Credit: Standard Democrat
The nomination process for inductees into the 2017 Sikeston R-6 Hall of Fame and Honor Wall is now underway.
Although nomination forms are already available on the district’s website, Monday officially marks the opening of the nomination process. It’s also the earliest nominations will be accepted since the program began over 20 years ago.
“Football games have been moved up the past few years, and we have had the Hall of Fame and Honor Wall induction ceremony earlier in recent years than in the past,” said Andy McGill, athletic director of Sikeston R-6 School District.
Since 1995, the Sikeston R-6 Honor Wall has recognized individuals for their service to the Sikeston Public Schools. The Hall of Fame recognizes athletes who have received state honors or beyond.
Sikeston High School already has two football games scheduled in August and one on Sept. 1 for the fall season, McGill noted.
“However, this year we were able to make the induction ceremony later in September. Last year, the induction ceremony was on Sept. 2, and it really was pushing it to receive the nominations and go through them in time and have everything ready by Sept. 2,” McGill said.
As a result, the opening of nominations and the deadline to receive them are about a month earlier this year. The deadline to receive nominations for consideration is July 1.
The reason for moving up the Honor Wall/Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, which were typically at the end of September, was because the football playoff schedule changed in 2012, McGill said.
In the 2014-2015 school year, Sikeston decided to move the first week of practice earlier.
“This year football practice starts July 31, which is the same Monday it always begins; it just happens to fall on the last day of July,” McGill said.
Even though the induction ceremony was able to be scheduled for Sept. 22 this year, the earlier nomination acceptance and deadline dates will provide the committee more time to organize the event, McGill said.
As athletic director and Hall of Fame/Honor Wall committee member, McGill said his task includes verifying automatic Hall of Fame qualifiers to the Hall of Fame/Honor Wall committee as well as the individuals and teams being nominated by others, he said.
“We’ve had some great athletes and musicians come through here, and a lot of different people who’ve made contributions to our community. Part of the reason we created the Hall of Fame and Honor Wall is to call attention to our school because we have an excellent school system,” said former R-6 educator Roger Sherman of Sikeston, who is one of the founders of the Hall/Wall and remains on the committee.
To help possibly speed up the nomination process, nomination forms were simplified this year and are now available online at sikestonr6.org.
“They’ve simplified the forms so they’re easier to fill out and also the committee has to make the decision to verify a nominee instead of the one who is making the nomination,” Sherman said. “There was a lot of research the individuals had to do and sometimes that gets complicated, too.”
The process to nominate someone is already fairly simple, Sherman said. It includes filling out a form for each nominee. Information needed includes the nominee’s name; address; graduation year; list of nominee’s qualifications or contributions and sponsor’s name; and contact information.
For the Hall of Fame and Honor Wall, Sikeston R-6 honors past graduates who have been out of school for at least five years. District employees nominated for the Honor Wall must be retired from the district and been employed a minimum of 10 years by the district.
In 1995, Sherman, who spent 36 years in the Sikeston School District as a coach, teacher and administrator, and about 30-40 members of the community met one evening for a few hours to discuss a way of acknowledging the men and women who have contributed to the Sikeston Public Schools in various ways over the years.
Sherman said he encourages people to think about individuals or teams and groups to nominate to the Hall of Fame or Honor Wall before the July 1 deadline.
“We need to recognize people who make contributions,” Sherman said. “This is a good community, and the reason it’s good is because we have good people who really believe and care about our community — and I think that’s important.”
The Hall of Fame/Honor Wall event will be held Sept. 22 during the Sikeston Bulldogs and Farmington football game. New inductees will be notified by Central Office.
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