MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award

Tracking the 2021-22 Award
Class A
Class B
Class C & D
Finalists
Applicants

Go to the MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Application Online Form >>>

For 33 years, the MHSAA and Farm Bureau Insurance have honored the best student-athletes in Michigan. Again this year they will award 32 students with $2,000 scholarships based on achievement and leadership in athletics and activities, as well as responses to short-answer and essay questions. In many ways, this is the most prestigious honor the MHSAA awards annually.

AM I ELIGIBLE TO APPLY?
Seniors with an unrounded 3.50 or better GPA who have an earned a varsity letter in an MHSAA-sponsored sport are eligible to apply.

HOW DO I APPLY?

  1. Go to mhsaa.com/scholarship
  2. Create an account. Be sure to verify your email address. 
  3. Ask your school athletic director for the Access Code
  4. Click the blue “Check Eligibility” button, enter the Access Code and start the application

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE APPLICATION?

  1. Applicant information
  2. List of athletic teams and extra-curricular activities, focusing on achievement and leadership positions
  3. Two short-answer questions about how athletics and other activities have prepared you for life after high school
  4. 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics
  5. Two letters of recommendation

HOW ARE LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION SUBMITTED?
You have two options for submitting your two letters of recommendation.

  1. You can upload the two letters yourself. 
  2. You can enter email addresses for the two recommenders, and they will be sent simple instructions for adding their letters to your account.

WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE?
The deadline is Friday, Dec. 3, at 4:00 p.m. 120 Finalists will be announced in late January and the 32 winners will be announced throughout February. 


IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, Contact Paige Winne at the MHSAA: [email protected] or 517-332-5046.

Helpful Hints for Applicants

THIS IS AN ONLINE APPLICATION

  • Go to mhsaa.com/scholarship to create an account and start the process. 
  • Contact your school’s athletic director to get an Access Code. You must have this code to continue the process. Please note the school is limited in the number of students that can apply for the award.
  • The online application and the process should seem very intuitive. Email notifications will be sent to you throughout the process.
  • You can start the application, fill out part of it, and then return later to pick up where you left off. Be sure you come back to submit the application prior to the deadline on Dec. 3. Decide if you are going to upload letters of recommendation yourself, or if you will invite recommenders to write a letter and upload themselves.
  • VERY IMPORTANT: If you have your recommenders upload themselves, you must log back into the system and click “Mark as Complete” under the “Request Letters of Recommendation” section.
  • When you are finished with the Application Form and Letters of Recommendation, click on the blue “Review and Submit” button. After reviewing, click “Submit Your Application” to finish the application process.

DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE

  • There are multiple parts to the application, so don't get caught procrastinating.
  • Make contact with the two people who will write your letters of recommendation, and give them plenty of time to submit a great letter on your behalf.
  • Write, edit, and re-write your essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics. 500-words are the maximum for this essay. 

KNOW HOW THE APPLICATIONS ARE JUDGED

  • Essay (40%): Be creative in telling the judges why sportsmanship is important to educational athletics. VERY IMPORTANT: the judges will be reading dozens of essays - make yours stand out! Tell the judges a personal story about sportsmanship; don't give them the Webster's definition of sportsmanship.
  • Extra-Curricular Activities Form (30%): Focus on significant leadership experiences and significant athletic achievements and academic awards won.  Judges are looking for quality of experiences, not quantity of experiences.
  • Short-Answer Questions (20%): Use this space to tell us more about how you've personally benefited by staying active – both with school sports and with outside school activities.  These are not throw-away questions, consider them mini-essays.
  • Letters of Recommendation (10%): Approach coaches, teachers, school administrators, youth group leaders or others in your community to have them write recommendation letters so the judges can learn a little bit more about you.

WHO WINS THE AWARD?
Thirty-two (32) student-athletes will win a $2,000 scholarship. A graduated scale based on MHSAA enrollment classification will be used to allocate the first 30 scholarships. In Class A, 6 boys and 6 girls will be selected as winners. 4 boys and 4 girls from Class B schools will be selected as scholarship recipients, while 3 boys and 3 girls in Class C and 2 boys and 2 girls from Class D schools will receive the $2,000 scholarship. The last 2 at-large scholarships are designated for minority candidates and will be chosen after the first 30 scholarship recipients have been selected.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, Contact Paige Winne at the MHSAA: [email protected] or 517-332-5046.

 

 

sa2019

Class of 2019

Notes for Administrators

All steps of the Scholar-Athlete Award process will be online without any paperwork. Students will fill out the entire application online, including athletic and other extra-curricular experiences, short-answer questions and essays. Students have the choice of uploading letters of recommendation or letting recommenders upload themselves. Finally, our judges will also be reviewing and scoring applications online.

Otherwise, the Scholar-Athlete Award program is the same as in past years. We ask for the same background info, short-answer questions and essays, and we score applications using the same point system as in past years.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Seniors with an unrounded 3.50 or better GPA who have earned a varsity letter in an MHSAA-sponsored sport are eligible to apply.

HOW MANY STUDENTS CAN APPLY?
Schools are limited to the number of students who will be considered for the award. Class A schools can nominate 6 boys and 6 girls, Class B can nominate 4 boys and 4 girls, Class C can nominate 3 boys and 3 girls and Class D can nominate 2 boys and 2 girls.

Just like in past years, you can have more students go through the application process. After the deadline and prior to judging, we will look at the list of completed applications and search for schools which have more applicants than allowed. We will contact the athletic director and ask him/her which applications we should consider for the award. ALL applicants, even those who are not considered for the award, will be recognized with a certificate.

HOW DO STUDENTS APPLY?

  1. Direct students to mhsaa.com/scholarship to start the application process.
  2. Once there, students will create an account.
  3. Finally, students will need to enter the Access Code provided to you by the MHSAA.

At this point students can start to fill out the different parts of the application. If they leave the application, they will pick up where they left off when they return. Students also need two letters of recommendation. Students can upload PDFs or Word docs themselves, or they can use the system to have recommenders upload recommendations themselves.

HOW SHOULD I COACH MY STUDENTS?
This document gives tips to students for completing the application.

HOW MANY STUDENTS WILL WIN, AND WHEN WILL THEY BE ANNOUNCED?
We will select 32 total winners -- 6 boys and 6 girls from Class A, 4 boys and 4 girls from Class B, 3 boys and 3 girls from Class C and 2 boys and 2 girls from Class D, as well as 2 at-large winners for minority applicants. The winners will be announced throughout February, and honored during the Boys Basketball Finals.

WHAT IS THE DEADLINE?
The deadline is December 3 at 4:00 p.m. All parts of the application must be completed at this time.

Official Scholar-Athlete Award Rules >>>

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, Contact Paige Winne at the MHSAA: [email protected] or 517-332-5046.

 

 

Where Are They Now?

We need your help! The MHSAA is starting a “Where Are They Now?” program to highlight past winners of its Scholar-Athlete Award. Since it began in 1990, 608 student-athletes have won this award, and we could use your assistance in finding these great student-athletes of years past.

The first step in this process is to find a current email and/or mailing address for each of the past winners. If you have contact information for anyone on this list of All-Time Scholar-Athlete Winners, please send it to Andy Frushour at [email protected].

Starting in mid-January, we will start contacting these folks directly and have them fill out a short questionnaire. Our goal is to feature these winners in our souvenir programs, Benchmarks, and on our website, as well as bringing a few past winners back to our Boys Basketball Finals every year.

For more information, please contact Andy Frushour at the MHSAA.

Where Are They Now?
25 Years Ago: Jennifer Bissell Forrest, Vestaburg HS; Scott Kieser, Bay City Western HS
20 Years Ago: Kiran Khanuja Taylor, East Lansing HS
15 Years Ago: Leslie Barnhart Mailloux, Ogemaw Heights HS
10 Years Ago: Mike Goorhouse, Holland Christian HS
5 Years Ago: Abigail Cohen, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood HS

Past Winners