Scholarship Recipients Announced EAST LANSING, Mich. - Feb. 10 - The Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award program has selected its eleven scholarship recipients for the 2004 winter sports season. Farm Bureau Insurance, in its 15th year of sponsoring the award, will give a $1,000 college scholarship to each of the eleven winter sports winners. Farm Bureau will present a total of 27 scholarships, one for each sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Each of the scholarship recipients will be honored at halftime ceremonies of the Class C Boys Basketball final game at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing on March 27. Commemorative medals will be given to other finalists in recognition of their accomplishments. The Scholar-Athlete Award honorees for the 2004 winter sports season are: D.J. Mocini, Saugatuck, boys basketball; Daniel Case, Warren DeLaSalle, boys bowling; Sarah Jaeger, Livonia Ladywood, girls bowling; Courtney Kunik, Chesaning, girls competitive cheer; Desiree Lauricella, Jackson Northwest, girls gymnastics; Andrew Chima, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, ice hockey; Jordan Ostwald, Kingsford, boys skiing; Miranda Olds, Fenton, girls skiing; Bradley James Turek, Adrian, boys swimming and diving; Anna Nowak, Traverse City Central, girls volleyball; and Joshua V. Barlow, Saginaw Heritage, wrestling. Overviews of the scholarship recipients of the winter Scholar-Athlete Award follow. A quote from each recipient's essay is also included:
Essay Quote - �I understand that only a few teams get to win their last game played each season, but everyone can always display good sportsmanship. It is important to show good sportsmanship because it represents who you are and your values.� Essay Quote - �I believe that another important ingredient in sportsmanship is putting my team and the integrity of the sport ahead of any personal goals. Every team is only as good as its weakest player. It should be the responsibility of every team member to try his or her best and to fulfill their role as best as they can, whether they are the star or the last one on the bench.� Essay Quote - �Just like sports, life will not always result in triumph. We must learn from these losses. Thus sports have provided the fundamentals and experiences for how to deal with life. In the end it's not how much you have won or lost but the journey you took and the people you met along the way.�
Essay Quote - �Sportsmanship is the inner foundation, or the heart of educational athletics. Good sportsmanship taught in educational athletics is as important as any core subject taught in the classroom. This important skill helps develop good morals and values in young athletes, it contributes to the success of any program in and out of school, and it helps to build a better society to live in.�
Essay Quote � ��It doesn't matter if you win or lose; all that matters is that you had fun.' I cannot count how many times I have been told this. For as long as I can remember, adults have been assuring children that an important aspect of sports was enjoying the experience. I agree completely with this opinion; students should participate in athletics because they gain happiness from playing.� Essay Quote - �Sportsmanship teaches individuals to be good winners and more importantly, good losers. It helps to maintain a long-term perspective, and an understanding that winning and losing are very much temporary phenomena.�
Essay Quote - �I've always been involved in many sports and competitive events, and above all these have taught me many of the principles of sportsmanship that I hold today. Sportsmanship is not one quality but a bundle of qualities that an athlete must have to be considered a true competitor. The most important ingredients that make up sportsmanship are leadership, determination, integrity, and duty before self.� Essay Quote - �Simple acts of kindness, such as a smile or handshake, remind me that no matter how disappointed or angry you may be, by doing something nice for someone else you become a better person. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the handshake at the end of the competitions. Acknowledging a brilliant shot, goal, or point, accepting a hand after a fall, and being the best that you can be is what good sportsmanship is all about.� Essay Quote - �As an upper-class athlete and team captain, I recognize my responsibility to model positive sportsmanship for all my teammates, particularly those who are younger and more impressionable. They look up to me in the same way I viewed my senior captains when I began my high school career.� Essay Quote - �My basic premise is that good sportsmanship is only possible when it grows from a foundation built on healthy self-esteem. I believe that making every individual aware of her contribution to the team's success is the requisite building block for enhancing self-esteem.�
Essay Quote - �Good sportsmanship involves treating one another with respect. It leaves the spectators feeling better about themselves in seeing athletes respect their teammates and opponents.� Other winter finalists by sport for the Scholar-Athlete Award were: Boys Basketball � Patrick Darga, Suttons Bay ; Christopher Gentz, St. Clair Shores Lakeview; Scott Glaser, Adrian Lenawee Christian; Anthony Grech, Allen Park Cabrini; Wade Slavik, Fulton-Middleton; Kyle Way , Midland Bullock Creek. Boys Bowling � Zachery Olds, Traverse City Christian. Girls Bowling � Crystal Brownrigg, Freeland. Girls Competitive Cheer � Ariel Rebecca Haskins, Temperance Bedford . Girls Gymnastics-- Jacquelyn Jorgensen, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer. Ice Hockey - Josh Vehring, Hancock. Boys Skiing - Andrew Preston, Grand Rapids West Catholic. Girls Skiing - Sherri Wiseman, Marquette. Boys Swimming & Diving - Charles McClure IV, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook - Kingswood; Jacob James Wendling, St. Johns. Girls Volleyball - Bridgett Blough, St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic; Juliana Burrows, Grosse Pointe South; Mallory Egolf, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg; Katie Marie Gilley, Kingston ; Chayla Robles, Vermontville Maple Valley ; Kati Therriault, Holly. Wrestling - Brian O'Keefe, Muskegon Catholic Central; Jordan Schaefer, Canton Salem; Ciro Spigno, Orchard Lake St. Mary's; Bruce K. Wenzlick, New Lothrop. Students applying for the Scholar-Athlete Award must be carrying at least a 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average, and have previously won a letter in a varsity sport in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors a postseason tournament. Other requirements for the applicants were to show active participation in other school and community activities and produce an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics. Spring sports scholarship recipients will be announced on Feb. 17. Fall honorees were: Marie Brenner, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, girls basketball; Ben Smith, Athens, boys cross country; Angela Gaudette, Kingsford, girls cross country; Kyle James Haskell, Charlotte, football; Jake Tornga, Hudsonville, boys golf; Ryan Anderson, Grand Rapids Northview, boys soccer; Rebecca Sornson, Brighton, and Magda Stawikowska, Livonia Churchill, girls swimming & diving; Eleanor Ford, Ann Arbor Greenhills, girls tennis . The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,200 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.
-0- MEDIA ADVISORY -- A complete list of scholarship nominees and finalists for the Scholar-Athlete Award can be found on the Services page MHSAA Web Site. Information about scholarship recipients will be posted on the MHSAA Web Site according to the schedule listed in this release, and media in the markets of the scholarship recipients will be notified by fax the day before the public announcement. For more information about Farm Bureau Insurance, contact Luke Schafer, Public Relations Manager, at 517.323.7000. You can download the MHSAA's Scholar-Athlete Award logo from the MHSAA Web Site � click on Forms & Graphics off the home page. RL04-060 |