Tickets are still available for the 9th annual Times-Gazette Highland County Hall of Fame and senior student-athlete recognition event that will be held starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ponderosa Banquet Center in Hillsboro.
Four individuals – the late Gerald “Red” Armstrong, a 1923 graduate of McClain High School; Kay Cummings, a 1982 graduate of Fairfield High School; the late Will Parr Jr., a 1963 graduate of Hillsboro High School; and Mike Willson, a 1955 graduate of Hillsboro High School – will be inducted into The Times-Gazette Highland County Athletic Hall of Fame during the evening. An additional 40 senior student-athletes, as nominated by their coaches, will be honored, and one of them will be announced as the winner of the 2018 Times-Gazette Highland County Scholar-Athlete Award. The award comes with a $200 scholarship and plaque.
Two additional student-athlete nominations have been received since the newspaper last announced the nominees. They are Megan Botts from Whiteoak High School and Cailee Elam from Lynchburg-Clay High School. A form was previously received for Elam, but the name submitted with it was Hayley McConnaughey, who graduated from L-C a year ago.
The dinner-banquet is open to the public. The Hall of Fame inductees, student-athletes and coaches who nominated them will be the guests of The Times-Gazette. Tickets for everyone else are $16 and can be reserved by calling Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or emailing [email protected]. Once a reservation is made, tickets can be picked at the door the night of the event. The dinner will be catered by Andrea Holt of Catering For You.
The evening will begin with a dinner at 6 p.m. The Hall of Fame inductees will be announced and say a few words, all the student-athletes will be recognized, then one will be named the winner of the Scholar-Athlete Award.
The complete list of nominees include:
From Hillsboro – Deegan Boris, Izzy Bourne, Breanne Fender, Austin Goolsby, Britton Haines, Riley Moberly, Abby Myers, Matthew Ryan, Justin Scott, Natalie Sullivan, Marshall Ward, Wyatt Wilkin and Emily Young.
McClain – Elissa Grate, Dakota Irvin, Justin Osborne, Emily Parker, Kendall Pollard, Heidi Rolfe, Hannah Smith, Avery Voss and Kyle Wyatt.
Fairfield – Blake Adams, Andrew Davis, Matthew Mangus, Carli Reiber, Grace Shope and Garrett Spargur.
Lynchburg-Clay – Makayla Creed, Blake Croy, Cailee Elam, Austin Hilt, Angela McLaughlin and Eric McLaughlin.
Whiteoak – Kyia Beacraft, Megan Botts, Casey Nace, Caleb West and Trever Yeager.
Hillsboro Christian Academy – Rachel Tracy.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or [email protected].
