Luke Hallmark has given his career, and his heart, to high school athletics. He credits his background in coaching to the road that has led him to where he is now, the Superintendent of Education for Marengo County Schools, a position he has held since 2000.

He stepped away from coaching in 1997 to become the principal at Greensboro West Elementary School, but he never stepped away from athletics. Hes a longtime member of the Alabama High School Athletics Associations Central Board of Control. Since 1988 he has been officiating high school basketball, and, since 1997, high school baseball.

He does it all because he enjoys it. Last Thursday he got a phone call from AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese that shows the role hes played is respected and appreciated. Savarese called to tell him hed been selected into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

I was taken aback, said Hallmark. Ive always loved sports. A lot of times you dont think about things like that (getting into the Hall of Fame) because you love sports so much. Whether youre an official, or whether youre coach, or whether youre an administrator, youre doing something that you have a passion for and youre doing something that you really love.

Sports have opened up so many doors for me from high school to playing junior college ball. The contacts Ive made, the people, the friendships, the kids. Its just been really, really a wonderful experience for me.

Hallmark is one of 12 who will be inducted as the Class of 2020 at a banquet that will be held on March 16 at the Montgomery Renaissance Hotel and Spa Convention Center. He is going in in the category of administrator. Joining him will be Carrol Cox, Steve Mask and Fred Yancey, all in the football coaching category; Tommy Lewis and Yvonne Simmons, basketball coaches; track coaches Aaron Goode and Keith Wilemon; wrestling coach Joseph Desaro; soccer coach Rick Grammar; wrestling official Toney Pugh and coach/administrator Samuel Hamp Lyon who goes in in the category of old timer.

Hallmark, 62, lives in Demopolis now but grew up in Uniontown where he was a basketball and football player at Uniontown High School, though he graduated from Perry Christian High School in Marion in 1975. He went on to Marion Military Institute and played two years of junior college basketball. He received his bachelors degree from Auburn in 1980, a Masters of Education degree from what was then Livingston University but is now the University of West Alabama, and earned an Educational Specialist degree from the University of Montevallo.

His first coaching job came at Southern Academy in Greensboro. His coaching career included being the prep coach at Marion Military Institute, and, from there to Demopolis High School, first as an assistant before he was elevated to head basketball coach where his players included 1st round NBA draft pick Theo Ratliff.

It was just a thrill for me to coach and to have great kids around me, Hallmark said.

His coaching background, he said, has been a plus in his role on the AHSAA Board of Control.

It helps a lot. I think you can have a better understanding of situations that may occur. It allows you to work closely with some of these sports committees, and, with me having a finance degree, I also serve on the finance committee of the athletic association. Weve been able to do some really nice things with our finances.

March is a long way away--he jokes that by then I may even forget Im in it. I may have to put a string on my finger to remind me--but Hallmark knows the night of his induction will be memorable. Hes got many years to go but already he knows its been a career well-spent.

I have thoroughly enjoyed athletics, he said. I like the competition. I like the teamwork part of it. I like the bonding. I like the people. There is so much that goes with athletics. Even in the school business, a lot of times when your schools are having good seasons in a particular sport the environments are different. Its just a lot more excitement at the schools and even in the communities. On a Tuesday or a Friday night in a packed basketball gym, just people everywhere watching high school basketball--its just fun. Its special.

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SPORTING LIFE: Luke Hallmark will be inducted into AHSAA - Tuscaloosa News