GREENVILLE – December 13, 2019 has been selected for Greenville City Schools’ inaugural “Night of Champions” to recognize former Green Wave championship teams while January 11, 2020 is slated for the 34th Annual GHS Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet and ceremony.
“It ought to be a great night,” said Greenville Athletic Director Aaron Shaffer. “We have it scheduled for Friday night, December 13th verses Stebbins boys basketball game.”
The Night of Champions differs from the Hall of Fame night in that it honors championship teams while the Hall of Fame recognizes individual athletes from the past.
“I approached Aaron Shaffer last year after he became Athletic Director,” said GHS alum Alex Warner. “The Hall of Fame does a great job of honoring individuals but we know that teams win championships, so we thought it was time to start honoring teams that have won championships in the past.”
“We are trying to recognize our past championship caliber teams whether it be state champions, district champions, regional champions, conference champions, to bring them back and recognize them within our athletic department,” Shaffer stated, “pull them back in to recognize them and all the great accomplishments that they had in the past.”
The first Night of Champions (2020) will honor teams from 25-years ago as well as 40, 60 and 65 with years ending in ‘4’ or ‘9’. Next year, 2021 will included teams ending in ‘5’ or ‘0’.
“We’re going to take a look at different teams so every team is eventually going to get recognized, we just couldn’t do 105 teams all in one night so we started with the 25, 40 and 65,” Warner noted. “Next year it will probably be 25 and 30. We’ll work it out so each year we will have about eight or nine teams recognized.”
Greenville teams have competed as members of the MVL, GMVC, SWBL and GWOC over the years with 2019-2020 as the first year back in the resurrected Miami Valley League (MVL) a league Greenville has the destinction of being a charter member of.
“It will be quite a few teams we are looking at, MVL teams that we had championships with,” said Shaffer. “With us moving back into the MVL it’s nice. We want to recognize them but not only those people but people who won championships back in the SWBL, GMVC days and eventually we will get back to recognizing those GWOC championship teams that we have had through the years.”
“It’s a chance for us to bring those people back and recognize them but also for our kids to see the championship caliber performances that happened in Greenville’s history, to kind of get them excited about the opportunity to be one of those champions as well,” Shaffer stated. “I think it’s going to be a great annual tradition.”
“If you walk down our hallway and look, there are a lot of MVL Championship trophies from our first time in the MVL,” added Shaffer. “The plan will be having MVL teams being recognized from back in the 50’s.”
December 13, 2019 Night of Champions “Line-Up”
1954 MVL Undefeated Football Team Champions
1959 MVL Champions, State Runner-Up Golf Team
1979 SWBL Baseball Champions
1979 SWBL Softball Champions
1979 SWBL Boys Track Champions
1994 GMVC and Sectional Girls Basketball Champions
1994 GMVC and District Girls Cross Country Champions
1994 GMVC and District Girls Softball Champions
1994 GMVC and Sectional Wrestling Champions
“We need members of these teams to inform teammates of this ceremony,” Warner said. “We are hoping to have good representative turnout for each team.”
Former GHS athletes to be honored are to meet between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the athletic office in the hallway, west side of the gymnasium to sign in and get organized for introductions.
Contact the GHS Athletic Department for more information at (937) 548-4416 or Alex Warner at: warnerakm@hotmailcom if planning on attending the pre-game event.
