
His is the only Sharon High player selected to play for the Pennsylvania team in the Pittsburgh Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, starting for the team that upset the heavily favored United States squad.
He went on to play basketball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and helped the team to an ACC championship in 1985 and a spot in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. The 1986 team was preseason consensus No. 1 in the nation and they advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen that season.
He was a four-year lettermen along with John Salley and Mark Price.
Jack was the MVP of a semi-pro league in west Los Angeles and was offered contracts to play professional basketball in Germany and Holland, but decided to go into business after having back surgery.
He received numerous sports recognitions, including being recognized by President Jimmy Carter and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Jackson Young, as well as current Ga. Tech coaches Paul Hewitt and Willie Reese.
He coached 6th, 7th and 8th grade basketball boys teams for the feeder program at Alpharetta High in Georgia with his teams going 29-1 and 31-6 while winning league championships.