By Karl Heimbach

Karl Heimbach, CMAA, is Athletic Director at Magruder High School, in Rockville, Md., and 1st Vice President of the Maryland State Athletic Directors' Association. He can be reached at: Karl_S_Heimbach@mcpsmd.org.

In its 30 years of existence, Magruder High School has produced numerous graduates who have excelled in athletics. Former Magruder star Milt Thompson played professional baseball for 18 years, Jerome Williams competed in the NBA for nine seasons, Karen Zarchin helped lead James Madison University to an NCAA Division I field hockey championship, and Scott Foster is an NBA referee. And these are just a few of the former student-athletes who continued their sports careers after Magruder.

With so many outstanding individuals populating Magruder High School history, the idea of creating an athletic hall of fame had been kicked around for years. As athletic director, I felt a hall of fame was needed so our most successful athletic alumni could be recognized and serve as positive role models for current students.

Five years ago, I started the process of developing a Magruder High School Athletic Hall of Fame. It has been a great success and something we are very proud of. But it took two years of work before we were able to induct our first class in 2003.

GETTING INPUT
When I first began thinking about creating a hall of fame, I had many ideas for how to make it work. But a key factor in its success was getting input from others. Gaining the support of the administration and the community meant including them in the planning process from the beginning.

Therefore, my first move was to take the idea to upper-level administrators at our school. I proposed the athletic hall of fame to the principal and the vice-principal who supervises athletics, explaining it as a way to promote excellence and citizenship to the entire student body while also reaching out to alumni. They both supported the idea.

However, they also provided me with some recommendations to ensure full buy-in from the community. To begin with, they suggested issuing an open invitation to attend an introductory meeting to help develop ideas for our hall of fame. We agreed that the information about the hall should be easily accessible to ensure no one could complain that the process was done behind closed doors.

Another goal was to get broad representation at this initial meeting. Ideally, we wanted to have individuals from the faculty, administration, booster club, coaching staff, and community. We also wanted to ensure that the committee had racial and gender balance. Therefore, we publicized our first meeting in a variety of places including our inter-county e-mail system, fliers on the athletic director's bulletin board, our school Web site, and the PTA-sponsored monthly newsletter. I also made personal phone calls to individuals who might bring different perspectives to the table.

Ten individuals attended that first brainstorming session in March 2002, which lasted two hours and generated many ideas. Our assistant athletic director had experience with a hall of fame at his previous school and was able to provide a lot of suggestions and starting points. I took notes as people talked and was able to synthesize their concerns into 10 questions:

1. How would the nomination process work?
2. What would be the criteria for nominees?
3. What length of time after graduation would an athlete be eligible?
4. Should we limit the number of inductees each year?
5. Who and how many individuals would comprise the selection committee?
6. When would the inductions be held?
7. Would we hold a banquet in connection with the Hall of Fame inductions?
8. Who would pay for the cost of the plaques and the banquet?
9. How would we publicize the winners?
10. How would we ensure that the hall became a meaningful part of our entire school and community?

We then held another meeting to answer these questions. Each attendee was asked for their input in each area, and everyone present discussed the options. We decided very quickly that we wanted hall of fame inductees to be positive role models for our current students, so many of our decisions were based on this ideal. We also agreed that we shouldn't try to write a bylaw for every imaginable situation, but instead have a hall of fame selection committee address nuances as they arose.

PROPOSING A POLICY
The next stage of the project involved compiling all the answers to these questions into a policy for the hall of fame. I organized the policy into seven points, which I've listed below, along with some notes on how we made our decisions.

Purpose: We agreed that the purpose of our hall of fame would be to establish a method for honoring Magruder's top student-athletes and individuals who have made a positive impact on the local community and to provide role models for today's student athletes. As a result, we expect to see an increased awareness of and pride in Magruder's athletes, both past and present.

Selection Committee: We created a selection committee composed of seven adults serving two-year terms: chairperson, athletic director or assistant athletic director, one booster club representative, one Magruder alumnus who currently lives in the area, and three current coaches on staff at Magruder. If the chairperson is the current athletic director or assistant athletic director, a fourth coach is selected as the seventh member.

Because many of our coaches at Magruder are alumni of the school and live in the community, we felt their presence on the selection committee would be a key part of making our project succeed. Our current coaches also showed interest in the project, so I knew they would be willing to put in the necessary time. Finally, having coaches involved would help link the hall of fame to current student-athletes. We also wanted a booster club member and an alumnus so the entire community would be involved in the hall.

We decided that members of the selection committee would also be responsible for these tasks:

• Media Coordinator: Communicate with the local media about the induction of members to the hall of fame.
• Banquet Coordinator: Locate a restaurant and arrange for the dinner.
• Awards: Purchase plaques for the event.
• Secretary: Record and present the minutes of each meeting.
• Treasurer: Arrange all financial aspects of the project.
• Nomination Coordinator: Advertise and distribute the necessary forms so that nominations can be made.
• Host: Greet attendees and coordinate the ceremony.

Selection Process: The committee made all former Magruder student-athletes, coaches, and administrators eligible for selection into the athletic hall of fame and agreed that a candidate would be selected when four of the seven selection committee members vote for induction.

Our criteria for student-athletes include:
• Superior accomplishments as a student-athlete at Magruder High School, such as receiving all-county, all-state, or other significant awards.
• Graduation from Magruder High School at least five years prior to nomination.
• Continuing excellence at the collegiate, national, amateur, or professional levels.
• Clearly demonstrated integrity, sportsmanship, and citizenship before and after graduation.
• Academic and post college career accomplishments.

Our criteria for coaches/administrators/community members include:
• Significant contributions made to the athletic program, taking into account longevity, overall record, and championships.
• Significant contributions to community or professional organizations at the state or national levels that promote athletics.
• Retirement from their position at Magruder.

In choosing the bylaws for our student-athlete selection process, we put rules into place to ensure inductees were not just former high school stars, but had also made an impact as adults. That's why we included the five-years-since graduation time frame and the last three criteria.

We decided to not induct teams as a whole since we have a special trophy case across from the hall of fame with plaques for every team that makes it to the state finals. We did, however, agree to allow nominees who did not formally compete for our school. (For example, Magruder alumna Courtney Kupets never competed on a school team, but won two medals in gymnastics at the 2004 Olympics, and will presumably be nominated when she becomes eligible.)

We did not choose to induct a specific number of people each year, but instead decided the number could vary from year to year. For the first eight years, we are aiming for three to five inductees annually, with the number then dropping off to between one and three.

Nomination process: Candidates may be nominated at any time during the year. A nomination form can be obtained from the athletic director, Magruder Web site, or monthly school newsletter. In order for a candidate to be considered, the form must be completely filled out and returned to the athletic director prior to May 1.

The form asks for contact information on the nominator and the nominee as well as an explanation of why the nominee is deserving of induction. For athletes, it also requires information on all varsity sports the athlete played at Magruder; year of graduation; all athletic and academic awards; post high school athletic, academic, and career accomplishments; and current occupation and place of employment.

For nominations in the coach/administrator/community member category, the form asks for information on all positions held within the athletic department, all accomplishments related to Magruder athletics, and employment history. To make sure the nominee fits all our criteria, we agreed to ask follow-up questions of the nominator when necessary. We also agreed to do any further research as warranted.

Induction process: Once a candidate is nominated, as long as he or she is deemed worthy of nomination by the committee, his or her nomination stays on file and is considered each year. The selection committee meets between May 15th and June 15th to select the inductees, who are then notified. Induction ceremonies take place during the fall.

Induction honors: Because we want the inductees to be presented to the entire community, but also want to honor them through a formal, more personal celebration, we chose to have a double ceremony. At halftime of a varsity football game, the inductees for a given year are honored with a brief overview of their achievements read over the public address system and a plaque is presented by the person who nominated them.

The next day, an award dinner is held at a local establishment and inductees, their families, and their friends are invited. The person who nominated each inductee gives a more detailed list of accomplishments and states why they nominated the individual. The presentations during the football game are brief, but bring in the entire community, while the luncheon allows a deeper and more thorough recounting of the athletes' contributions.

A second plaque is then placed in our hall of fame area, which is located in the main gym lobby as a permanent reminder of the accomplishments achieved by the individual. The location of the hall of fame is a focal point in our school that is seen by everyone who enters our main gym and travels through the building.

Financial issues: The athletic department covers the cost of the plaques and the inductees' meals. It also donates $300 each year toward the cost of the banquet. These funds are kept in a separate account and used to cover any additional expenses and to reduce the overall cost for those attending. All guests attending the banquet pay for their own dinners.

The above was made into a formal proposal presented to coaches and everyone who attended the original organizational meeting. These people were given a date to submit additions or corrections to the document and to return it me, as I would make the final changes. I received only positive comments and thus sent the document to the Magruder High School administration for review and approval. This was immediately accomplished at our next regularly scheduled meeting, and we were ready to put the wheels into motion.

IMPLEMENTING IT
The selection committee is obviously key to this process, so I put that into place first. I asked most of those who had attended the first two meetings if they would like to serve on the selection committee. All accepted and were approved by the school administration.

Next, we put out a call for nominations. As promised in our proposal, we made the forms available in many places. We also let people know about the process through the athletic director's message board, announcements, and personal communications to current and former coaches. From this effort, we received several outstanding nominations and selected five for induction. (One of the five would not be able to attend the induction so we delayed his honor for a year and proceeded with the other four. See "Our First Class".)

The initial induction ceremony to the Magruder Athletic Hall of Fame was held during halftime of a varsity football game on Oct. 24, 2003. The assistant athletic director and I greeted each inductee and his or her family at the main gate and gave them a tour of the school. As stated in our policy, we then honored them at halftime and the next day through a luncheon.

The local media was invited to attend the ceremony and banquet. Digital photos of the events were placed on the school Web site and the school newspaper included a picture and short biography of each inductee in its next edition.

MANY YEARS TO COME
After three years of inductions, the process is going well and has definitely been worth the time we've put into it. The weekend induction activities have proven very meaningful for the former athletes and also for our current ones. Some inductees have given talks to their former team or helped out at a practice during the weekend. We have also made them honorary captains at the football game and asked them to flip the coin at the game's start.

Having seen this project progress from a good idea to reality is something I'm very proud of as Athletic Director of Magruder High School. I'm also very excited about our students' reactions to it. Students ask me what it takes to be selected for this honor, and I believe the hall is providing positive examples of excellence and community involvement by student-athletes and other individuals for the current and future students of Magruder High School.

Sidebar: Our First Class
For our inaugural class of inductees, we chose those former Magruder stars who are fantastic role models and very involved in their communities.

Devin Payton: Soccer, 1993
While at Magruder, Payton was a high school All American. He now plays on the U.S. National Futsal (indoor soccer) Team and runs his own soccer academy in the Washington, D.C., area. He also donates his time to help Magruder High School players and area youth learn the game of soccer.

Karen Zarchin: Field Hockey, 1993
At Magruder, Zarchin was a High School All-American in field hockey and also played basketball, softball, and soccer. At James Madison University, she helped her team to win an NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship. Zarchin is now a physical education teacher and field hockey coach at a high school in Northern Virginia. She works at local camps and is active in promoting field hockey to the youth of the Washington, D.C., area.

Tracey Earley: Basketball, 1985
Early was an All-Met and an All-County selection in basketball at Magruder and also played field hockey, soccer, and basketball in high school. She continued to play basketball at the NCAA Division I level for George Washington University and was inducted into their hall of fame in 2001. Early is currently a Vice President for the Bank of America in North Carolina.

Rich Boyajy: Community Volunteer
Boyajy helped raised $250,000 for athletic programs at Magruder High School over his 10 years of service on the booster club. He received the volunteer award from the Maryland State Athletic Directors' Association, and was recognized for over 1,000 hours of volunteer work for Montgomery County Public Schools. Boyajy recently moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and continues to work for IBM.