Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Jan. 29, 2009 2009 Scholar-Athlete Finalists Announced EAST LANSING, Mich. –Jan. 29 – The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2008-09 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 post-season tournament. Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Award, and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. This year, 2,008 applications were received from 504 schools. Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, 6 female and 6 male; 8 scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, 4 female and 4 male; 6 scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, 3 female and 3 male; and 4 scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, 2 female and 2 male. In addition, there will also be 2 at-large honorees which are also 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 their classification, and could have more than one finalist. Twenty-three schools had two or more finalists this year. Berkley, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, Hillsdale each have three finalists; while Allen Park, Bangor John Glenn, Birmingham Brother Rice, Birmingham Groves, Carleton Airport, Cass City, Fraser, Garden City, Hillsdale Academy, Holland Christian, Marlette, Milan, Montague, North Branch, Plymouth, Rock Mid Peninsula, Ubly, Warren DeLaSalle, Wayland Union and White Lake Lakeland each have two finalists. Multiple-sport participation is again the norm for this year’s applicants, and even more so for the finalists. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.55, while the average of the application pool was 2.07. There are 69 three-sport participants in the finalist field. All but four of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors post-season tournaments are represented in the finalist field. The applications were judged by a 69-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools, from which the 120 finalists were selected. The selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced on February 17; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced on February 24; and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced on March 3. 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 Finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing on March 28. To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale), and have previously won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a post-season tournament. Students were also 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 over 400 agents serving more than 380,000 Michigan policyholders. Besides providing life, home auto, farm, business and retirement insurance, the company also sponsors lifesaving, real-time Doppler weather tracking systems in several Michigan communities. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,600 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- 2008-09 MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists Class A Boys Class A Girls Class B Boys Class B Girls Class C Boys Class D Boys C
lass D Girls -0- Farm Bureau Insurance and MEEMIC Insurance are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners |