If you say it once, you can say it a million times.

The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference has its paws in several endeavors outside of the normal sporting championship. And everything the nation’s largest high school sporting conference does is first class.

And if you are disagreeing then you haven’t taken in too many events within the conference.

Another example of classy events and the conference’s goal to not allow its former athletes to be forgotten took place Saturday evening on the floor at WesBanco Arena when the OVAC inducted 16 new members into its prestigious Hall of Fame, which now includes 89 of the finest athletes, coaches, officials, media types and OVAC contributors the valley sports world has ever come to know.

Along with the 16 inductees, five more “Legends of the OVAC” also received their just reward. The inductees in the Legends group won’t be inducted to the actual Hall of Fame because they played before the OVAC was formed or before their respective school joined the conference.

The Hall of Fame Class for 2008 consisted of: Bob Hedmond (OVAC Family); Jimmy Stewart (media); Bill Thomas (official); John Craig and Bob Kettlewell (coaches); Tom Keane, Nick Mumley, Tom Yakubowski, Bill Kennedy, Mike Kovalick, John Pettini, Connie Doutt, Jay Paterson, Mark Cisar and Suzie Dailer (athletes).

The legends of 2008 included: Ernie Bell, John Blatnik, George Burgwin, Kenny Griffith and Jim Keane.

All of the inductees and their presenters deserve major kudos for their speeches. While some may have been a little longer than the guidelines established, you can’t measure in minutes what the award presented meant to the above. The speeches were well-prepared and well-delivered.

One of the speeches that this writer thought was extremely well thought out belonged to Thomas, who coached, taught and has officiated track meets in the Ohio Valley for more than 50 years.

“If I were to put a title on this speech, I would call it ‘I remember when’,” Thomas said. “I remember when I had been married for a week and I (officiated) my first track meet on April 28, 1956. I remember when track meets were run on cinders and when coaches had to line the lanes. I remember when races were all in yards and I remember when the broad jump was changed to long jump, so it wouldn’t be offensive to women.”

There were additional remember whens from Thomas as well, but there was something about that speech that I really enjoyed. I have gotten to know Thomas through track and field and he’s definitely one of the good guys around the oval.

John Craig – the longtime Steubenville and Indian Creek wrestling coach – was presented for his induction by Ron Mauck, who coached Craig at Follansbee High School.

Mauck told the crowd of how he had sign-ups for wrestling and Craig showed up. However, Mauck orginially advised him to just turn around and leave because he had him in a study hall and he wasn’t the most well-behaved kid if you will.

However, Craig proved Mauck wrong and then went on to become a highly successful coach, teacher and now school administrator.

“You can never do things by yourself,” Craig said. “Ron Mauck changed my life forever because gave me a chance.”

No matter what Hall of Fame you’re talking about whether it’s the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Pro Baseball Hall of Fame or the OVAC Hall of Fame, arriving at the latest class is a highly-debatable and sometimes leads to arguments during the debates. That’s what makes the work of the committee and voters even more important and actually impressive.

The OVAC Hall of Fame Committee is made up of Nick Bedway, Jeff Harrison, Doug Huff, Bubba Kapral, Jay Kiger, Mauck, Tom Tisher, Tom Rataiczak, Kelly Rine and Dick Wolf. These gentlemen begin the process of selecting the class of 2009 in just a few short months. Selecting inductees for Hall of Fames is an unenviable task because so many people feel their credentials are worthy of inclusion and they may very well be and this writer would be willing to bet that if the credentials are worthy of inclusion, eventually you will get your letter in the mail.

People who feel they should be included should keep in mind that the OVAC has been around for some 65 years, meaning a lot of phenomenal athletes have come through the Ohio Valley and the Hall of Fame has been around for just five years, so please be patient.

And if you are sitting at home wondering what the minimum requirements are, check out the OVAC.org website because they are listed there. Also submit your credentials to any of the above committee members and I’m willing to safely bet they will sit down and take a serious look at it and if you aren’t inducted in 2009, they will re-visit the resume for possible 2010 induction, but these things take time.

Two-time Kennedy Award winner Mark Cisar – who starred in both football and baseball under his dad Dave at Magnolia – nearly broke down in his speech when he remembered his late grandfather who made it to most every game the Cisar Brothers played in their careers.

Cisar – who is now the head football coach and athletic director at Union Local – talked his dad taught him how to coach and how he was going to eventually write a book about the Cisar family.

During his presentation speech, Dave Cisar dropped an interesting factoid that Mark played his entire senior season with a broken thumb and all he did was throw for 2,400 yards and win another Kennedy.

“I was proud to learn from my dad,” Cisar said. “He was my biggest fan and number one supporter. He lived and died with me.”

HALL OF FAME NOTES

FORMER WHEELING Central point guard Suzie Dailer received an additional gift after her speech Saturday evening. Along with the award from the OVAC, Dailer was presented an autographed picture from ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, who Dailer had the opportunity to meet when she won the 1995 National 3-point Shooting Contest in Seattle at the Final Four. Her uncle, Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne tracked down the picture for his niece once he learned of her induction.

SEVERAL past inductees were recognized in the audience prior to the start of the Class of 2009 receiving their awards. It’s always nice to see people come back and take part in the festivities. It makes it an even more special evening because the returning of all of the members to cities like Canton and Cooperstown are what add to the luster of the football and baseball inductions, respectively.

IT’S INTERESTING to read the bios in the program of what the honorees are doing now. Former Brooke High standout Joe Pettini now serves as bench coach for Tony LaRussa and the St. Louis Cardinals. Jay Peterson – the former Cadiz High standout – is in his fourth season as a coach at Eastern Michigan University. Bill Kennedy – the Warwood High product – is now a NCAA Basketball official in the PAC-10. And oh by the way, the late Tom Keane of Linsly went on to coach with the Miami Dolphins and won a Super Bowl ring as part of the Dolphins’ perfect season in 1971.

CISAR HAD the quote of the night in this writer’s mind. He was talking about playing professional baseball and said, “My first roommate in the minors was Adam Everett. He had just signed for $1.2 million, and I had just signed for a bag of sunflower seeds.”

IT WAS nice to see Bobby Douglas on hand for the event. He helped present Kovalick, who he coached at Arizona State. Douglas was one of the charter members of the OVAC Hall, but couldn’t attend his induction because he was coaching the United States Olympic Wrestling team in Athens Greece that year.

Speaking of Douglas and the Olympics. Is there any reason why a Bridgeport High graduate isn’t recognized on WTOV-9’s segment recognizing Ohio Valley Olympians? Not only did he coach, he participated in the Tokoyo games. That’s quite an over-sight to miss one of the Ohio Valley’s favorite sons.

THE CLASS of 2009 will be announced next spring and officially inducted on Saturday, Aug. 22.

Staskey can be reached at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com