The Orono High School Athletic Hall of Fame will add five new members this week.
Two former coaches, a three-sport standout athlete and a pair of involved community members will be enshrined in a hall of fame induction ceremony Saturday afternoon. The event will take place at 3:30 p.m. at the high school, in between home basketball games for the girls and boys Red Riot teams.
That timing will be fitting, given that two former basketball coaches are among the new hall of fame class.
Former Orono boys basketball coaches Bob Cimbollek and John Giffin will be inducted Saturday, along with former soccer and track standout Jeff Mateja from the class of 1997, and Diann and Billy Libby who served in various volunteer roles as part of youth and high school sports in the town.
According to the Orono High School Athletic department, Cimbollek taught physical education and coached at the school from 1963-1969. He was also the assistant football coach, and had played basketball at Husson College, now Husson University, where he is also a member of that school’s hall of fame.
Cimbollek went 106-32 in his seven seasons as the Orono basketball coach and led the team to two state championships in 1967 and 1969. He went on to coach at Bangor High School, his alma mater, and later at John Bapst in Bangor. He went on to win a total of five state basketball championships as a coach, according to the Orono athletic department.
Giffin replaced Cimbollek as boys basketball coach and physical education teacher in Orono, and also became the coach of the golf team. Orono basketball won 136 games in Giffin’s nine seasons as coach, including a perfect 22-0 state championship season in 1973. He was selected as the statewide coach of the year twice, once at Orono and once prior while coaching at Schenck High School in East Millinocket.
Mateja played soccer and ran both indoor and outdoor track, and was captain of all three teams. He set several school records in hurdling events and won individual state titles, along with helping to lead teams to conference, regional and state championships.
Mateja went on to run track in college at Bentley University.
Diann and Bill Libby are being inducted under a “special contributor” category in the hall of fame after years of volunteer work in Orono athletics. Their daughters were both three-sport athletes, and the Libbys gave their time in a variety of ways over the years.
According to the athletic department, Diann Libby’s many roles included volunteering at the Orono rec department and Old Town YMCA, coaching middle school track for a year, coordinating concessions for the booster club for five years, keeping the basketball scorebook for more than 25 years, operating the soccer score clock and helping officiate track-and-field events for years.
Bill Libby worked on the football chain crew for seven years before becoming the school’s football announcer for nearly 20 years. He kept multiple score clocks and became the voice of Orono athletics across multiple sports.
