The Midwest Regional girls' winner of the 2010-11 MaxPreps Citizen Athlete award presented by the Army National Guard was Shelby Hale from Barat Academy, and a member of Barat's first graduating class. Barat Academy, located in Dardenne Praire, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, is a new school, having been built in 2007.
On Wednesday, June 1st, Shelby was honored during a school wide sports awards banquet. The Barat Academy gymnasium was decorated with sports gear and paraphernalia to commemorate the occasion. Eager students and proud families filed in to the school gymnasium for the awards banquet. Athletic Director David German started the presentation by recapping all of the sports team's seasons and their outstanding results. Shortly afterwards, David turned the presentation over to MaxPreps representative Alisa Dancer. Alisa gave a brief background on the history of the MaxPreps Citizen Athlete award and described the award's prestige. Dancer explained how Shelby was only 1 of 10 students across the country to receive the honor and was chosen from a pool of 1,300 nominations. Alisa then introduced Missouri Army National Guardsman Sergeant First Class John Hays. SFC Hays spoke very highly of Shelby and elaborated on her extraordinary accomplishments. SFC Hays specifically listed a number of community service accomplishments and then presented her with a plaque to which the crowd gave Shelby a standing ovation. MaxPreps representative Alisa Dancer then presented a scholarship check to Shelby in the amount of $2,500.
SFC Hays said it best when he mentioned that "it is great to have young individuals, like Shelby, that have given so much to their communities and how proud he was to be able to honor her." Congratulations Shelby and best wishes to you in the future!
For more information on the Citizen Athlete program, including the nine other recipients, please visit www.MaxPreps.com/CitizenAthlete.
