Eleven new names have been added to the list since The Times-Gazette originally announced its nominees last week for the 2018 Highland County-Scholar Athlete Award, bringing the total number of senior students-athletes nominated to 39.
The new names on the list include: Blake Adams, Fairfield; Kyia Beacraft, Whiteoak; Dakota Irvin, McClain, Hayley McConnaughey, Lynchburg-Clay; Eric McLaughlin, Lynchburg-Clay; Casey Nace, Whiteoak; Justin Osborne, McClain; Kendall Pollard, McClain; Rachel Tracy, Hillsboro Christian Academy; Caleb West, Whiteoak; and Trever Yeager, Whiteoak.
They all will be honored at a dinner-banquet planned for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 21 at the Ponderosa Banquet Center in Hillsboro, where an overall winner will be named and receive a $200 scholarship and plaque that goes with the award.
Those previously announced as nominees, and their schools, include:
Hillsboro – Deegan Boris, Izzy Bourne, Breanne Fender, Austin Goolsby, Britton Haines, Riley Moberly, Abby Myers, Matthew Ryan, Justin Scott, Natalie Sullivan, Marshall Ward, Wyatt Wilkin and Emily Young.
McClain – Elissa Grate, Emily Parker, Heidi Rolfe, Hannah Smith, Avery Voss and Kyle Wyatt.
Fairfield – Andrew Davis, Matthew Mangus, Carli Reiber, Grace Shope and Garrett Spargur.
Lynchburg-Clay – Makayla Creed, Blake Croy, Austin Hilt and Angela McLaughlin.
Each varsity coach in Highland County was given an opportunity to nominate one student/athlete for each sport they coached for the honor. The nominees must have a cumulative high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher and have lettered in at least one sport their senior year. The nominees are judged on their scholastic and athletic accomplishments, as well as their contributions to their community.
The event is open to the public. All the nominees, the coaches that nominated them, and four people being inducted into The Times-Gazette Highland County Athletic Hall of Fame the same evening will be the guests of the newspaper at the banquet. Tickets for everyone else are $16 and can be reserved by calling Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or emailing [email protected].
If there is a coach who has nominated someone that for some reason does not appear on the above lists, please contact Jeff Gilliland.
The Hall of Fame inductees this year are the late Gerald “Red” Armstrong, a 1923 graduate of McClain High School; Kay Cummings, a 1982 graduate of Fairfield High School; the late Willard Parr Jr., a 1963 graduate of Hillsboro High School; and Mike Willson, a 1955 graduate of Hillsboro High School.
This year marks the ninth year in a row The Times-Gazette has honored scholar-athletes and Hall of Fame inductees.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or [email protected].
