After a long process putting it together, Casey Acree and Matt Mead can finally enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Months of planning and coordinating went into the inaugural class of the Riverton Hall of Fame with 14 inductees at Saturday’s festivities at Riverton High School.
Among the inductees is Riverton native and 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier, four-time Indianapolis 500 racer Donnie Beechler, longtime girls basketball and track and field coach Don Hartlaub, the 1983 Class A state champion volleyball team coached by Charlene Lehnen, and more.
Acree, in his first year as the Riverton Coordinator of Athletic Engagement and Program Development, saw the development of a hall of fame as a perfect way to increase engagement within the community.
“I’m the first person taking this specific role in the district’s history,” Acree said. “It was actually kind of part of my pitch in my interview process and kind of my presentation to the board as far as some of the things that I wanted to do in this role. So, I would say it was a combination of my idea as well as Matt Mead’s.”
Mead is a former Riverton boys basketball coach and current assistant principal at Riverton High School.
“One of his duties as the assistant principal has been community engagement and communication initiatives as well,” Acree said. “That’s why it kind of fell under both of our roles as far as who was going to kind of be in charge of getting it up and going.”
Once they settled on the parameters of the project, the next step was creating a committee to determine criteria, format and qualifications. The first class will have 14 inductees. Every class after this one will be capped at five.
Nominations were welcomed from those within the school as well as community members and Acree said when nominations were closed in January, they had 60.
“We all agreed that this first year, with it being kind of the introductory year — both for the purpose of making sure that our first-ever ceremony was very well attended, as well as just kind of establishing a really solid first year — we have 14 total inductions we’re doing this year.
“Every year after this, we’re going to do five inductions just to have kind of a way to make sure we have sustained growth and sustained nominations.”
As May 2 got closer, Acree said he could feel and hear the buzz around it growing.
“It’s more people who we haven’t heard from in a while or who maybe haven’t been back at the school in a long time have come and visited or checked in with us and just kind of told us how excited they are,” he said. “They’re just really happy that we’re doing this, and they’re honored that they get to be a part of it.”
It isn’t just a project for old-timers who remember the stars of yesteryear. Students in one of the two Digital Production classes are tasked with various roles.
“Students are actually going to be kind of helping us run the ceremony,” Acree said. “They’re going to be running some of the sound and light and presentation and doing photography and some video and stuff like that.
“It’s been cool getting some of the students involved as well … on social media, people sharing our posts, kind of doing our countdown leading up to our ceremony.”
Also being inducted are the 1979 boys basketball team, which went 29-3 and finished fourth in the Class A state tournament, coached by Jim Zimmerman; Frank Santarelli, who won 350 games as a boys basketball coach and led the Hawks to a 26-1 record in the 1949-50 season; Rich Fetter, the all-time leading boys basketball scorer in Riverton history; friend of sport John “JK” Kaylor; Teri Egnot Noble, a two-time all-state volleyball player who was on the 1983 state title team; current basketball coach Brian Hartlaub, who was a football all-state player, won the Class A 300-yard dash in 1999 and set the basketball assists’ record at the school; Clint Cuffle, second in scoring boys basketball and also helped the Hawks to back-to-back Class A state tournament appearances, including a fourth-place finish in 2000; Doug Robertson, who helped Riverton’s basketball team to state in 1993 and its baseball team in 1994 finish fourth; Sean Canaday won Class A discus state championships in 1983 and 1984 and took gold in the 1984 shot put, and Janice Hamende, who captured three state medals in girls track and field from 1978-80 and helped pioneer the first years of girls basketball and softball at the school.
“There’s so many great stories from people who have gone to Riverton that in a way, it feels like maybe the community that’s here now and some of the people that have moved in and the newcomers to the area just don’t know that some of these stories exist,” Acree said. “That was kind of one of our reasons for also making a broad initial class was that it was going to allow for us to share some of those stories and tell people about some cool individuals that not a lot of people knew were from here initially.”
The ceremony begins at 6 p.m., in the Riverton High School Fine Arts Center and is open to the public.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Hawks get their Hall | Riverton inducts 14 in first hall of fame class
Reporting by Ryan Mahan, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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