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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 4, 2002
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Jan. 4 - The applicants for the Michigan
High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for
the 2001-02 school year have been announced.
The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since
the 1989-90 school year, honors 24 individuals, one in each sport
in which the Association sponsors a post-season tournament. Farm
Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Award, and presents
a $1,000 scholarship in each sport.
This year, 2,780 applications were received from 469 schools,
the third-highest total ever. In addition, a record 1,328 student-athletes
will be recognized for having met the eligibility criteria for
the award, even though they were not a scholarship nominee from
their school. All will be presented with certificates commemorating
their achievement. The overall number of students recognized
in this program this year is an all-time high of 4,108, topping
the number of 4,062 during 1999-00.
A complete list of the applicants and additional qualifiers may
be viewed on the MHSAA Web Site at the following address: http://www.mhsaa.com/services/sahome.html
Every MHSAA member high school is allowed to select one student-athlete
to represent it in each sport, and an individual may be nominated
in more than one sport. Ann Arbor Huron led the way in participation
this year with 21 nominees. East Lansing and Pinckney each had
18 applicants; Birmingham Seaholm, Flint Powers Catholic, Okemos,
Plymouth Salem and St. Clair each had 17; Bay City Central, Caro,
Grosse Pointe South, Midland Dow, St. Johns and Troy each had
16; and Ann Arbor Pioneer, Fenton, Goodrich, Monroe Jefferson,
Sterling Heights Stevenson and Temperance Bedford each had 15
applicants.
The applications will be judged next week by an 80-member committee
of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators
and board members from MHSAA member schools, from which the 114
finalists and 24 scholarship recipients were selected. Finalists
will be announced on January 11. Fall sports scholarship recipients
will be announced on February 6; winter sports recipients on
February on February 13; and spring sports winners will be announced
on February 20. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Web
Site.
To honor the 24 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 23.
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 the sport in which they are applying.
Students were also asked to shown involvement in other school
and community activities, submit two letters of recommendation
and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational
athletics.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary
membership by over 1,300 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.
MEDIA ADVISORY -- A complete list of scholarship nominees
and additional qualifiers for the Scholar-Athlete Award can be
found on the MHSAA Web Site. Please scan that list for the names
of student-athletes from your area. Information about finalists
and 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.
Farm Bureau Insurance is a year-round MHSAA Corporate Partner