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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-January 6, 2004
Contact: John Johnson, Andy Frushour or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Jan. 6 – The applicants for the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2003-04 school year have been announced.

The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year, honors 26 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, 2,520 applications were received from 428 schools, in the second 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. Okemos led the way in participation this year with 21 nominees. Canton, Davison and Livonia Churchill were next with 18 each; Birmingham Groves had 17 nominees; Warren Cousino and Canton Salem had 16 each; Bay City Central, Midland Dow, Milford, Portland and Trenton each had 15 applicants; and Ann Arbor Pioneer, Birmingham Seaholm, Flushing, Grand Rapids West Catholic, Hartland, Livonia Stevenson, Negaunee and Spring Lake each had 14 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 118 finalists and 26 scholarship recipients will be selected. Finalists will be announced in mid January. Fall sports scholarship recipients will be announced in early February; winter sports recipients in mid February; and spring sports winners will be announced in late February. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Web Site.

To honor the 26 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 27.

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 1,200 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.

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MEDIA ADVISORY -- A complete list of scholarship nominees and 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.

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