Waubonsee Community College has inducted three new members into its Athletic Hall of Fame. Phillip T. Neal, Kemp Schanlaber and Amanda Wolf were selected as the tenth class of the Waubonsee Athletic Hall of Fame for their involvement in sports, dedication to Waubonsee, athletic successes and contributions to the community or career accomplishments earned after leaving Waubonsee.

Phillip T. Neal, 1970 – 1972, Basketball

Phillip T. Neal was a stand-out basketball player for the Chiefs, leading the college to the first Skyway Conference Championship and laying the foundation for Waubonsee’s decades-long winning basketball tradition.

Neal was drafted to the U.S. Army in 1967 and was stationed in Korea. After returning to Aurora in 1969, he completed his GED and then enrolled at Waubonsee. His freshman season was in 1970-1971, when he finished the season third in the nation in scoring. He was the unanimous choice as the conference’s Player of the Year.

An injury derailed his sophomore season. He was later invited to a professional tryout with NBA’s Seattle Supersonics in 1973, and went on to play three years of entertainment basketball with the Harlem Diplomats based out of Toronto, Canada. He later began his career with Western Electric, the predecessor to AT&T, and retired in 2015 after 38 years.

Kemp Schanlaber, 1985 – 1987, Cross Country

Kemp Schanlaber was described by a former coach as “the hardest worker of any athlete I ever coached.” He came to Waubonsee from Aurora West High School, where he qualified for the Illinois High School Association State Track Meet his junior and senior years in the pole vault. For the Chiefs, he earned All-Skyway honors in 1985 and 1986 in cross country, helping lead the team to the conference championship his sophomore year. He also earned All-Region honors both years, twice qualifying for the NJCAA National Meet and placing 34th nationally overall in 1986 when there was only one division.

He went on to earn his Bachelor of Science in Fitness Leadership in 1989 and his Master of Science in Exercise Physiology in 1994 from Northern Illinois University. He later received a Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from the William C. Scholl College of Podiatry Medicine in 1999. Schanlaber continues to serve as a doctor of podiatry at the Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster, New Hampshire.

Amanda Wolf, 1999 – 2001, Basketball

Amanda Wolf finished her basketball career for the Waubonsee Chiefs in 2001 with three college records including most points in a season, most career points and most three-point baskets made in a season.

She graduated from Aurora West High School in 1999, where she was a three-sport student-athlete for the Blackhawks. Among her many accomplishments during her career with the Chiefs were her selection as Skyway Conference Player of the Year, NJCAA All-Region Team and All-Tournament honors at both the College of DuPage Tournament and Waubonsee’s Invitational Tournament.

Wolf earned her associate degree from Waubonsee and then worked as an intern at Disney World in Florida. She later played basketball at Aurora University in 2002 and 2003, where she was a member of the team that won back-to-back conference titles and advanced to the NCAA Division III National Tournament. She graduated from Aurora in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and worked at several industrial supply companies. She eventually earned her certification as a personal trainer from the National Personal Training Institute and began working at Cheetah Gym in Chicago. She has run the Chicago Marathon twice. Today she is a stay-at-home mom and lives in Evanston. - 30 -