Five inductees join Clay County Sports Hall of Fame
JOINING AN ELITE GROUP-Five new members were inducted into the Clay County Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend, including Melissa Denton Smith, the late Kevin Watson, Chris Bartlett, the late Frank Kyle, and Brent Burchett. Pictured (front row, left to right) are Smith, Watson’s mother Jodi and daughter Candace, (back row, left to right) Bartlett, Kyle’s great-nephew Kenneth Cherry, and Burchett, who were honored with a reception prior to being inducted in front of a crowd gathered for Clay County High School’s basketball game Saturday. (photo courtesy Nancy McClain)
A pull-out program featuring summaries of the careers of those to be inducted was included in the Dale Hollow HORIZON newspaper, and a meet-and-greet reception for this year’s class, their families, previous inductees, and others was held prior to the game at 4:30 p.m.
Like the first class, inducted in 2010, the class of 2018 includes a cross-section of older and younger members who excelled as players or coaches. Four new members were voted into the athletes and coaches division, along with one heritage member.
Heritage members are people whose careers were largely based at least 50 years ago, while contributors are people who were involved in some capacity besides playing—though no new inductees were chosen in this category this year.
Over 100 previous hall of fame inductees were invited to cast their vote by electronic ballot to determine this year’s class, and their votes chose the five new members to be inducted: Athletes Melissa Denton Smith, Brent Burchett, Kevin Watson, Chris Bartlett, and heritage member Frank Kyle.
Visit the organization’s website at www.claycosportshof.com, or email [email protected] for more information.