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GRANADA - Granada-Huntley-East Chain is starting an athletic hall of fame to recognize past student-athletes, coaches and major contributors to GHEC athletics.
Each class will consist of four members who need to be nominated by someone before they can be considered for induction. Principal and Hall of Fame Committee Member Andy Walden said the lack of a hall of fame was something he noticed when he started four years ago.
"I noticed GHEC hasn’t had a Hall of Fame committee where other communities do," he said. "I would say January, February of this year, started floating the idea around, maybe getting one started. Put an email or message out to parents, community members, see if there was interest in joining, and then we were able to form a committee from that."
The committee is seven people strong, consisting of one Community in Action member, one school administrator and five community members.
While Granada and Huntley were their own independent school districts before 1970, and Granada-Huntley had its own athletics through 1986, only those who were or have been involved in the time since East Chain integrated their athletics with Granada and Huntley in 1987 will be considered.
Committee Member Rick Uttech, who coached for 39 years in Martin County for GHEC, Truman and Martin Luther, said this is long overdue.
"It was a great idea Andy came up with," he said. "I think it’s definitely the right time."
Since starting to meet in April, Uttech said they are trying to generate a list of people with help from the community through nominations.
"Sometimes you know parents are a little shy about saying, 'Hey, my son or daughter was pretty good, and think maybe you should consider them,'" he said. "Otherwise, certainly members of the committee have been around and have a pretty good handle on it."
On top of this, Walden said they also have all the athletic records to look back on as well.
For athletes, they must have graduated from GHEC five or more years ago. While these are not required, some guiding criteria for the committee include those who have played on a conference, Minnesota State High School League district, section, or regional championship team, played in a state tournament, earned a letter in more than one sport, or at least two in the same sport, earned a state championship in an individual sport, were named to an all-star, conference, or state team and/or received a news media recognition award.
Coaches have to have coached at GHEC for at least five years, and guiding criteria include coaching a team that won a conference championship, participated in regional or sectional competition or in a state meet competition, won a minimum of 60 percent of their games and/or earned a state or national award.
There is also a special division of consideration for those who have made a major contribution to athletics, including those in the booster club, volunteers, school support personnel, student managers and middle school coaches. Coaches and those in the special division do not need to have graduated from GHEC.
Through this program, Uttech said it is important because it shows all the good done and success achieved at GHEC in athletics.
"We've had a lot of successful programs," he said. "We want to encourage kids to continue in athletics not only at this level, but of course going on to college and so on, too."
Walden said nominations need to be sent in by Nov. 1 so they can be reviewed and researched for choices to be made for the first class in early 2027. Nomination paperwork can be filled out and sent online, printed out at home and brought to the district office, or picked up at the district office and filled out. For more information, go to ghec.k12.mn.us and find the forms under the 'quick links' section.