Rogers Hall to induct class

The 20th Rogers Mountaineer Athletic Hall of Fame class has a little bit of everything.

The six inductees include football standout Lee Ziemba, Coach Brenda Alexander, multi-sport star Nathan Ball, Kim Bowen, Early Villegas Mallow and Kane Moix. This year’s induction ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Mountie Arena.

Villegas Mallow was the first Latina female in school history to receive a scholarship to play soccer at the collegiate level. She continued her career playing at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and Northeastern State University.

Bowen ( Class of 1985) was a three- year letter winner in four sports and class valedictorian. Mallow was a four-year starter in soccer. Moix led his Mounties’ basketball team to a school-record 24 wins and a conference title.

Ziemba started at offensive every game of his college career at Auburn and earned All-American honors. He broke the previous school record, starting his 50th straight game in the 2010 Iron Bowl and finished his career with 52 in a row.

The 6-foot-6 Ziemba spent some time in the NFL, but is now working for a tech company out of Nashville called RJ Young. He said being inducted into the Rogers Athletic Hall of Fame is special.

“Rogers really shaped the person and the player that I was, taught me a great deal about integrity, hard work,” Ziemba said. “I’ll always cherish those days. The people, the memories, all that, it’s very special. Everybody remembers their high school days. It was some of the greatest times of my life.”

Former Mounties boys’ basketball coach Marty Barnes said Moix was strong both on off the court.

“In his scholastics, he was much greater,” Barnes said. “You can’t hardly say that enough about him. He had like a 33 or 34 ACT. If I had something wrong with me and I needed physical therapy, I’m looking him up.”

Alexander’s coaching tenure spanned over three decades and included both boys’ and girls’ golf, along with volleyball, girls’ basketball, track and cross country. She played basketball and golf and also ran track in high school, but being a graduate in 1978 didn’t get that opportunity to participate in school-related sports until she was a junior in high school.