MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award finalists

Courtesy of the MHSAA

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Jan. 25 – The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2012-13 school year have been announced.

The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year, will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament. Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Award, and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 576 scholarships have been awarded.

Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, there also will be two at-large honorees which also are part of the general judging process, may come from any classification, and are designated by their school at the time of entry.

Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification, and could have more than one finalist. Saline has five finalists this year, while Kalamazoo Hackett and Muskegon Mona Shores have three.  Eleven schools each had two finalists: Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, Comstock Park, Grosse Ile, Hillsdale Academy, Macomb Dakota, Okemos, Oxford, Portland, Rock Mid-Peninsula and Sand Creek.

Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.48, while the average of the application pool was 2.16 both within a tenth of last year’s rates in those categories. There are 59 three-plus sport participants in the finalist field, and all but one of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.

Of 409 schools which submitted applicants, 54 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,675 applications were received. All will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement.  Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the MHSAA Website at the following address: http://www.mhsaa.com/Schools/Students/MHSAAScholarAthleteAwardApplicants.aspx.

The applications were judged by a 66-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced on February 5; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced on February 12, and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced on February 29. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.

To honor the 32 Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class C Boys Basketball Final, March 23, at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.

To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale), and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions, submit two letters of recommendation and submit a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.

Farm Bureau Insurance, one of Michigan’s major insurers, has a statewide force of more than 400 agents serving more than 380,000 Michigan policyholders. Besides providing life, home, auto, farm, business and retirement insurance, the company also sponsors life-saving, real-time Doppler weather tracking systems in several Michigan communities.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools.  Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.

2012-13 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists

BOYS CLASS A

Marcus William Barnett, St Clair Shores Lake Shore

Connor James Bos, Holland

Andrew Camp, Midland Dow

Bryan Condra, Hartland

Jarrod Eaton, St. Johns

Tristan Eggenberger, Okemos

Alex Fauer, Macomb Dakota

Thomas Greidanus, Grand Rapids Christian

Kalvis Hornburg, Traverse City Central

Reed Hrynewich, Muskegon Mona Shores

Austin Jones, Bay City Central

Tyler Scott Kemerer, Saginaw Heritage

Anthony Lamus, Saline

Jacob J. Presto, Orchard Lake St Mary’s

Charles Robert Proctor, Bay City Western

David Read, Midland Dow

Harrison Schurr, Jenison

Jeremy Simon, Richland Gull Lake

Jonathan Sollish, Berkley

Thomas Spicuzza, Oxford

Jason Vander Horst, Milford

Kevin W. Walsh, Detroit Catholic Central

Pierce Watson, Lowell

Adam Whitener, Saline

GIRLS CLASS A

Kristy Allen, East Grand Rapids

Casie Ammerman, Ann Arbor Huron

Jacqueline Burke, Troy

Francesca Ciaramitaro, Grosse Pointe North

Lara Fawaz, Dearborn

Kayla Giese, Macomb Dakota

Morgan Alexandria Gilliam, North Farmington

Kristin Nicole Green, Saline

Sarah Gutknecht, Farmington

Kelly Hall, Saline

Hailey Hrynewich, Muskegon Mona Shores

Jessica Kalbfleisch, Traverse City West

Jillian Klein, Muskegon Mona Shores

Brooke Kovacic, Oxford

Teresa LaForest, St. Joseph

Elizabeth Michno, Macomb L’Anse Creuse North

Kelly Raterink, Zeeland East

Roxanne Raven, Okemos

Kerigan Riley, Livonia Churchill

Haley Schaafsma, Riverview

Carley Serowoky, Waterford Kettering

Kendall Tamler, Birmingham Seaholm

Reinie Thomas, Portage Central

Lindsay Walter, Saline

BOYS CLASS B

Michael Azzopardi, Detroit Country Day

Michael Broderick, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep

Brice Brown, Ionia

Michael Chickeral, Flat Rock

Thomas D. Finch, Otsego

Alec Robert Fisher, Battle Creek Harper Creek

Mark Gibson, Freeland

Patrick Gifford, Haslett

Andrew Hammond, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern

Michael Heinrich, Ludington

Luke James Hurst, Ovid-Elsie

Matthew Liu, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood

Adam Olszewski, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard

Scott Parkinson, Grayling

Keeton Thayer Ross, Grosse Ile

Ryan Schall, Comstock Park

GIRLS CLASS B

Brittany Beeler, Spring Lake

Ashley M. Carney, Jackson Northwest

Kelsi Caywood, Sturgis

Amanda Ciancio, Comstock Park

Morgan Kathleen Cinader, Goodrich

Mary Emington, Cadillac

Hannah C. Engle, Adrian

Nicole L. Green, Portland

Haley June Obetts, Wayland Union

Molly Oren, Hamilton

Catherine Polgar, Grosse Ile

Emily Quinn, Portland

Florence Ann Sobell, Croswell-Lexington

Anjali Sood, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard

Megan Taylor, Houghton Lake

Shelby Walsh, Livonia Ladywood

BOYS CLASS C

Brian Christopher Aldrich, Kalamazoo Hackett

Jesse Anderson, Union City

Kenner Broullire, Manistique

Jesse Corbat, Breckenridge

Parker Eldred, Blanchard Montabella

Ashwin Fujii, Ann Arbor Greenhills

Zachary A. Kerr, Saugatuck

Connor Lockman, Royal Oak Shrine Catholic

Mike O’Brien, Maple City-Glen Lake

Elliott Rains, Sand Creek

Quinton Rice, Marcellus

Luke Schaffner, Clinton

GIRLS CLASS C

Alyssa R. Briolat, Ubly

Kara Craig, Schoolcraft

Lindsey Dopheide, Lawton

Margaret Elizabeth Durbin, Boyne City

Macayla Geiner, Hart

Natalie Perry, Sand Creek

Theresa Pickell, Reese

Abigail Radomsky, Kalamazoo Hackett

Kylei Ratkowski, Bronson

Faith Schroeder, Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary

Grace Smith, Kalamazoo Hackett

Nicole Winter, Watervliet

BOYS CLASS D

Charles Barchett, Watervliet Grace Christian

Charles A. Blood, Hillsdale Academy

Brett Branstrom, Rock-Mid Peninsula

Matthew R. Katz, Tekonsha

Alexander G. Knight, Lake Linden-Hubbell

Francisco Jay Noyola, Lansing Christian

Joseph Samuel Paquette, Munising

Hunter Selby, Genesee Christian

GIRLS CLASS D

Anna Marie Couture, Posen

Sarah Cullip, St. Ignace

Erica LeClaire, Dollar Bay

Elyse Kathleen Lisznyai, Hillsdale Academy

Elena Victoria Luce, Mason County Eastern

Christina Smith, Gaylord St. Mary

Kari L. Steenwyk, Ellsworth

Krysta M. VanDamme, Rock-Mid Peninsula