Franklin Community High School’s athletic complex will be renamed this summer for the man who helped shape it.
Noel Heminger served as athletic director from 1996 to 2010, and helped shape the athletic complex during the design process for the high school’s building and grounds. The new school opened in 2007.
Heminger’s contribution to the high school culminated with his career as athletic director. Heminger has a history of devotion to the high school, the city and local sports, athletic director Bill Doty said.
“He put a lot of time and energy into Franklin, the high school and the kids here. It is fitting for him to be remembered this way,” Doty said.
The Franklin Community Schools board of trustees voted unanimously to name the facility for Heminger.
Near the start of the fall athletic season, the new sign will go up identifying the facility as the Noel Heminger Athletic Complex. A plaque bearing a short review of Heminger’s career with the school will also be installed to give context to the name, Doty said.
Heminger is a 1968 graduate who played four sports for the Grizzly Cubs, eventually going on to play baseball for Eastern Illinois University.
After college, Heminger spent a year teaching and coaching in Effingham, Illinois before coming home to Franklin. His old basketball coach lured him back to the city with an assistant coach job offer, Heminger said.
From 1973 to 1995, Heminger coached baseball, basketball and football. Heminger was the head coach for Franklin’s baseball team for 27 years, from 1978 to 1995, he said.
When planning the new sports complex as athletic director, Heminger knew one thing was essential: having all the school’s sports fields on campus, he said.
During his years as the baseball coach, the team and visitors had to travel off site to play varsity games. Knowing the logistical challenge that off-site games pose, he traveled to other athletic complexes to see how they incorporated field space for all sports.
Heminger was shocked to hear last October that the school wanted to name the facility for him. Doty slipped in the news at the end of a meeting they had to talk shop, Heminger said.
“I lost it. I was overwhelmed, shocked if you will. It took me a few minutes to compose myself,” he said. “After 37 years (with the school) you look back — think about a flashback of me playing four sports in high school, teaching, coaching and athletic director.”
Doty decided to rename the complex now so Heminger and his family can enjoy the honor together, he said.
Though Heminger is retired, he is still living in the city and remains a big Franklin sports fan. But instead of working frantically on the sidelines, he sits in the bleachers and watches his grandkids take the field.
He is particularly in tune with the school’s baseball program. He watches his grandson and keeps tabs on his former players who are now coaches.
“I still go to a lot of the activities. It is in my blood,” Heminger said.
His wife, Ruth, also taught for Franklin schools, first at the middle school then at the high school for decades.
“This is a tremendous honor, not just for me, but more so for my family,” Heminger said. “They’ve been behind me all the way. If there’s one person who has helped the most, that is of course my wife.”
