Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame announces Class of 2016

The Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame announced Tuesday the five people who will make up the Class of 2016.

The five are Tim Walton, Speedy Gilstrap, Jimmy Blanchard, Cecil Cheves and Pam Carter.

Walton played quarterback at Carver High. He led the Tigers to one of their biggest wins, an upset of powerhouse Valdosta in the 1987 state quarterfinals.

He went on to play defensive back at Ohio State for four seasons, He was a co-captain his senior season, in which the Buckeyes tied Wisconsin for the Big Ten title.

Walton began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green in 1995. He also made stops at Memphis, Syracuse, LSU and Miami before leaving in 2009 for the Detroit Lions of the NFL.

Walton is currently the secondary/cornerbacks coach for the New York Giants.

Gilstrap was a two-sport standout -- basketball and tennis -- at Columbus High.

He earned Ledger-Enquirer All-Bi-City honors in basketball in both his junior and senior seasons at Columbus High.

He went on to become an All-American in tennis at Columbus State, finishing as a semifinalist in singles and a finalist in doubles in the NAIA national tournament. He trasferred to Alabama, where he won the SEC singles and doubles title as a senior.

Gilstrap won 35 tournaments as a professional tennis player.

He also coached basketball at Brookstone and Spencer.

Blanchard was part of three high school state championship golf teams, two at Valdosta High (1956-57) and one at Columbus High (1958).

He went on to play on the Georgia freshman team. Blanchard lettered on the Georgia varsity team as a sophomore and junior.

Cheves has competed in the Chicago Marathon, the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon as well as the Ironman World Championship.

Based on his performance at the Ironman, he was selected to represent the U.S. in the ITU World Championships in 2014.

Carter works with the Georgia High School Association and serves as the state cheerleading championships coordinator. Those championships are held in Columbus each November.

As the coordinator, she develops the training programs for both officials and coaches in the state, oversees the writing of all training materials.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame announces Class of 2016 ."