Sports Column: It’s time to submit nominations for VWSD Hall of Fame

Published 4:00 am Monday, June 23, 2025

The third week of September is going to be a big one for high school sports in Warren County.

Vicksburg High and Warren Central will renew their rivalry in football on Sept. 19, and it’ll have all the pomp and pageantry of the Red Carpet Bowl behind it as the long-running bowl game undergoes its latest evolution.

Several other related events are also planned for that week, with the biggest being the induction ceremony for the Vicksburg Warren School District’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

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The Hall of Fame is one of the great modern additions to Warren County’s sports tradition. Since it was started in 2016 a total of 60 athletes and coaches have been inducted from across seven sports.

And while the induction ceremony is still three months away, the Class of 2025 is forming up now. The VWSD has opened the nomination process to the public until July 7. It will gather the list and then a selection committee will trim it down to six or seven for this year’s class.

Application forms can be scanned and emailed to athletic department secretary Priscilla Berry at pberry@vwsd.org; dropped off at the VWSD Athletics Office at 1500 Mission 66; or mailed to the address listed on the nomination form. Forms are available from the VWSD athletic office.

Applications should include information about the nominee and their accomplishments, and there are some guidelines. Athletes must have participated in a sport for at least two years at Vicksburg High or Warren Central. Coaches must have coached for at least five years at a VWSD school, for 10 years in their sport, and be out of coaching for at least five years.

Athletes must also have been part of a class that graduated at least 15 years prior to induction — that would be 2010 for the Class of 2025 — and after 1970.

One of the interesting things in the past two years, however, has been the inclusion of “legacy” inductees from schools that existed prior to 1970. That has cracked the door for standouts from the county’s long-ago high schools like Temple, Culkin, Redwood, Jett, Cooper and Carr Central to be recognized.

It’s hard to recognize anyone, however, without your help. Like any tradition, the VWSD Hall of Fame is dependent on people being invested and involved. So get your forms, do your homework, and get those nominations submitted by July 7. It — and September — will be here before we know it.

Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post.He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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