Marshwood High School Hall of Fame and Excellence will have inaugural class in 2024 Jay PinsonnaultPortsmouth Herald SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — There have been hundreds of individual and team accomplishments throughout the history of Marshwood High School. Next June, up to 20 former student/athletes, coaches, teachers and contributors will be announced as being in the inaugural class of the Marshwood High School Hall of Fame and Excellence.  Those inductees will then be officially recognized during a ceremony that will coincide with Homecoming Weekend.  “I am pretty excited about this,” Marshwood athletic director Rich Buzzell said. “We aren’t going to have a problem (getting worthy individuals) with our (first class). There are some people that it’s pretty evident they deserve to be recognized.”  While many schools have an athletics Hall of Fame, Buzzell wanted to be clear the Marshwood Hall of Fame and Excellence will not only recognize stellar student/athletes, but also those who thrived in other areas such as academics, career and military.  “It’s important to recognize more than just athletic endeavors,” Buzzell said.  Who is eligible in Marshwood's inaugural class?  The inaugural class shall include up to no more than a total of 20 inductees — up to 10 each from athletics and academics.  The following is the criteria for those student/athletes to be considered for induction.  Graduated from Marshwood High School 10 years ago or more.  Received all-state recognition.  Received all-conference selection. Earned at least two varsity letters.  Criteria for coaches to be considered for induction Coached within the district for more than 10 years.  Served with distinction in the athletic programs.  Waiting period of at least three years .  Academic excellence criteria to considered for induction Faculty/staff must have had a minimum of 20 years of experience in the field of education, must have served in Marshwood District at least 10 years, and must be retired or resigned from Marshwood for at least 10 years.   Any alumni may be nominated 10 years after graduation and can be considered for achievements outside of school. Distinguished achievement in a chosen profession or in an educational program are expected.   Any person associated with the district who had a purposeful contribution resulting in a tangible effect on the education system.   Any candidate who has received recognition from a professional or social organization that is recognized by our educational community.  Criteria for a contributor or administrator to be considered for induction Went above and beyond for the student-athletes at Marshwood High School.   "We're going to have to whittle (our nominations) down, it will be hard to get it down to 10,” Buzzell said. “No question, it’s going to be hard. There are some people who have made legendary impacts here at Marshwood. I think it’s going to be tough on our committee.”  The second Hall of Fame and Excellence class shall include up to seven inductees, and future classes will not exceed five.  Digital touchscreen will highlight Hall of Famers  Where other schools may feature their Hall of Fame inductees with a plaque in an area of their respective schools, Buzzell and the Marshwood committee wanted to do something different. Instead, Marshwood will have a 65- to 70-inch touchscreen in the school lobby to highlight the inductees.  With the touchscreen, Hall of Fame inductees and their bios and accomplishments will be readily accessible.  “Marshwood has had a pretty rich athletic program and tradition and we’ve been fortunate to win a lot of awards, and spacing is really tight,” Buzzell said. “The old-way thinking you have a Hall of Fame with a lot of plaques on the walls to recognize people, which is really great, but you slowly start to run out of space. “This was a no-brainer for us,” Buzzell said. “Not only can all this be accessed in lobby, people will be able to go to our website and access our Hall of Fame data base. Everything they could get on the touchscreen, they could access from their smart device.”  Marshwood collecting nominations  Marshwood will collect nominations for its inaugural class until March. The committee will then go through them all, vote, and share results in June.  Nominations can be e-mailed to hofnominations@rsu35.org. “We encourage people to nominate, anybody can nominate,” Buzzell said. “We want people to nominate those who they feel are worthy of being inducted. We’re super excited.”