Ormond, Healy earn Scholar Athlete honors
FOR HUB CITY TIMES
STEVENS POINT – Two central Wisconsin student athletes have been selected as finalists to receive the prestigious 2023 Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s (WIAA) Statewide Scholar Athlete Award, presented by We Energies Foundation and Wisconsin Public Service Foundation. They are Jackson Ormond, Stratford High School and Caden Healy, Colby High School.
Ormond is a ten-time letter winner at Stratford in football, wrestling and baseball, and helped the Tigers win the 2022 WIAA Division 6 state football championship. The four-time Marawood All Conference honoree also won an individual wrestling sectional championship. Jackson is the tenth student from Stratford to win a Scholar Athlete Award, and the first since Max Schwabe in 2020.
Another award goes to Caden Healy of Colby High School, who has earned eight varsity letters in football, basketball and track. Healy helped the Hornets win the 2021 WIAA Division 6 state football championship and earned Marawood Conference MVP football honors. The five-time all-conference selection also has a 4.0 grade point average. Caden is just the second Colby student-athlete to receive a Scholar Athlete Award, joining Hannah Mueller, who earned this honor in 2009.
All told, 16 senior girls and 16 senior boys have been selected as finalists to receive the 2023 Scholar Athlete Award. More than 1,181 Scholar Athlete finalists have been recognized since the program began in 1984. To determine the top 32 finalists, four boys and four girls were selected (based on both athletic and academic achievement) from each of the four WIAA divisions.
“Each of these remarkable student athletes has excelled in academics and athletics,” said Tom Shafranski, Assistant Director of the WIAA. “Fifteen of this year’s 32 WIAA Scholar Athlete finalists have a grade point average of 4.0 to date. All 32 scholar athlete finalists have already earned a total of 294 varsity letters during their first 3-1/2 years of high school. That’s an average of 9 letters per athlete, and we have not yet completed our spring sports season.”
This year more than 841 seniors were nominated for the 2023 WIAA Scholar Athlete Award by 454 high schools throughout the state. The 2023 WIAA Scholar Athlete Finalists will be recognized at an awards ceremony Sunday, May 7 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Wausau.