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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-January 9, 2003
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com
Scholar-Athlete Award
Applicants Announced
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Jan. 9 - The applicants for the Michigan
High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for
the 2002-03 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, 2,584 applications were received from 442 schools,
in the first year that application materials were distributed
exclusively on the MHSAA Web site and on a CD-ROM sent to school
athletic administrators in the Fall. All will be presented with
certificates commemorating their achievement. A complete list
of the applicants 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. Livonia Stevenson led the way in participation
this year with 21 nominees. Livonia Churchill, Midland Dow and
Plymouth Canton were next with 19 each; Birmingham Seaholm and
Okemos each had 18 applicants; Birmingham Groves and Algonac
each had 17; Ann Arbor Huron, Flint Powers Catholic, Grosse Pointe
North, Jenison, Lansing Waverly and Spring Lake each had 16;
and Goodrich, Grosse Ile, Macomb L'Anse Creuse North, North Farmington
and Redford Union each had 15 applicants.
The applications will be judged next week by a 70-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 will be selected. Finalists
will be announced on January 15. Fall sports scholarship recipients
will be announced on February 4; winter sports recipients on
February 11; and spring sports winners will be announced on February
18. 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.
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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 and MEEMIC Insurance
are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners
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