Nominations are open until Feb. 19 for the Athletics Hall of Fame, U-High’s sports recognition program, where alumni and coaches are encouraged to recommend alumni who they believe have outstanding achievements in athletics. 

The Athletics Hall of Fame, established in 2019, is a platform to recognize U-High’s athletic accomplishments and active alumni, former coaches, and previous teachers. According to Director of Athletics David Ribbens, athletics was known to have brought Lab together in the early 1900s, and the Hall of Fame is valuable so others recognize the prominence of athleticism at the school.

“Athletics has always played a role in our school from the very beginning,” Mr. Ribbens said. “We need to understand that because I don’t think a lot of people associate us with a strong athletics program.”

Nominees selected will be announced toward the end of summer. To nominate someone, a U-High community member or alumnus should consider criteria such as if the nominee was chosen to be an ISL player/coach of the year, won All-Sectional or All-State selection or if they were school record-setters. The nominees should have a pronounced career after high school and have won awards during or after their time at Lab. Those who are nominated and don’t win still stay in the selection pool for five years. 

Over its first two years, the Hall of Fame has boasted acclaimed alumni such as Marty Billingsley, a 1977 alumna who still holds the school records in the 1,600-meter and 3,200 meter races and who has taught at Lab since 1994; Arne Duncan, a 1982 alumnus who played in Australia in the National Basketball League and served as U.S. Secretary of Education, as well as Andy Rosenband, a 1999 alumnus who after high school played for the USA National team in Futsal. Mr. Ribbens hopes these people will show students that they come from a long line of successful athletes.

“One of the measures, for me, of success, is that our current students realize that the Maroons for Lab School have been participating for over a century,” Mr. Ribbens said. “And they’re part of that.”