This is the fourth in a series of five articles profiling the Mars Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012.CRANBERRY TWP — Jeff Danner’s time on earth may have been cut short, but he made quite an impression while he was here.The 1982 Mars High graduate, who died after a courageous battle with leukemia in 1984, will be posthumously honored with an induction into the district’s sports hall of fame.“It’s not only a big honor for Jeff,” said Jeff’s older sister, Valerie Danner, “it is a big honor for our whole family.”One reason for that is because sports, in particular basketball, has always been important to the Danner clan.“Our dad and his brother both played basketball at Mars,” said Valerie. “Our mother and aunt played, too. It was just part of our family.”The first two Danner children, brothers Dave (Class of 1973) and Craig (1976) both represented Mars on the hardwood. Valerie followed suit for the girls team before graduating in 1980.While organized baseball was the first sport Jeff Danner played as a small child growing up in Valencia, he picked up basketball in sixth grade and it had become his favorite by the time he reached high school.“We had a basketball hoop in our backyard and there were a lot of games of 2-on-2 between us,” said Valerie, a resident of Cranberry Township.By his junior season, Jeff was a major contributor for the Planets’ varsity team. At 6-foot-2, he switched back and forth between point guard and shooting guard for head coach Dave Skurcenski.“He had a great junior year,” Valerie said. “He was always making these great passes.“Basketball was a way for him to share his passion with his friends,” she added. “There was a group of about eight to 10 friends that ran around together and they all played basketball.”In the late fall of 1981, Jeff Danner was looking forward to his senior season when he began to feel physically drained on a regular basis.“He would come home from school and sleep for a while, then get up to eat dinner and then go back to bed,” Valerie said. “We thought he had mono.“It was just after Christmas that we found out it was leukemia.”Jeff Danner, who was able to play a few games for the Planets early in the season, had the rest of his senior campaign derailed by the diagnosis.Faced with the biggest challenge of his life, Jeff Danner’s attitude toward his illness was inspiring to those close to him.“He was the only one in the family who didn’t say, ‘Why me?,’ Valerie said. “He just looked at it as an obstacle and he planned on beating it.”Jeff not only missed out on taking part in his high school graduation, he also was not able to follow in Valerie’s footsteps and play basketball at Gannon University.Despite a bone marrow transplant from his older brother, Dave, Jeff Danner lost his battle with leukemia in October of 1984.Danner’s parents, Bob and Betty, started the Jeff Danner Memorial Scholarship alumni basketball games shortly after their son’s death and it was an annual event for 25 years.“Those games basically became a reunion for people who had played basketball at Mars,” Valerie Danner said. “We had players come back who had played in the 1960s. It was a lot of fun.”The games themselves have been discontinued, but scholarships are still awarded each year to deserving senior members of the boys and girls basketball teams.“It’s a great way to honor Jeff,” Valerie Danner said. “That’s why my parents started it.”Bob and Betty Danner still live in the Valencia home where they raised their four children.Though it’s been nearly three decades since Jeff Danner passed away, his memory lives on with those who knew him best.“He had a special relationship with each of his siblings,” Valerie said. “He and I were less than two years apart in age and I called him my conscience. Anytime I had a problem or something that was bothering me, he’d say, ‘C’mon Val, you know what you should do.’“He had a lot of maturity for a kid his age.”Notes: Jeff Danner’s uncle, Jack Danner, played basketball and football at Mars and was previously inducted into the Mars Sports Hall of Fame. ... The Mars Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012 will be honored with a dinner and ceremony at Mars Middle School Sept. 7 prior to the Planets’ home football game against Derry. A $20 ticket buys one admission to both the Hall of Fame dinner and football game. If interested, call Tim Tyler at 724-283-0944.