Three standout players and two coaches with multiple regional championship represent Harlan County on the inaugural Girls 13th Region Hall of Fame class to be honored on March 4 during the regional championship game at The Arena in Corbin.

An all-stater at Harlan in 1987, Debbie Hoskins Green was the first female player in Harlan County to top the 2,000-point mark and finished with 2,007 while leading the Lady Dragons to their first 13th Region championship as a senior. She was a member of the Kentucky All-Star team that summer and was the first girls basketball player from her school to sign with the University of Kentucky. She transferred midway through her freshman season and became an All-American at Lincoln Memorial University. She was selected to the LMU Hall of Fame in 2001.

Green began a successful coaching career at Middlesboro and moved on to Harlan County where she led the Lady Bears to three straight appearances in the regional finals, capped by the school’s first regional title and trip to the state tournament in 2018. The Lady Bears were led by Green’s daughter, Blair, who is now a freshman at the University of Kentucky.

Current Harlan girls’ basketball coach Tiffany Hamm enjoyed a storied playing career as a Green Dragon and collegiately at Western Carolina. Hamm helped lead HHS to Sweet 16 trips in 1998 and 1999. She was also named the 13th Region Player of the Year in 2000 and scored 1,844 points during her Harlan career. Hamm went on to score 1,444 points to rank fourth on the Western Carolina career scoring list and was selected as the 2003 Southern Conference Player of the Year for the Catamounts.

A two-time all-stater at Cumberland High School, Lori Kluck scored a school-record 2,107 points with the Lady Skins. She led Cumberland to the first two All “A” Classic state titles in 1991 and 1992 before signing with Tennessee Tech. Cumberland won four straight All “A” regional and four straight 52nd District titles during her high school career. Cumberland lost to Clay County in the 13th Region Tournament semifinals during the 1991 and 1992 seasons.

John Bond turned Cumberland into a small school mountain powerhouse throughout the 1980s and 1990s, leading the Lady Skins to 13th Region titles in 1984 and 1986. Cumberland won the first two All “A” Classic state titles in 1991 and 1992.

A 1961 graduate of Benham High School, Bond was a baseball and basketball standout at the small coal mining town before moving on to the University of Kentucky. He earned degrees at UK in 1966 and 1971 before returning to the Tri-Cities area of Harlan County to begin a long teaching and coaching career. Bond inherited a program that had won only game in the first year of girls basketball in Kentucky in the fall of 1976 and led a steady improvement from three wins in his first year to 10 the next year, then 12 and then 21 in 1979. By 1981, Cumberland ended Cawood’s run of five straight 52nd District titles. Cumberland made its first trip to the Sweet Sixteen in 1984 in Richmond and returned two years later in Bowling Green, becoming the first Harlan County team to win a game in the state tournament by knocking off Miss Basketball Kris Miller and Owensboro Catholic.

Led by all-staters Joey Morris and Lori Kluck, Cumberland won the first two Kentucky All “A” Classic state tournaments in 1991 and 1992 and reeled off six straight 52nd District titles.

E.R. “Doc” Gray earned KHSAA Hall of Fame honors after a remarkable career that spanned across six decades at Harlan Rosenwald (boys’ basketball), Harlan (girls’ basketball and track and field), and Evarts (girls’ basketball). He forged a remarkable 184-28 record at Rosenwald from 1955 to 1963 with each of his teams winning at least 20 games. The 1956 Red Devils qualified for the final Kentucky High School Athletic League state tournament. His 1957-58 Rosenwald team was a remarkable 22-1 in their first KHSAA season and won the 52nd District title. The 1962 Red Devils also won the district championship before the school was consolidated into Harlan High School.

The latter part of career was best known for the dominant Lady Dragon teams that he coached at the end of the 1990s. HHS claimed three straight regional All A Classic titles from 1996 until 1998 and the Lady Dragons won the 1998 and 1999 13th Region championships. Gray ended his girls’ basketball coaching career at HHS in 2002 with 206-163 mark in thirteen seasons spread across two stints.

The entire Hall of Fame class includes:

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Players

Kim Mays — Knox Central

Sarah Elliott — Jackson County

Shea Lunsford — Jackson County

Vonda Jackson — Clay County

Debbie Hoskins Green — Harlan

Lori Kluck — Cumberland

Tiffany Hamm — Harlan

Kim Jones — Clay County

Jaree Goodin — Corbin

Beth Bates — Williamsburg

Heather Taylor — Whitley County

Coaches

Donnie Gray — Clay County

John Bond — Cumberland

Jim Rains — Whitley County, Williamsburg

Willard Farris — Corbin

E.R. “Doc” Gray — Harlan

Greg Parrett — Jackson County

Larry Anderson — Whitley County

Contributors

Stan Lovett — Williamsburg

Troy Martin — North Laurel and South Laurel

Glenn Profitt — Lowe’s Sporting Goods, BSN

Scott Smith — Shiloh’s Roadhous, Steak ’N Shake

Neil Warren — Bojangles, Powerhouse Gym

Ted Cook — Cook Tire