CELINA-Five new members of the Clay County Sports Hall of Fame will be enshrined during ceremonies Friday night here at halftime of the Clay County Lady Bulldogs’ home game with Monterey—which tips off at 6 p.m. and is followed by the Dawgs’ matchup with the Wildcats.

A meet-and-greet reception for the Class of 2024 honorees, their families, previous inductees, and others will be held prior to the game beginning at 4:30 p.m.  The public is also encouraged to attend.

A pull-out program featuring summaries of the careers of this year’s class—which is made up of Rob Edwards, Cassandra (Cooper) Smith, Brandon Boone, Paulina (Herrmann) Bennett, and Ranford Watson—is a part of this week’s newspaper.

Like the first class inducted in 2010, the current class includes a cross-section of older and younger members who excelled as players, coaches, or contributors.

Edwards, Smith, Boone, and Bennett make up the four new members who were voted into the athletes and coaches division, while Watson will be inducted as a heritage member.

High school athletes are eligible 10 years after graduation, heritage members are people whose careers were largely based at least 50 years ago, and contributors are people who were involved in some capacity besides playing—though no new inductees were chosen in the 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.

See the pull-out program inside, visit the organization’s website at www.claycosportshof.com, or email [email protected] for more information.