Nashua Hall of Fame inductee Robyn Proctor Selent acknowledges the crowd while fellow members of the Class of 2023 Jim Tebbetts and Michelle Cernuda look on prior to the North-South baseball game Friday night at Holman Stadium. The induction is today at noon at the Nashua Courtyard Marriott. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s a list in the office of Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras of “the big things that have to be tackled.”

And on that list, from the day she first took the job a decade ago, was the restoration of the Nashua Athletics Hall of Fame. The last induction was held in 2000 but constant turnover in the athletic department helped cause a pause in the program that lasted nearly two decades.

But after a virtual induction in 2021, the first in person induction in 23 years takes place Sunday at noon at the Courtyard Mariott in Nashua.

“We had talked about it,”Gingras said. “It was spring of ’18. At that point, I had been in the position for five years, we were in good place with the day-to-day operations. … It was at the point where we as a group felt it was time (to bring back the Hall).”

So that spring, at an athletic department meeting, Gingras brought up the idea. The response was all thumbs up.

“We sat and talked about it and everybody was excited,” Gingras said. “So we talked to the principals and a few coaches and it was ‘Yes, whatever you need, we’re behind you. Let’s go.'”

That summer Gingras talked with many community leaders who were part of the original hall, including George Tebbetts and Ed Lecius – both on the current committee and Lecius is an inductee this year – as well as Joe Laplante, also part of the original group.

“That fall we hit the ground running, put a committee together, and here we are,” Gingras said.

What made Gingras put it on her list?

“It was important for our city and for our community,” she said. “Kids growing up now, they don’t even remember that it was (once) one high school. Their parents might, their grandparents might. It’s been 18 years now (since the Split). These kids (current student athletes) weren’t born when there was one high school.

“Being from Nashua, knowing so many of those people that had been inducted those 10 years (of the Hall), I felt it was time. And there was enough time since North and South existed that we had great athletes and coaches and contributors that could be recognized and not just senior high school (the one Nashua).”

Thus in this case, the fact that an in-person induction ceremony is taking place is as largely noteworthy as the inductees themselves.

Two years ago there was an induction that was virtual, with on line video interviews with the inductees, an address by Gingras, all of which can still be viewed today.

This is what Gingras envisioned when she first took the job as athletic director over a decade ago and knew that this was one of her goals.

What’s been going through her mind as the date arrives?

“What’s going through my mind is ‘Oh my God this is really going to happen,'” she said, beaming. “We are currently up to over 250 people attending. It’s absolutely crazy, it’s gotten to the point where we have no more seats in the venue.

“It’s just incredible to be able to not only honor the inductees of the Class of 2023, but we’re also going to introduce and recognize those who didn’t have their in-person recognition three years ago. It’s been a lot of work the past five, six years, specifically over the past year, the last six months ever since the inductees were chosen.”

In fact, Gingras said that the calls, emails, etc. were still coming in a week ago for tickets even though the deadline was two weeks ago and the event is sold out.

“I think it’s going to be really great for our city and our community,” Gingras said. “I think it’s going to explode even more two years from now once this class is inducted and people attend the induction. I hope it goes as well as we are envisioning it going. I think it will, we have a great program lined up.”

How agonizing was it for Gingras that her dream of an in-person Hall of Fame induction wouldn’t take place thanks to the pandemic? The scheduled May 2000 induction was obviously cancelled, as basically the entire country was shut down and all spring sports were cancelled. There was hope perhaps for an October induction with a date set, but then that wasn’t possible, and then there was the thought of having an outdoor ceremony in June. But that would be risky with weather and the solution was to come up with a virtual induction in May of 2021.

“It was a difficult decision in April (2020) to postpone it, tried to have it in October, things still were clear enough, then postponed it to May of 2021, then we couldn’t do that,” Gingras said. “Then it was ‘How much longer are we going to make these people wait?’. And that’s when we made the decision to go with a virtual induction.”

Gingras feels the mix of this year’s class is unique with coaches, athletes and an entire team (the 1987 Nashua High girls basketball team). We have North athletes, South athletes and Senior High athletes. It’s a good mix, a good group.”

However, the work to get everything together since the first committee meeting in November of 2018 was not easy, but not unanticipated.

“It was probably about the same as I expected,” Gingras said. “That’s one question everyone asks me about every aspect of my job, has anything surprised me? … Nothing surprises me.

“We joke, I feel like I’m putting together a big wedding with the banquets and the seating charts and the ticket sales. It’s a big undertaking. Fortunately, I have really good people working with me, the committee’s done a great job, we’ve kind of delegated pieces. But am I kind of panicking and losing sleep that something’s going to be forgotten? All the time.”

The one advantage that Gingras and the committee had that didn’t exist the first time was the technology, with the internet, ability to do virtual interviews, etc. Nomination formrs are on both the North and South athletic web sites as well as the list of those already inducted into the Hall.

“That’s one of the things that was really important to me when we brought back the Hall of Fame,” Gingras said. “I talked to people who sat on the last committee and there were nomination forms. But there were no set rules on anything, who gets in, who doesn’t get in, what’s the rules, what’s the process.”

After the initial meeting in November of 2018, there was time taken to draw up a constitution with by-laws, etc. that all the committee members signed.

“So not long after I’m gone, someone can keep doing it, it doesn’t have to be done from scratch like I did,” Gingras said.

The next induction – as of now – will be in May of 2025. There is, according to the by-laws, a minimum of two years between each induction.

“Honestly, the amount of work that has gone into this in-person induction, obviously a little more work since it will the first one we’ve done,” Gingras said, “but there’s no way we can do it every year.

“It’s a nice cycle. In the even year, we’ll do nominations and selections, and in the odd years we’ll do the inductions.”

Of course, with any Hall of Fame there could be controversy in terms of who is in and who isn’t.

“It’s been a little bit,” Gingras said. “My response is, the next set of nominations will open on April 1, 2024, here is the nomination form. We are very, very strict, we are not inducting anybody that hasn’t been nominated. They have to be nominated, they have to go through the process.”

Thus the next set of nomninations will open next April 1, and close Oct. 1 of 2024. And the induction will be in May of 2025.

But first, Sunday is ahead. After the day ends Gingras is hoping there is “a sense of accomplishment and pride – and relief — that everything went well.”

She expects a list of things that could be corrected or done better, but that’s for the next induction.

“Hopefully everything comes together, people enjoy it, the inductees enjoy it, and the community that’s coming enjoy it,” Gingras said, “and see the impact that athletics has on student athletes.”

THE CLASS OF 2023

This year’s inductees include longtime broadcaster and Nashua athletics contributor Ed Lecius, current longtime t Nashua coach Art Kobs, the entire 1987 Nashua High girls basketball team, former Nashua football standout Femi Ayi, three sport Nashua standout Michele Cernuda, Nashua cross country champion Phil Greenwood, South three sport athlete and New England wrestling champion Mike Grilakis, New England track champion Robyn Proctor, football-baseball standout Jim Tebbetts and former Nashua track champion Matthew Valuk.

Lecius has had 50 years of broadcasting Nashua athletics at WSMN and WMVU. Kobs, meanwhile, has coached some combination of basketball, indoor and outdoor track, and cross country in Nashua for more than 35 years at Fairgrounds Junior High, the one Nashua High School and currently Nashua North. His spring North team captured the Division I boys crown in 2021.

Of course the 1987 Nashua girls basketball team, coached by the late John Fagula, finished their state championship season by being ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today.

Sarah Rolfe was the assistant coach and players included Missy Ayotte, Joy Barry, Stephanie Byrd (now Kane), Michelle Grenier, Laurie Largy, Celeste Lavoie, Michelle LeBoeuf, Becky Shrigley, C.J. Stuart, and Maryse Veilleux. Ayotte, Barry, Byrd, Ayotte, Byrd and Lavoie are in the Nashua Hall of Fame as individuals.

Ayi was a dominant defensive player and captain of the 1997 Nashua state championship football team. His brother Kole is also in the Hall.

Cernuda, meanwhile, was the NH Girls Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year in 1995, coached with Fagula, then was the head coach at Alvirne for several years. She also was a standout in soccer and softball, and went to UNH on a hoop scholarship.

Greenwood was the New England cross country champion in 1992 and a three time Class L cross country champ and two time overall NH champion. Grilakis is the post-Split athlete being inducted as he was a three sport standout (football, wrestling, lacrosse) at South, Class of 2009, and earned a wrestling scholarship to the University of Missouri before transferring to UNH.

Proctor Selent was a state and New England champion at Nashua High and member of the New England championship team of 1984. Tebbetts graduated from Nashua in 1963 and was a pitcher on the 1963 Nashua baseball state championship team and was inducted into the Legends of Holman Stadium in 2019.

Finally, Valuk helped Nashua win the boys indoor and outdoor track titles in 2003, won several individual state titles and holds several school records.

The inductees were slated to be recognized at the North-South baseball game on Friday night.

Also at Sunday’s ceremony, the 2020 Class – virtually inducted in 2021 – will also be recognized. That included the late Bob DeMello, Kole Ayi, Farley Gates, Laura Gerraughty Ekstrand, Trevor Knight, Kendall Reyes, Mark Russell, Amy Ruston, Al Savage, John Schroeder and Brad Zapenas.

(Please note: Telegraph staff writer Tom King is also a member of the Nashua Hall of Fame Committee.)