News Photo by James Andersen Alpena High School honored its five newest inductees into the Athletic Wall of Fame last Friday during halftime of Alpena's boys basketball game with Traverse City West. Pictured from left to right are: Troy Reeder, Terry Thomas, Tom Lavoie, Leaird and Judy Cameron (representing Kim Cameron) and Vicki Herman (representing Anna Herman).

Lined along the walls outside of Alpena High’s Gillespie Gymnasium, the plaques that make up the Alpena Athletic Wall of Fame tell many stories about Alpena’s athletic history.

The wall gained five new members and five new stories last Friday as Troy Reeder, Anna Herman, Kim Cameron, Tom Lavoie and Terry Thomas were honored during halftime of Alpena’s boys basketball game against Traverse City West.

“I’m very excited to be able to honor some of our athletes and coaches, bring them to a game and show them respect (for their careers),” Alpena boys basketball coach and Wall of Fame committee president John Pintar said.

Friday’s ceremony was a year in the making and marks a renewed commitment to the Wall of Fame by the school, which hopes to make the induction ceremony an annual occurrence to coincide with Winterfest.

“I felt really good about it. This was a good start and tremendous credit goes to John and the committee,” Alpena Athletic Director Tim Storch said.

This year’s inductees were easy choices for the committee and met several of the criteria the committee looks at for induction.

*Cameron earned all-state and all-conference honors in basketball at Alpena and was named team MVP and a Scholar Athlete in 2000. She currently coaches the women’s basketball team at Michigan Tech and led the Huskies to an NCAA Division II runner-up finish in 2011.

*Herman was an eight-time Scholar Athlete and is the only Alpena swimmer ever to qualify for the state finals. She holds several school swimming record and was named Female Athlete of the Year in 2002.

*Reeder earned all-conference honors in football, basketball and baseball and was all-state in football in 2000. He is fifth on Alpena’s all-time scoring list in basketball with 937 points.

*Lavoie and Thomas coached the girls basketball team together for 13 years and won 147 games along with one conference title, two district titles and two regional titles.

The Wall of Fame started in 2009 as the brainchild of longtime Alpena athletic supporter Lori MacKenzie as a way to honor Alpena’s greats. About a year ago, Storch talked with Pintar about renewing the school’s commitment to the wall, but with a few changes.

“We came up with a list of people who met the criteria, but for whatever reason weren’t up there,” Pintar said. “In the case of Terry and Tom, coaches were never up there.”

A committee of Alpena coaches and administrators was formed to nominate and select athletes for induction. Rather than just putting the plaques up with little fanfare, athletes will now be honored in a ceremony. More consideration will be given to coaches for induction. Athletes who are playing sports in college will not be inducted, if chosen, until their collegiate career is over in order to consider their full array of accomplishments.

When Storch took over as Alpena High athletic director in 2014, the Wall of Fame was one of several unfinished projects he inherited and Storch said the additions of track star Emily McAnsh and swimmer Bryan Stafford got the ball rolling on adding names to the wall.

More than six dozen athletes have been honored on the Wall of Fame along with two coaches, five teams and MacKenzie. Pintar said the committee’s goal going forward is to select three of four athletes a year along with a coach or two for induction. The committee will also look at inducting more teams.

“I think (the athletes chosen) are awesome and we have a lot of accomplished athletes,” Pintar said. “Talking with Tim, he mentioned the Alpena High Hall of Fame has a ceremony (in the fall), so why don’t we celebrate athletes like that too?”