SAHS Hall of Fame Inductees

SAHS Hall of Fame

Saturday, August 4, 2018

St. Albans, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — The community of St. Albans honored 12 people Saturday that were inducted into the St. Albans High School Hall of Fame.

One of the inductees was a West Virginia native that appeared in TV shows and movies. Joe Chrest played Ted Wheeler, the father of Nancy and Will in the Netflix series "Stranger Things." Chrest graduated in 1981, he played football, basketball, golf and was in drama club. He attended Marshall University for his undergraduate degree. Chrest was in over 100 films and TV shows. He is also known for his role as Jonah Hill's father in the movies "21 Jump Street" and "22 Jump Street."

"You never know where your journey is going to end up, because I had no desire to go into this profession until my senior year here and I just took a class to get more comfortable in front of people, and it turned out that I like the acting the part of it, and the rest is history there," said Joe Chrest.

Chrest said he came up to St. Albans for the day after wrapping up a shoot on the Hugh Jackman film "Front Runner." The next new movie you can see him in will be "Assassination Nation." This fall, Chrest will appear in a TV show on USA Network called "The Purge," and he will be in season three of "Stranger Things." Season three comes out in the summer of 2019.
Another known inductee was Adam Williams. He graduated St. Albans in 2004 and is the son of Coach Tex Williams. Adam Williams played basketball for his father while at St. Albans High School. He played basketball at Marshall University. Following in his father's footsteps, he is now the head basketball coach at Salem University in Salem, W.V.
Other inductees included John Hicks (1965), David Kline (1975), Vance McCracken (1997), Dr. Mark Newbrough (1977), Doak Turner (1977), John Wehrle (1996), Mark Whittington (1977), and Heather White (1994).
200 people gathered for the event which happens every other year. The Hall of Fame started in 1994 and graduates must be a stand out athlete while in school or had a significant accomplishment in society. Committee member, Andy Spradling says people are nominated in , and a committee picks out 8 and 12 applicants. The next Hall of Fame ceremony will be held in 2020 and nominations will be accepted in the fall of 2019.