Creators of
elizsports.com
History of this Site
This site has been several years in the making. A joint effort by EHS alumni Rusty Melton and Eddie Pless began as an attempt to preserve local history. A few years after Eddie served as EHS Football Coach as
Rusty Melton
EHS Clss
of 1978
well as EHS Principal, he began collecting Elizabethton High School sports information and realized that a large amount of the important documentation was missing. Using old newspapers, sports archives, scrap books, and year books, Eddie began building a spreadsheet to identify the gaps. Unfortunately, much of the information was not available because year books were missing and other sources at the school could not be found.
Eddie contacted long time friend and local sports photographer Rusty Melton to assist in capturing old newspaper clippings and yearbook photos into a digital format where they could be enhanced and saved for later use.
Eddie Pless
EHS Class
of 1977
There was also a search to find missing yearbooks through local antique stores and local alumni. Several yearbooks were either donated, bought or borrowed and photos were collected.
After many hours of work, both together and separately, Eddie and Rusty began to fill in several of the blanks. Also, a few local alumni became aware of the efforts and allowed use of personal information such as newspaper articles and scrap books that their parents had kept. A fairly comprehensive database now exists.
The original plan for sharing the information was to publish a series of books that would be available for purchase with proceeds going to the EHS Athletic program. It was soon realized that the cost would be significant and the information would only be available to those able to purchase the books. Also, the information would probably sit somewhere on a bookshelf and seldomly accessed.
The idea then surfaced that a website may be the best solution. A web based database would allow all of the information to be available at any time to anyone on a computer or smart phone.
Since Rusty had previous experience in building a website (cartercountyhistory.com) he decided to take on the challenge of original design and creation of this site. Research began on existing local high school sports websites. Although several sites were found, it was apparent that the expectations for the EHS site were much higher than that of the sites visited. After hundreds of hours of design, site build and continuing research, the site, which is still in its infancy, is ready for initial launch.
The Future of this Site
As previously stated, there have been countless (thousands) hours already dedicated to the collection of information and the creation of this website. To date, more than 400 pages have been added. Sometimes there are dozens of hours invested in each page when you consider research, photo enhancement and page construction. All work done has been voluntarily and motivated by love and resect for the EHS sports program and it's alumni and fans. The ultimate goal is to preserve our sports history.
Moving forward, additions will be made to this site as time becomes available. Even with the data collected and photos ready, the creation of a new page can take several hours, so we ask for your patience. It will take many years to reach expectations.
There are still needs for the continuation of this site.
Although it will remain a free site and will be available to the public, its intention is to serve the local players, coaches, alumni and fans. If you like this site, we ask that you spread the word. We want the site to be accessed often and enjoyed by many.
Secondly, we are still in need of information. Most of the information as to names and scores came from the year book for that year. We currently have one set of year books (there are still a few years missing) in the EHS library and a second partial set offsite to be used for research. If you have any EHS year books that you would be willing to donate or sell, please contact us at elizsports@gmail.com. Also, old sports newspaper clippings, scrap books or programs can contain valuable information that we can use. Items such as these can be photographed and returned to you.
Finally, if you enjoy this website, have additional information, corrections, photos, ideas to share with us, or just want to say hello, we would love to hear from you. Shoot us an email and tell us how you like the site.