While playing three high school sports at Richmond and then baseball at Jefferson College and Abilene Christian (Texas) University, Kyle Carroll accomplished his share of goals.

But when he was inducted June 3 into the Richmond High School Athletic Hall of Fame in the high school commons area, there was one goal Carroll set for himself that he didn’t meet: keeping his induction speech at 10 minutes or less.

Carroll, a 2012 graduate, facetiously mentioned that goal about 16 minutes into a speech that clocked in at 17 minutes, 2 minutes. The reference followed many expressions of gratitude, including a special one to Richmond residents for helping him and his family through a tragedy his family had experienced years ago.

Other topics included nine life lessons Carroll had learned from sports and his expression of pleasure at seeing his friends from his youth in Richmond and his friends from college “mesh like they’ve known each other for 10 years” over the weekend.

“I guess that’s how you know who you like, right – everybody gets along,” Carroll said.

Carroll concluded by congratulating the other members of the Hall of Fame class of 2023 and offering one more life lesson – or a “quick reminder,” as he put it.

“You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with,” he said. “So choose wisely.”

Presented by retired Richmond News sports editor Russ Green, Carroll was the first of six individual inductees in a ceremony emceed by Richmond High School Principal Brandon Quick, a Richmond alumnus and former Richmond coach. Dr. Tara Corwin (nee Dana), Steve Hitchcock, Mark Kilgore, Quinton Maxwell and Chantel Rimmer Thaxton completed the group.

Corwin, a standout girls tennis and basketball player in high school who played women’s tennis in college, sprinkled a few humorous observations about her athletic career into her speech. One of them was about her days spent hitting a tennis ball against a wall to hone her skills.

“My brother Jon and I were the best baseliners for hitting a ball against a wall because it never missed,” she cracked.

Hitchcock, a former coach and teacher at Richmond, was presented by Quick, whose introduction included his recollection of winning a 1994 district cross country title with Hitchcock as his coach. Hitchcock also discussed that championship, calling the meet where the Spartans won the title “one of the strangest meets I’ve ever been to.”

One reason it was a strange meet to Hitchcock was because of Richmond’s unexpected championship. Another was because of what happened heading back to Richmond from the meet site, Jesse James Park in Kearney.

“We got on the bus and got caught in a funeral procession going back into Kearney,” he said. “Strangely enough, it was Jesse James’ funeral procession, because that was the year they decided to dig him up and do DNA testing to see if he was really … (buried in Kearney).”

Thus, the team was “a little bit late getting home because Jesse James kind of held us up,” Hitchcock cracked.

Kilgore – a 1979 graduate who played NAIA football at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University, now an NCAA Division II program – worked some humor into his speech. In offering his gratitude, he thanked the induction committee for choosing him “and getting me in there before my kids decided to induct me into a nursing home,” drawing laughs.

Maxwell, a 2015 graduate who went on to play NCAA Division I FBS and NCAA Division II football, devoted part of his speech to the importance of resiliency. In high school, he heard some people say he wouldn’t achieve his dream of playing beyond high school, he recalled. But then, the summer before his senior season, he was summoned by his coach, Rob Bowers, who was talking to the head football coach at Ohio University. Maxwell received a scholarship offer.

“(I) committed shortly after, and the next June, I was off (to Ohio), chasing my dream,” he said.

Thaxton offered a round of gratitude during her speech. Those she thanked HALL OF FAME, included her high school coach Staci Maddux, who introduced her. Maddux, now assistant activities director and the Richmond Middle School assistant principal, also coached Thaxton’s two daughters, she recalled.

“Watching her coach them, too, was pretty awesome,” she said.

In addition, Richmond’s 2005 Class 1 state champion wrestling team was inducted. The members of that squad are “a great group,” said John Daniels, who coached the team.

OTHER HONORS

• The Miss Ethel Kirkpatrick Spartan Spirit Award went posthumously to Jeffrey “Puff” Adams. Adams, a onetime Ray County presiding commissioner who died in 2009, was known for supporting Richmond athletics in part through his concession stand work at events, according to Allen Dale, a former Ray County commissioner and friend of Adams’.

“I know the family thanks you for this award,” he said.

Courtney Sisson, Adams’ daughter, accepted the award on her father’s behalf.

“Anybody that knew Dad knew that he was a champion for all sports,” Sisson said.

• Quick announced recent graduate Haylee Weber as the recipient of the Richmond High School Athletic Hall of Fame Scholarship. As he told the crowd, two $1,000 scholarships are usually awarded each year – one to a male athlete, the other to a female – to students who plan to play interscholastic sports for an NCAA Division II program “or lower.” This year, however, only one scholarship was awarded because “we didn’t have a boy this year that qualified,” Quick said.

As the Richmond News reported recently, Weber has signed to play softball at Wayne (Neb.) State College, an NCAA Division II program. She’s not the only member of her family to play at the next level. Her sister Natalee also plays Division II softball, having finished her junior year at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph.