Leading Erie’s new D-League team is R. Ron Sertz, a life-long Erie resident and an established leader in the Erie community.

The Erie Times News sports department, in a recent special feature, “set out to gauge the most effective and powerful” people in the region – the individuals with the most wide-ranging influence in sports. Ron Sertz was selected as Erie’s top power broker and the most influential person in Erie area sports. He’s been involved in the Erie sport scene for over four decades as an athlete, coach, author, athletic administrator, and sports entrepreneur.

Sertz was also honored as an Erie “Legend” in 2005 in the inaugural selections conducted by the Boys and Girls Club for Best Performance in a Leading Role in Sports. In 2006 he was honored again with another “Legend” award, becoming the first and only two-time recipient of the honor.

He most recently served as the President of EHC Ltd., the ownership group of the Erie Otters Hockey Team of the Ontario Hockey League. He was also nationally recognized as the founder and director of The McDonald’s Classic, which has been called “the best four-team tournament in the country” by HoopsUSA.

Sertz is also known in the Erie community for his many years of achievement at Cathedral Prep, where, as an administrator, he achieved the reputation as the primary force behind Prep's movement into national caliber competition in the athletic program. He was also the founder and original director of the Cathedral Prep Athletic Hall of Fame.

A graduate of John Carroll University with a Master's Degree in English from Gannon University, Sertz was also renowned as a very successful coach in the cross country, basketball, and track programs, and was chosen in December, 1999, by the Erie Times-News as one of the century’s best coaches. He was also inducted into the Cathedral Prep Hall of Fame in March of 2003. His first coaching stint in basketball at Sacred Heart produced a Pennsylvania State Championship in 1971, and he also compiled an enviable 88-5 record as a basketball coach at Prep from 1971-77. His outstanding cross country teams at Prep compiled a ten-year record of 111 wins and only 4 losses (.965) and he also developed dozens of All-State performers in the track program.

Sertz has served in the leadership group of many organizations including the Academy of Legends with the Boys and Girls Club, the OHL Board of Governors, the Board of Directors of the YMCA and the Erie Philharmonic, and the Leadership Committee of the Highmark Caring Place.