Hall of fame inducts first class
photo by Marietta Jordan
The Inductees all gather together for a group photo. This capped off a night which was filled with happiness and recollection of their high school experiences.
Multiple state champions, a sixth round NFL draftee, superfans and a World Series pitcher— inaugural class of Hagerty’s athletic Hall of Fame is an impressive group. The group included both successful athletes who have come out of Hagerty and the faculty members that laid the groundwork for the athletics at the school.
On Jan. 21, the first inaugural class of the hall of fame was inducted. The 2023 class consisted of NFL quarterback Jeff Driskel, MLB pitcher Zach Eflin, the 2013 basketball team state champions, Hagerty’s first state championship swimmer Matt Curby, assistant principal Christy Tibbits-Bryce, former principal Sam Momary, and long time substitutes and superfans Todd and Mike Dixon.
The concept for Hagerty’s hall of fame has been four years in the making. It took around a year to finalize the first class with the challenge mostly being validating information about the inductees’ careers.
The induction ceremony was an emotional reunion event for everyone involved from inductees and their families to previous coaches and faculty members. Each inductee was introduced by someone that had some kind of connection to them, whether that was a family member or a former coach.
This rolled into the speeches from the inductees ranging from Eflin and Curby’s short and sweet messages to long stories of Hagerty experiences from the Dixons. Nonetheless, each speech had its own value that reflected the inductee, making each one equally as meaningful/powerful— whether that be from the laughter or the silence each speech brought.
“You kind of don’t see it when you’re in [the sport], but as I got older, it’s truly incredible the dedication that parents and teachers put in to help us do what we wanted to do and what we trained to do,” Curby said.
The Saturday night ceremony was the culmination of a week of events. On Jan. 15. baseball held an alumni game with former Hagerty baseball players coaching faculty members during the game. The last event before the ceremony was the annual 5k which was rebranded as the hall of fame 5k for the induction.
The hall of fame is divided up into three pieces that all involve athletics. Those are administrative/coach, athletes/team, and a community category. “To finally have this first class completed and the templates done is a huge relief in terms of creating the template for success for later years,” Getty said.
It remains to be seen if this will be an annual event, but future Hall of Fame events are already in the works. Hoping to induct the rest of the state champions and other impactful athletes.
To end off the ceremony the Dixons gave their speech which ended with Mrs. Dixon saying, “Each of you remember, a good coach can change the outcome of a game, a great coach can change the outcome of a life.”
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