By Bruce Rolfe

A three year process replacing the Climax-Scotts Community Schools Hall of Fame plaques with new plaques, and a project updating banners in the high school gym has been completed at Climax-Scotts Jr./Sr. High School.

A Hall of Fame ceremony that will celebrate the renovated Hall of Fame wall and banner improvements inside the gymnasium will be held in either January or February, 2026. The ceremony will be called State Championship Night, recognizing individual state champions who have not been inducted into the C-S Community Schools Hall of Fame yet.

Former C-S Athletic Director and high school teacher/career coordinator Kevin Langs said Dennis VanMiddlesworth, who was C-S’ first individual state champion in the 880-yard run in 1971, state champion wrestlers Deryk Soule and Brian Davis, Alex Lodes, a two-time 100-meter dash state champion in 2012 and 2013, Justin Todd, a 2004 state champion cross country runner, the 2006 4x100-meter relay team consisting of Tyler Langs, Jordan Langs, Dallas Halasz and Scott Bogard, and the 2013 4x100-meter relay team consisting of Alex Lodes, Kirk Gibson, Sam Eshuis and Zach Nabozny, will all be inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2026.

The special night in 2026 will also celebrate an improvement project Langs started in 2019 updating the banners in the gym.

Langs said plaques from previous hall of fame ceremonies that were held before he was hired by the district in 1999, were not uniform.

He said the wall the hall of fame plaques hung on were exposed to water from roof leaks over the years and a number of pictures in the plaques were damaged from water.

“One day we had another heavy rain, and this hallway was flooded about three years ago,” Langs said referring to the hallway where the hall of fame plaques are located.

He said at that point current Athletic Director Tyler Langs and Maintenance Supervisor Scott Simmons determined all 46 hall of fame plaques needed to removed, “and they were a mess.”

After gym renovations were completed in 2019 following a bond proposal that was approved by C-S School District voters, Langs felt it would be a good time to start the process to replace the hall of fame plaques and start the banner project inside the gym.

“So now we’ve got to think, how are we going to redo this,” said Kevin.

Langs said C-S Superintendent Doug Newington gave him the O.K. to begin the hall of fame plaque replacement process as well as update the banners inside the gym. He emphasized his wife Kim and C-S Maintenance Department Manager Scott Simmons were a big part of the process.

“He’s (Simmons) been key. I usually bounce things off two people. Scott Simmons and Kim Langs,” said Langs.

Langs said because flat roofs can have leaking issues, he was especially interested in finding a way to hang the new hall of fame plaques in a manner that would protect the plaques if there was a future leak.

Langs said for approximately three years after Covid, he and his wife contacted a number of companies, gathering ideas for new hall of fame plaques as well as wall mounting ideas.

In their travels throughout the State of Michigan, Kevin and Kim visited other schools, taking photographs of hall of fame plaques and gathering information how the plaques were mounted on the wall.

The old plaques in the C-S Hall of Fame were wooden with a plastic like cover containing the inductee’s information and a picture.

Langs, also the Power Lifting coach, said he had a team of powerlifters compete at Flint Kearsley where he discovered the hall of fame plaques were mounted with hardware that allows the plaque to be mounted a short distance away from the wall. If there is a leak, the moisture would run down the wall behind the plaque without touching the plaque. He said the Flint Kearsley Hall of Fame plaques were also made out of clear acrylic with the photo of the hall of fame inductee sealed inside and information about the inductee written on the clear acrylic. Each plaque can also be easily removed from the wall.

He adds if a mistake is discovered or one of the plaques gets damaged, reproducing another plaque is inexpensive and can be done quickly.

He decided to go with the same type of plaque and the work started.

Langs emphasized it took many hours and others who helped, to complete the project.

While many of the original photos in the Hall of Fame plaques were salvaged, the couple had to contact the families of many hall of fame inductees to get a replacement photo if the original was ruined. In some cases the former C-S athletic director used photos out of C-S yearbooks.

Kevin said his wife spent many hours making sure the information and grammar on the plaques that were replaced was correct, noting the couple discovered two errors on the original plaques that were corrected.

Langs adds Stormie Cook, who works in the C-S Business Office, scanned many of the photos that were used for the plaques.

The new hall of fame plaques were put back on the wall in order by the year the hall of fame inductee or team was inducted.

Langs estimates the new plaques should last 50 years.

The section of the old gym floor with the Panther logo in the middle that was saved when the new gym was built and is also part of the hall of fame wall, was not damaged by water and remains in place.

A sign identifying the Climax-Scotts Community Schools Hall of Fame will be installed on the wall in the near future.

Langs said with C-S switching to the SCAA from the SJV years ago and other banners needing updated, he worked with his wife and Simmons on the banner improvement project.

He said the banner improvements would have been completed earlier but during Covid and the months that followed he ran into challenges getting information from companies that make the banners.

New banners identifying each member school in the SCAA have been placed on the south wall of the gym.

The north wall of the gym contains banners recognizing C-S teams that were semifinalists, finalists, or state champions.

“Your goal is to hang a banner. Can you hang a banner on the wall of champions,” said Langs, who notes the 2024-2025 wrestling team will get a banner for advancing to the Division 4 Team State Finals championship match recently.

League, district and regional championship banners containing the years the titles were won, are on the east and west sides of the gym. Boys banners are blue and girls banners are gold.

Similar to when they did research for hall of fame plaque ideas at other school districts, Langs and his wife also gathered ideas for the banner project at other schools. With teams changing leagues often, or new schools joining the league, Langs said he was looking for an inexpensive and easy option. He said Kal-Blue in Kalamazoo was able to produce the new banners at a good price and could provide replacement banners at an inexpensive price if there are schools that depart or new schools that join the league.

If any additions are needed, the banners are updated at the end of the school year.

Langs said visitors from other schools have often complimented the new banners, as well as the overall appearance of the school and gym. He adds local residents have noted the updated banners as well.

“Feedback has been positive,” said Langs, who said the Maintenance Department has done a good job keeping the facilities looking good and hanging banners that need to be updated.

Langs said eventually the school would like to have track and wrestling records that are noted on record boards outside the gym, placed inside the gym.

“It’s been a labor of love,” said Langs.

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