MLHS launches hall of fame
MEDICAL LAKE – This will be a big year for Medical Lake High School, which will have its first athletic hall of fame since its inception in 1905. MLHS athletic director Chris Spring and retired coach and athletic director John Giannandrea will make sure it’s notable.
“We did a lot of research looking at different halls of fame, and we wanted ours to represent more than just athletics,” says Spring. “We wanted to represent their accomplishments as an athlete, as a student, and their contribution to the Medical Lake community and to society as a whole post-graduation.
“A lot of high schools have a hall of fame, but what some of them do is after that year they start putting kids’ pictures up. We wanted to go a step further,” says Giannandrea. “We wanted it to be something really special.”
The idea came from the Pennsylvania high school from which Giannandrea graduated. With a few tweaks from the two men and a committee of 10 members, MLHS will have its own version of a hall of fame, dating back to the late 1940s. That’s as far back as they can trace sports at the high school, to a time when boxing was included as part of athletics.
In the 1960s, MLHS had only baseball, basketball, football and track. It wasn’t until 1975 that girls began participating. Now the school has a variety of athletic teams, including tennis, volleyball, wrestling and golf.
Candidates can’t be nominated until 10 years after graduation and must have graduated from MLHS. Up to 10 athletes can be chosen from the late 1940s through 1998 for the inaugural year, based on the committee. Thereafter, no more than two to four athletes will be selected per year, based on nominations from the public.
“When you’re talking about 100 years of a high school, being one of those 10 people selected out of 100 years of students is a pretty special accomplishment,” says Spring. “Quite recognition, I’d say, that you represent not only what you did with your class, but the history of the entire Medical Lake High School. So I think this first year is going to be really special.”
Presently, 35 candidates have been nominated. One worked at NASA. Another was a general in the military. Only a few women are nominees, one of whom was a state champion in track three years in a row, then attended the University of Oklahoma, where she was also a track record-holder. Some nominees might not have been top athletes but participated in many sports or were leaders in school.
“It’s what we want our athletes and our students to emulate,” says Giannandrea. “These are the people who we feel are somebody that the kids can look up to and say, ‘Hey, this is what we would like to do. I’d like to have my picture up there. What do I have to do to do that?’ “
They hope to have the hall of fame established by Sept. 12, the date of the second football game of year, where the inductees will be introduced at halftime. The next day, there will be an awards dinner.
Spring and Giannandrea believe the history of MLHS has been overlooked – that students graduate and then just move on.
“We both felt we needed to not only recognize the accomplishments, but also try to reconnect people from the past that have no connection to the high school anymore,” Spring said. “We think it’s very important for them to know that this was their home, this is where they got their start, and that they can come back. They can be a part by following our Web site or coming to games or whatnot. Just to make people sure that we feel they are still important to what we do here.”