Connor Lalande
Shawville Oct. 5, 2023
Pontiac High School is looking to expand the list of people honoured by its Athletic Hall of Fame.
Started in 2020, with the first class of inductees being finalized in the spring of 2021, Pontiac High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame was envisioned as a means of celebrating the contributions of individuals and teams to sports within the school.
For the inaugural induction round, 13 honourees were enrolled within the Athletic Hall of Fame.
Inaugural inductees include, among others, David Gregory Holmes who worked as a Physical Education Specialist at Pontiac High School for 36 years and was renowned for his commitment to coaching and facilitating extracurricular activities for students, Kelly ‘Schumacher’ Raimon who attended Pontiac High School and went on to play both professional basketball and volleyball and John Finlay Petty who pioneered Pontiac High Schools outdoor education program and who continued to advocate for community sport into his retirement.
Recognizing athletic achievement and contribution to sport at Pontiac High School (including under its prior titles, Shawville High School and Pontiac Protestant High School), students, teachers, individuals and teams can be nominated for the following categories: athlete, master athlete, team, coach, official, builder, pioneer and special achievement.
For the 2023/2024 induction round, the number of inductions will be capped at five.
The voting committee overseeing the selection process is made up of four representatives from Pontiac High School (Principal Terry Burns, Physical Education and Health Teacher Darcy Findlay, Physical Education and Ethics Teacher Chad Davis and Science Teacher Neil MacIntosh) as well as three representatives from the community (Hall of Fame Class of 2020-2021/Former Teacher John Petty, Hall of Fame Class of 2020-2021/Former Teacher Rick Valin and Shawville Representative Al Horner.
According to the Athletic Hall of Fame’s website, “inductees will have a photo of their choice on a plaque with a short description of their accomplishments, as well as greatest memories of their time at Pontiac High School.”
Pontiac High School teacher, voting committee member and Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Darcy Findlay says that celebrating athletic achievement is important not only those who are honoured, but to current students who, every time they walk down the hallway where the Athletic Hall of Fame is displayed, have tangible examples of where athletics can take them.
“Sports provide opportunities for self-growth that you don’t get anywhere else,” Findlay said. “It’s important to acknowledge the hard work that people put in. It’s important to understand how that contributes to growth in someone’s life before you even realize it.”
“When our inductees sit back and reflect on their lives right after high school or 30 years down the road, running down that basketball court or running up and down that soccer field and putting that hard work in, translated into that hard work they had to put into whatever they wanted out of life,” he said.
According to Findlay, after this year’s induction round, nominations won’t be solicited again until 2030.
After that, inductions are planned to occur every 10 years.
“It’s not going to be revisited every year. It’s not something that should be. It’s important to us, but at the same time, there has to be time to allow people the chance to do great things in order to be in here. There has to be a good chunk of time,” Findlay said.
The nomination window for the 2023/2023 induction round closes on December 31 at 8:00 p.m.
To submit a nomination, or to learn more about Pontiac High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame, those interested can visit their website at www.phsathletichalloffame.com.
