After months of work and planning, the long-awaited Durant Schools Athletic Hall of Fame is just around the corner.

The DISD school board stamped its approval on the proposal during Monday's meeting and in the process set the ball rolling toward an anticipated inaugural class of inductees that are tentatively scheduled to be enshrined in February.

“We've put together a group that researched and studied the idea for quite some time,” Durant Superintendent Dr. Terry James said. “They checked into the process utilized by other schools and incorporated many of those ideas into the plan that we took to the board on Monday. I'd like to personally thank Paul Wiley, Harold Harmon and Tony Tubbs for their hard work in helping us put together the award criteria.

“People around town have talked about the possibility of Durant having its own Athletic Hall of Fame, much like the current Bryan County Athletic Hall of Fame, and we are excited to continue the efforts for that to come to fruition in the near future.”

The next step in the process is getting nominees for the prestigious honor, which will be broken down into four categories: student-athlete, coach, team of distinction and community leader.

All individual nominees must be a graduate of the Durant school district and have been out of school at least five years prior to selection. Those individuals must have distinguished himself or herself as an exceptional athlete and made a positive impact on the team or sport which he or she participated.

Coaching nominees must have demonstrated an unusually high degree of success relative to a particular sport, but won't be judged on win-loss record alone. They preferably should have coached the same sport for more than five full seasons and not left the sport or school district for reasons detrimental to the image of the district. They also must have left the coaching position under consideration at least five years prior to selection.

Team nominees will be considered on the basis of state postseason advancement, win-loss record and other notable accomplishments. All DHS state championship squads will be automatically nominated five years after that achievement.

Community leader nominees should be individuals that have made significant contributions to promoting Durant athletic programs as well as providing long periods of outstanding support and service to those same programs.

All nominations must include the years of participation as well as sport and notable accomplishment or statistical information (if available).

The inaugural Durant Athletic Hall of Fame class will number 10 with five inductees being included each of the following four years. Induction ceremonies will take place at a banquet ceremony in early February each year with those honored being prominently recognized in a yet to be determined location at Durant High School.

Nomination forms are available at the Durant Independent School District central office at the corner of Washington and Waco Street as well as on-line at www.durantisd.org. All eligible nominees will be considered by the Hall of Fame selection committee and will remain nominated for consideration for future classes if not selected.

Deadline for submitting nominations is Nov. 15.