By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – Tim Smith had known about this for a while. He got a call during the last week of the 2014-15 school year to tell him he was going to be a member of the 12-person 2015 AISA Hall of Fame class, an honor he didn’t even know he was up for, and truly doesn’t know how he earned it.

“I don’t even know the process,” Smith said on Oct. 30. “I really don’t. Mrs. Collins, the secretary at the school, she’s the one that nominated me. I don’t even know what the requirements are. Obviously they’re not too high, because they let me in,” he added with a chuckle.

After the initial wave of understandable emotion, encompassing everything from shock, humble embarrassment, excitement and pride, passed back in May, Smith simply kept doing what he’s been doing at Cornerstone for the last 19 years, preparing for the next season.

Finally, some six months after he learned of his impending induction, the time came for the ceremony to take place. Smith and his family traveled to Montgomery on Oct. 24 to take part in the ceremony. The experience brought up a number of memories for Smith.

“It was very humbling, to be honest,” Smith said. “It makes you look back on what all has gone on. When they introduced me they talked about what all we’ve done here, and it made some memories pop up. Playing 137 games in a row on the road in basketball because we didn’t have a gym, playing the first year of varsity sports with no seniors because we didn’t have a senior class, laying the sod on the football and baseball fields. It was good to reflect.”

What made the experience the most special, according to Smith, was having his family there to share the moment with.

“Sitting up there on that stage and watching my family, watching my wife and kids enjoy themselves, to me that means a lot,” he said.

The AISA has a Hall of Fame class once every two years, per its website, and Smith’s inclusion in the group signifies what he has meant not just to Cornerstone over the greater part of the last two decades, but to the AISA as a whole over that span of time.