Hamburg Area High School announced the Hall of Fame Class of 2014. This year’s inductees include Steve Degler, Mike Lesher and Doug Carr.
The trio will be inducted on Saturday, Jan 11, during halftime of the girls’ basketball game against Blue Mountain.
Steve Degler Degler is a 1984 graduate of Hamburg High School where he played four years of soccer, three of varsity baseball and two of varsity basketball. He earned nine varsity letters.
In his senior season on Steve was the MVP of the soccer team when he scored a team record 17 goals in 18 games, including four goals in one game. He won the U.S. Army Soccer Award that season, along with the senior athlete award and the sportsmanship award.
During his junior season he was part of the Hamburg baseball team that went 25-2 and won the country championship. In his senior season he was an All-Division baseball player with a .485 batting average during the regular season.
He went on to Kutztown University where he played four seasons of baeball. He was a three-year starter at K.U., a team captain for two years and won the Coaches Award in 1988.
After graduating from Kutztown University in 1988, Degler began his professional career as a sports broadcaster. He has announced thousands of games on radio, television and the internet, and also as a public address announcer.
Among the sports he has covered are baseball, basketball, football, soccer, ice hockey and wrestling. He has called events at the high school, college and professional levels.
Steve has been on the microphone for many high school league, county, district and state championship contests in several states, as well as a number of NCAA playoff games. His announcing roles have included play-by-play, color commentator, sideline reporter and studio host.
He also spent six years as coach at Hamburg Area High School. He was the Jr. High boys soccer coach for three seasons and the junior varsity boys soccer coach for three seasons.
He also coached the Jr. High boys’ varsity basketball team for six seasons. later, he was involved as a volunteer coach for the Schuylkill Valley Youth Soccer Association for many years. He was an assistant baseball coach at Kutztown University for one season before becoming the radio announcer for the Reading Phillies.
In addition, Degler volunteered quite a bit of time to the Hamburg Elementary basketball program while in high school and college. He refereed many Saturday morning triple and quadruple-headers at the high school for several years.
Steve finished third in his graduating class at Hamburg Area High School and he was president of both student council and the student advisory board as a senior. He was also a member of the National Honor Society.
Michael Lesher Lesher is a 1987 graduate of Hamburg Area High School where he played four years of football, three of baseball, one year of basketball and one of track.
He was part of the 1985 Hamburg football team that won the Inter-County League championship. He was a Honorable Mention defensive end in 1986, and made the Berks football all-acsdemic team.
He also earned four varsity letters in baseball. He was part of a division championship team in 1985 and 1987. He was an All-County selection in 1987 when he his .412. He was also a member of the Berks County all-star team.
He was also a member of the 1986-87 Hamburg High basketball team that won a division title, and earned a varsity track letter in 1987.
He was also a member of the 1987 legion baseball team that fiished third in the state and won a state regional championship. He hit .354 that season with nine home runs and 54 RBIs in the league.
Lesher coached Hamburg youth baseball for eight years, Babe Ruth baseball for one year, two years of youth basketball, three years of youth soccer and one year of youth softball.
Douglas Carr Doug went two West Philadelphia High School from 1931-1935. He attended West Chester State College from 1936-1940. He was member of the 1940 West Chester gymnastic team and tried out for the Olympics.
He met and married Helen Carr at West Chester. They traveled to San Diego, California where Doug was stationed in the Navy in World War II. They then came back to Pennsylvania in 1946 and in 1952 Doug began his long teaching career at Perry High School.
When Hamburg High was built, he transferred and became a teacher there. In his career at Hamburg, he taught history, health and gym.
Eventually he took over the soccer program as the coach. In the late 1960’s he became the Hawks’ athletic director. During that period, he had an intergral part in the design of the original football stadium.
He retired in 1984, and passed away in 1999.
