Arnie Ball and Lloy Ball Selected for MIVA Hall of Fame
4/17/2018 1:16:00 PM | General, Men's Volleyball
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) announced the league's second Hall of Fame class on Monday (April 16). Fort Wayne greats Arnie Ball and Lloy Ball were selected, as well as Fort Wayne News-Sentinel writer Blake Sebring. The 10-member class is made up of some of the most influential figures in the league's history.
"We inducted our first class last year and this class is just as accomplished," MIVA Commissioner Craig Barnett said. "The Hall of Fame Committee has done a phenomenal job identifying individuals who helped grow the MIVA and the game of volleyball."
Arnie Ball was a student-athlete at Ball State from 1966 to 1967, earning a spot on the All-MIVA First team in 1967 and Second Team in 1966. He coached the Fort Wayne men's volleyball program from 1981-2015, earning MIVA coach of the year six times. His teams won the MIVA regular season six times and appeared in the NCAA Semifinals six time. He coached 25 All-Americans, including two Olympians. He is an AVCA Hall of Fame member.
Lloy Ball was a student-athlete with the Mastodons from 1991 to 1994. He earned three trips to NCAA Semifinals, was selected as the MIVA Player of the Year in 1993 and 1994, and was a three-time All-American. The AVCA National Freshman of the year went on to play in four Olympics for the United States, in which the U.S. won the gold medal in 2008. Ball was named the MVP and Best Setter in the World League in 2008, and earned multiple team championships in Russian and Greek Professional Leagues. He was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2015. Ball holds the Fort Wayne program record for career assists with 6,526 and aces with 167.
Sebring, a long-time reporter for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, was awarded the E. Douglas Boyden award for media recognition in 1994 by USA Volleyball. He was a senior writer for Volleyball Magazine and a volleyball historian. He covered Olympic Festivals and NCAA Tournaments. Sebring also co-wrote Lloy Ball's book The Biggest Mistake I Never Made.
The group will be honored Saturday, May 12th in O'Fallon, Illinois at the league's annual meeting at McKendree University.
~ Feel the Rumble ~
