The ETHS 2025 Hall of Fame class consists of four players and two teams. Those being Lucy Hogan, Maia Cella, Parker English, Zach Morton, and two Girls’ Track teams. With five out of the six inductees being from girls’ sports, the 2025 class marks a step in the right direction for gender equality in the Hall. Before this year, only forty of the one hundred and eighty inductees were female, or only about twenty-two percent. While a portion of this statistic can be attributed to the fact that girls’ sports at ETHS have only existed since 1973, the Hall of Fame has often failed to recognize the amazing achievements of female athletes.
“A lot of times, female athletes have failed to be recognized because we get a lot of nominations from older folks who are nominating people before female athletes had the opportunities that they do today. That’s why we have made a conscious effort to get more recent athletes nominated, most of whom were slam dunk inductees,” said ETHS Athletic Director Chris Livatino.
Hall of Fame athlete Lucy Hogan is a prime example of a work ethic. A diver between 2016 and 2019, Hogan won a State gold medal as a junior in 2018, after finishing as the State runner-up her first two campaigns. Hogan’s incredible gratefulness and creativity were always constant whenever she stepped up to the diving board. After graduating from ETHS, Hogan went on to be a DI swimmer at Michigan.
Another athlete known for her creativity was Girls Soccer’s Maia Cella, a 2017 graduate and class of 2017 attacking midfielder who scored 54 goals in her varsity career before becoming a four-year starter for the University of Wisconsin. In 2016, Cella was named to the All-State team after contributing 16 goals and 14 assists in a season that would end in the Kits’ first conference title since 1999.
Parker English belongs in the GOATS conversation of girls’ track and field. English won 13 medals at the state, including two gold. Both came in 2014, where she won the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash. The senior at the time is the only ETHS runner to ever win both of those races. Her efforts won her the ISHA Gatorade player of the year, leading to her being recruited by Notre Dame, which was a Girls’ Track powerhouse at the time.
English is far from the only Girls Track entity to be inducted in this year’s class, with the 2005 and 2006 teams being inducted alongside her. Those teams are part of a legendary era where the Kits fourpeeted as State Champions between the years of 2002 and 2006, something that Livatino refers to as the Kit’s “single greatest dynasty in the modern era”. The 2005 squad claimed the State crown after defeating runner-up Morgan Park 84-71 by claiming metals in nine separate events. The 2006 version of the squad was even more dominant, winning the title by a whopping forty-five points and claiming gold in six of the fourteen total events. Both of those teams were led by a group of Hall of Famers in their own right. Shalina Clark and Demeca Hill combined for a majority of the Kits’ medals, while legendary Coach Fenton Gunter proved to be the glue that held the team together.
“Coach Gunter is the common denominator among all of those teams. He brings a level of discipline and focus that has really transformed that program more than anything else,” praised Livatino.
The only male athlete introduced in the class of 2025 is baseball and basketball player Zach Morton, who will probably be remembered more for what he did after he graduated than for his actual ETHS career. Morton was named twice to the all-Big Ten team while playing Baseball for Northwestern, before later becoming an analytics analyst for the Cleveland Guardians. Morton’s best season on the diamond came in his senior year in 2008, when he posted a 9-1 with a 1.02 ERA and a .402 batting average. Earlier that year, on the court, he was able to help his team to a third-place finish in the State Tournament.
While these athletes all had different achievements in different sports, they all shared some fundamental qualities that led to their induction.
“No matter what sport you play, there are some qualities that are required to have to become great, which are work ethic, coachability, and discipline. All of these athletes are a great example of all those qualities,” commented Livatino.
