LANSING, Mich. - Great Lakes Christian College honored four individuals on Homecoming Saturday, naming them the inaugural class of the Great Lakes Christian College athletics Hall of Honor.
Ron Klepal, Dr. Lloyd Knowles, Darin Magley and Megan Merchant were all inducted into the Hall for their accomplishments with GLCC athletics during a ceremony at the Doty Center between home basketball games.
Ron Klepal played baseball from 1973-1977. He was an iron man on the field, never missing an inning or an at-bat in his entire four-year career. He was chosen first-team all-conference in the NCCAC in all four of his seasons. Klepal also played tennis for two years at GLCC.
Klepal had an opportunity to play baseball post-college in Puerto Rico but chose to work at an inner-city ministry in Pittsburgh. Klepal continued to be heavily involved in GLCC athletics as both coach and athletics director. He assisted Lloyd Knowles from 1979-1981 with the baseball team and then was the head coach of the team from 1982-2005, winning a conference championship in 1983.
Ron began his work as athletics director in the late 80s and held the position until 2002. Ron currently is pastoring the West Lansing Christian Church in town. Ron and his wife Cindy have five children together: Jessica, Joel, Jason, Jeremy and Jared.
Dr. Lloyd Alan Knowles has been a professor of history at Great Lakes Christian College since 1970, coaching men's baseball from 1973-1979 and women's basketball from 1978-1984.
Dr. Knowles took Great Lakes baseball from a two-win campaign in his first year to a 17-4 record and the North Central Christian Athletic Conference championship in 1977. Dr. Knowles is still close with many of his players, many of whom went on to professional ministry.
Dr. Knowles also led Great Lakes women's basketball for five years, taking the program from the bottom of the conference to third place in only three years.
Darin Magley is the all-time leading scorer in men's basketball for Great Lakes, scoring 1,895 points in his career.
He competed from 1985-1989, being named an NCCAA Honorable Mention All-American in 1987-1988 and second-team All-American in 1988-89. He was also second-team All-Region in 1986-87 and first-team All-Region honors during the 1987-88 and 88-89 seasons. Magley was sixth in the country in scoring in 1988-89, averaging 26.6 points per game.
Currently, Magley is the principal at Rather Elementary. He is in his 25th year serving as principal. Magley and his wife Deanna have four children: Isaac, Danielle, Josh and Josiah.
Megan Merchant was a four-year starter for GLCC women's volleyball. She was a four-year starter, playing outside hitter for three seasons and setter for one. She was a three-year captain, was named NCCAA All-Region multiple times, and second-team All-American in 2006.
Merchant is now in her seventh season as head women's volleyball coach at Olivet College. She also oversees the men's program and is the department's Senior Woman Administrator. She is the winningest volleyball coach in Olivet College history. Merchant and her husband Andy have two children, Eli and Mya.