Nominations Open for 2024 Class of CCS Athletic Hall of Fame
COOPERSTOWN—The Cooperstown Sports Booster Club and Cooperstown Central School will hold an induction weekend for the Class of 2024, over homecoming weekend, in late September or early October. A minimum of five individuals and two teams will be inducted.
Anyone may nominate a Cooperstown athlete for consideration. To be considered, an athlete must be a CCS graduate. Graduates from 2014 and earlier may be considered. Teams must be from spring 2014 or earlier.
Coaches, administrators and boosters may also be considered. Coaches and administrators must be retired from CCS for at least two years to be eligible.
The deadline for nominations is March 11.
A Hall of Fame committee will consider all nominations and select and announce the Class of 2024 in the spring. The committee includes school and booster club officials as well as current and retired CCS coaches, boosters, and administrators.
More details about the homecoming weekend events will be announced at a later date. In addition to the fall ceremony, a summer golf tournament is being planned.
Begun in 2008, the CCS Sports Hall of Fame has inducted eight previous classes of athletic Hall of Famers. After a five-year hiatus—in part because of the coronavirus pandemic—CCS inducted a Class of 2023: athletes Josh Edmonds, Phil Pohl, Alec Silvera and Jen Wehner, coach/teacher Connie Herzig, the 2005 boys cross country team, the 2007-2008 girls basketball team, and the 2008-2009 volleyball team.
According to Booster Club President Greg Klein, the 2024 induction is being held to catch up on qualified applicants.
“We picked a lot of no-brainer Hall of Famers last year and did not need much debate to get our numbers,” Klein said. “However, we knew there were a lot of historic teams and qualified student-athletes still to consider. With the 2015 and 2019 state championship basketball teams looming and a lot of Olympic sport athletes in the past decade who excelled, I knew some people could get lost in the shuffle if we didn’t make up one of the inductions we lost to COVID.”
Applications do not need to be resubmitted but Klein lamented what he called incomplete applications.
“Old stats are hard to come by, I know, but for some candidates we need more information,” he said. “Testimonials work, especially for defenders or goalies, or harder to quantify candidates.
“Before my time on the committee, I witnessed one candidate get in after years of discussion in the community about their status. When I dug into the records, I saw a long letter had been submitted for this player by a teammate. It was persuasive writing, because the player got inducted that year.”
Klein suggests advocates for candidates who have previously been nominated reach out to him at JYDBook@gmail.com or speak with CCS Athletic Department officials Josh Wagner or Maria Field to see what applications are marked incomplete.
Nomination forms are available at https://www.cooperstowncs.org/page/ccs-athletics-hall-of-fame. E-mail CCS Athletic Director Josh Wagner at jwagner@cooperstowncs.org for more information or to submit a nomination.
At right, above, Volleyball Coach Rich Jantzi and members of his 2008-09 volleyball team celebrate after their induction to the Cooperstown Central School Athletic Hall of Fame in the Class of 2023.
