Ten area high school students have received the Augusta Sports Council’s GAMES Scholarships.
Nominated student-athletes from Richmond, Columbia, Burke, McDuffie, Wilkes, Warren and Aiken counties received $1,000 scholarships based on their performance in the classroom, their participation in athletic programs and their positive impact on their community, according to a news release.
This year’s recipients include Reese Basinger, Evans High School; Layla Bland, Jonah Weinstein and Ashley Marshall, all of Greenbrier High School; Austin Brown, North Augusta High School; Hannah Dickson, South Aiken High School; Luke Hanna, Aiken High School; Felix Scheyer, Academy of Richmond County; Eli Scott, Westminster Schools of Augusta; and Quincy Wells, Fox Creek High School.
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The Augusta Sports Council has awarded more than $68,000 in college scholarships to 58 graduating high school student athletes in the Augusta area since the program began, the news release said. “The GAMES Scholarship began in 2011 as part of the Augusta Sports Council’s annual G.A.M.E.S. Awards which was an annual program created to highlight outstanding amateur athletes who represented a broad spectrum of sports disciplines in the area,” the news release said.
At one time, the awards were given at a banquet, but the format has changed over the years, according to Michelle Naval, the sports council’s CEO in a March 24 article in The Augusta Press.
They are announced through what Naval called a “Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes” type of approach — meaning the student-athlete is surprised with the help of a coach, teacher or parent. They’ve made the scholarship announcements at school or at a school-related banquet or honors’ program.
