To kick off the 2023-2024 school year, County held its 13th annual Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony in early September. The ceremony was conducted by principal Dr. Michelle Luttrell and Athletic Director Kate Cassidy, to pay tribute to the new inductees with an award of recognition, the ability to put their picture up on the Hall of Fame wall in our athletic hallway, and presenting them with lifetime passes to all athletic games.
The Hall of Fame was made as a way to pay tribute to past coaches, student-athletes, and athletic contributors who have made a significant impact on our school community.
“These people have left a legacy for the kids that are here now; they can walk by and look at the pictures and think ‘that’s something to achieve too’,” Cassidy said.
Alumni can apply to get their application reviewed for a chance to get on the HOF. On the first February of each year, all applications are due and that application submitted is valid to be reviewed for the next three years if they are not accepted that following year. The number of alumni chosen to be featured is dependent on the number of applications submitted for that year.
“It’s largely based on how many applicants we get,” Cassidy said.
The inductees are chosen by an application process available to them after at least ten years of graduation from County. From the amount of applicants received over the last school year and over the summer, five alumni were selected to be featured in the HOF.
The alumni inducted were, Calle Brown, Joe Bushrod, Bill Moravek, Jenna Strange, & Chase Williams, chosen for their past involvement in County sports and their athletic achievements outside of these school walls.
“They’ve made a significant impact when they were here, and left school and gone on to either coach, play, or do something [athletic] in college,” Cassidy said.
The first-ever Athletic Hall of Fame was held in 2013 by the athletic director at the time Ken Wright and principal at the time William Oblas. Even though the HOF is fairly new to the school, the athletics department is very excited to make this a long-standing tradition.
“With next year being our 70th year, they [the athletics department] thought that with 60 years of history, we’ve had some pretty good athletes and coaches come through here and we need to highlight them,” Cassidy said.
Traditionally, the induction ceremony is done on the football field before the first game of the year, but because of extreme weather conditions, ADMIN decided to hold the ceremony in the library. With a very comfortable, homey feel, these inductees are making their mark in school history and setting an example for students to keep making an effort to be exemplary in sports.
“If you work hard and that’s one of your goals, then it won’t hurt to try,” Cassidy said.
