Class of 2009
Click here to see past Sports Hall of Fame inductees.
Jeff Conine - Baseball
Conine, who enjoyed a 17-year Major League career, begins his first season as Special Assistant to the President after joining the front office on December 8, 2008. He was a valuable member of both Marlins World Series Championships during two separate stints with Florida, from 1993-1997 and 2003-2005. After retiring from baseball, Conine trained for and completed the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship, becoming the first former Major Leaguer to finish the endurance race.
A two-time All-Star (1994-95), Conine was twice named the Marlins MVP by the South Florida Chapter of the BBWAA (1994-95) and was the MVP of the 1995 MLB All-Star Game. For his Marlins career, Conine hit .290 and ranks among the all-time Marlins leaders in games (1,014 -2nd), hits (1,005 -2nd), RBI (553 -2nd), at bats (3,471 -3rd) and home runs (120 -5th). He also hit six grand slams as a Marlin, more than any other player. He was the Opening Day left fielder in their Inaugural Game in 1993, going 4x4 with the first stolen base in Club history, and was in the Marlins Opening Day line-up six times.
He was originally acquired by Florida in the 1992 Expansion Draft from the Kansas City Royals, and after stops in Kansas City and Baltimore, returned to the Marlins at the trade deadline in 2003 for the team's playoff run. His ML career included 2,024 games. His career totals include 1,982 hits, 385 doubles, 214 home runs, 1,071 RBI and a .285 average. Conine was named to TOPPS and Baseball America's All-Rookie teams in 1993 and was the 1990 Southern League Most Valuable Player, the Royals' Minor League Player of the Year and a double-A All-Star as voted by TOPPS and Baseball America.
Ricardo Liborio - Martial Arts
As an athlete, Liborio was awarded a Black Belt in 1993 under Master Carlson Gracie. He was a 1996 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World (Mundial) Champion, and was voted the Most Technical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor in 1996 Mundial. A three-time Brazilian National Champion, he placed second at the Abu Dhabi Submission Tournament in 2000 and third in 1999. Liborio was a Brazilian national champion in judo, and also was a state champion in wrestling in Brazil. He was a co-founder of Brazilian Top Team, a successful program he directed in Brazil for two years.
He moved to the United States in 2001, and along with Dan Lambert, developed the American Top Team into a championship program. He was voted NAGA Coach of the Year in 2005, and has been inducted into the NAGA Grappling Hall of Fame. He is the trainer of multiple World Champions and MMA fighters. Among the champion Grapplers he has coached are Ricardo Arona, Marcelo Garcia, and Jeff Monson.
The Coconut Creek resident has played a tremendous role in placing South Florida mixed martial arts in the national spotlight. Liborio is the co-owner and head instructor for American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., one of the top Grappling and MMA academies in the world. He is responsible for organizing and conducting the 2009 U.S. Grappling World Team Training camp at the American Top Team facility in Coconut Creek and was named head coach for the 2009 U.S. Grappling World Team.
Coach Michael Lohberg - Swimming
Coach Lohberg is a six time Olympic coach. He is also certified by the ASCA as a level 5 coach, the highest level attainable and one held by only the top two to five percent of the swimming coaches in the USA at any given time.
Before coming to the USA, Coach Lohberg led his former team, SSF Bonn, to five German National Team Championships. After moving to the United States, he coached the St. Croix Dolphins and Mission Bay Mako's. He finally landed in Coral Springs, Florida, where he is currently the National team head swim coach of the Coral Springs Swim Club at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex. Here his passion for excellence in stroke technique has continued to blossom with his teams winning many age group championships and many of his former swimmers becoming excellent coaches in their own right.
He has had swimmers qualify for all of the Olympics dating back from 1984. Not only have Coach Lohberg's swimmers been medal winners at the Olympic Games and World Championships, but also many European Championships and Pan American Games. They include Anne Poleska, won the bronze in the 200m breaststroke in 2004 and Dara Torres, who has taken home 12 medals in her career. His swimmers have won numerous individual national titles; and prior to 2005, had set 62 national records for Germany, Brazil, Kazakhastan, Switzerland, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Coach Lohberg is 58 years old. He and his wife Birgit live in Weston and have two children, Stephanie and Christopher.
John Offerdahl - Football
From 1986 to 1994, John was a 5x All-Pro middle linebacker for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. During his playing years, he captained the defense and received numerous accolades, including the NFL's Rookie of the Year in 1986, the NFL's Ed Block Courage Award, the Nat Moore Community Service Award and the Traveler's Man of the Year Award. He also played in the Pro Bowl his first five years and in 1986, his rookie season, was the youngest player to be named. Off the field, John served as the union representative for the Player's Association and player counsel to the NFL Management Advisory Board.
John has been involved in many community service organizations across South Florida and is currently an active board member on the South Florida Christian Community Foundation. He enjoys speaking to schools, church groups and other organizations, sharing his experiences in football and business as well as his personal life.
Currently, John and Lynn live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with their three children, Alexandra, Drew, and Jameson. They currently operate eight quick-casual restaurants aptly named Offerdahl's Café Grill.
Coach Herman Pittman - Basketball
Pittman arrived in Fort Lauderdale in August of 1955. His coaching and teaching career spread over a period of thirty-seven years in Broward County, coaching at Dillard High School and being the First Basketball Coach at Deerfield Beach High School for eighteen years.
During Pittman's career as Basketball Coach, his record displayed impressive, winning teams. His record of conference participation resulted in seven Conference Championships, and he was voted Conference Coach of the Year five times. His teams won six District Championships and were runners-up twice. This performance qualified the team for the state seven times, winning four and placing 3rd once. Having won four state titles, his teams qualified for participation in the National High School Tournament held at Tennessee State College in Nashville, Tennessee in 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1967. His record shows 317 wins and 131 losses. His teams won four State Championships and he was named State Coach of The Year four times.
Pittman has dedicated his professional life and heart to developing strong character and leadership ability in young people throughout his community of Broward County. He has been awarded numerous honors for outstanding service and commitment in coaching and for his endless contributions and community service, namely: the Florida A&M University Hall of Fame; Dillard High School Hall of Fame. The Community and School Board have likewise rewarded him with the renaming the Dillard High school Gymnasium as the "Herman Pittman Gymnasium".
Herman and his wife Nielza have been married for 56 years. They have three daughters, Linda Polk, Lisa Pittman, and Lavette Pittman and four grandchildren: Cody, Mika, Colin, and Chelsey.
Dara Torres - Swimming
The Coral Springs resident is the first swimmer in the United States to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1991, 2000, and 2008. She competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in the 50 meter freestyle, 4x100 medley relay, and 4x100 freestyle relay, and won the silver medal in all three of these events. She recently broke the American record in the 50-meter butterfly.
Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), five of which she won in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that, at age 33, she was the oldest member of the US Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.
After the 2000 Olympics, Dara retired, but dove back into swimming in the 2006 Masters Nationals where she broke a world record, just three weeks after her daughter, Tessa Grace, was born. And in August 2007 Dara won another National title and broke her own 7 year old American Record in the 50 Freestyle.
Outside of swimming, Dara has made a name for herself as a TV commentator and a print model and was the first athlete to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1994. She was a feature correspondent for Good Morning America, worked on-air for ESPN, TNT and Fox News Channel including stints on NHL Cool Shots and Fox Sports Sunday.
