Finalists Announced for 2025-26 MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Awards
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 20, 2026
The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Awards for the 2025-26 school year, presented by Farm Bureau Insurance, have been announced.
The program, in its 37th year, has recognized student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year and again this winter will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament.
Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Awards and will present a $2,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 991 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification and could have more than one finalist. This year, 95 schools have a finalist, with Birmingham Groves and Flint Powers Catholic atop the list with three apiece. Twenty-one schools have two finalists: Ann Arbor Greenhills, Bay City Central, Birch Run, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Corunna, Detroit Country Day, Frankenmuth, Grand Ledge, Holland, Holland West Ottawa, Midland Dow, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, Negaunee, Northville, Okemos, Plymouth, Royal Oak, White Lake Lakeland and Yale.
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 3.02, up from 2.88 a year ago. There also are 82 three-plus sport participants in the finalists field, up from 75 in 2024-25, and all 31 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented — including field hockey and boys volleyball, which joined the MHSAA's championship lineup this school year for the first time.
Of 426 schools which submitted applicants, 20 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,438 applications were received. All applicants will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete Award information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the Scholar-Athlete Award page.
The applications were judged by a 72-member committee of coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 3, Class B scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 10 and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 17. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale) and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions and submit two letters of recommendation and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services — life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more — protecting nearly 500,000 Michigan policyholders.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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 more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
2025-26 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists
GIRLS CLASS A
Reese Beauleaux, Adrian
Asia Shi, Ann Arbor Huron
Lilamae Frank, Battle Creek Lakeview
Brynn Corrion, Bay City Central
Bella Matthews, Bay City Central
Lydia Binelli, Berkley
Jacey Roy, Birmingham Groves
Julia Yoder, Birmingham Groves
Ella Griffin, Bloomfield Hills
Sydney Behnke, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Justine Casey, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Laurin M. Edwards, Detroit Cass Tech
Grace Kim, Farmington Hills Mercy
Gracelynn Olson, Fruitport
Jade Queen, Grand Ledge
Maggie Telgenhof, Holland
Maggie Rothstein, Holland West Ottawa
Mattie Thompson, Okemos
Veda Keshavamurthy, Plymouth
Ava Mac Donald, Rochester Adams
Jillian Hayes, Saline
Arabella Glass, Waterford Kettering
Anna Linen, White Lake Lakeland
Meredith Peterson, White Lake Lakeland
BOYS CLASS A
Ari Blank, Birmingham Groves
Caleb Garrett, Birmingham Seaholm
Sajan Doshi, Bloomfield Hills
Kazutaka Suzuki, Canton
Ryan Dye, Detroit Catholic Central
Carson Soltis, DeWitt
Trevor Griffith, Flint Kearsley
Ian Deters, Grand Ledge
Eli Macauley, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern
Andrew Legg, Holland
Drew Rothstein, Holland West Ottawa
Wesley Rogers, Mason
Marcel Stork, Mattawan
Eamon Murray, Midland
Matthew Huang, Midland Dow
Matthew McGaugh, Midland Dow
Benjamin Hu, Northville
Amogh Mavatoor, Northville
Ian Morgan, Okemos
Sami Anwar, Plymouth
Omar Elghawy, Portage Northern
Luke Desnoyer, Royal Oak
Nicholas Maeso, Royal Oak
Owen Wohlfert, Traverse City West
GIRLS CLASS B
Sophia Hazzi, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Sydney Fox, Birch Run
Avery Pagel, Birch Run
Presley Chamberlain, Cheboygan
Madison Dennis, Durand
Natalie Foltz, Frankenmuth
Julia Noureddine, Grosse Ile
Phoebe Elder, Haslett
Brayley West, Lake Fenton
Aubrey Tarkiewicz, Marshall
Clare O'Donnell, Negaunee
Liliana Saunders, Negaunee
Lilly Thelen, Portland
Maya Grossman, Vicksburg
Ava Lassey, Wixom St. Catherine
Kendall Hollon, Yale
BOYS CLASS B
Parth Ashok, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Cole Haist, Big Rapids
Miles Dell, Chelsea
Nolan Carr, Corunna
Joel DeLorge, Corunna
Hugh Aaron, Detroit Country Day
Micah Zacks, Detroit Country Day
Möbius Stubblefield, Edwardsburg
Caleb Carignan, Flint Powers Catholic
Bryce Gross, Flint Powers Catholic
Logan Johnson, Flint Powers Catholic
Caden Sommerfield, Frankenmuth
Dylan Becksvoort, Holland Christian
Jaxxon Thelen, Ionia
Tucker Cole, Tecumseh
Jackson Kohler, Yale
GIRLS CLASS C
Anna Poppema, Bath
Hope Miller, Blissfield
Brynne Schulte, Elk Rapids
Addyson Rhodes, Grandville Calvin Christian
Molly Soper, Hanover-Horton
Izabella Latuszek, Laingsburg
Maya Carlson, Manistique
Ashley Carlson, Norway
Luella Whipkey, Oscoda
Emma Winans, Perry
Lillian Kwiatkowski, Rudyard
Irelynn Pachulski, Saranac
BOYS CLASS C
Ethan Stine, Bridgman
Joe Gaffney, Charlevoix
Gavin Comero, Ishpeming Westwood
Sean Siems, Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep
Eli Smith, LeRoy Pine River
Grason Weber, Leslie
Sean Dammann, New Lothrop
Logan Slimko, North Muskegon
Drew Ruddy, Ottawa Lake Whiteford
Luke Paxton, Pewamo-Westphalia
Ryan Kowalczyk, Pinconning
Amos Miller, Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy
GIRLS CLASS D
Audrey Stone, Bessemer
Madison Karakashian, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
Alexa Ross, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
Caila Fitchett, Dryden
Lorna Wiesen, Leland
Isabel Rookard, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart
Hope Woolman, Sterling Heights Parkway Christian
Emily DelFavero, Wakefield-Marenisco
BOYS CLASS D
Zyan Breznik, Adrian Lenawee Christian
Ian Flanagan, Deckerville
Brady Jungwirth, Felch North Dickinson
David Wahl, Gaylord St Mary
Connor Hill, Hillsdale Academy
Noah Zeien, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart
Jack Nelson, Ontonagon
Louis Kowalsky, West Bloomfield FJA
2020 Class Honored Together, from Afar
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 15, 2020
Ishpeming Westwood’s girls basketball team was two hours into a three-hour trip to its Division 3 Regional Final on March 12 when the Patriots were told to turn the bus around and come home.
In an instant, the 2019-20 school year – and with it all MHSAA sports across the state – had come to a halt. And two months later, the high school world and its sports community continue to wait for bits of normalcy to return.
On Wednesday, we were able to enjoy a little bit of normal that’s been part of the annual MHSAA calendar for three decades. A Zoom call brought together 31 families from all over the state along with MHSAA staff and Farm Bureau Insurance CEO Don Simon to celebrate this year’s MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award winners.
Living rooms, kitchens and home offices replaced Breslin Center as settings for this “virtual” ceremony. And yet, this ceremony may be remembered more than any other because of its necessity – due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and because of how it brought so many together, remotely, while the coronavirus has forced all of us to remain apart.
Below is the ceremony, in full, including words from Simon, MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl and Assistant Director Andy Frushour and, for the first time, a student speaker from the class – Ishpeming Westwood senior Madelyn Koski, who was part of that basketball team destined for Sault Ste. Marie. A brief Q&A with Koski follows.
Koski was an all-stater on the court who would’ve finished her high school career with four varsity letters each for hoops, tennis and softball. She will continue at Ferris State University, where she’ll pursue a degree in pharmacy and continue her basketball career.
Second Half: How did you decide what you wanted to say? Was there a message you wanted to get across?
It was easy to write the sad part, because I know what happened – I was there. But it was hard for me to make a positive spin at the end because I don’t think anyone’s over it yet. I was glad to be able to turn it into something that was bigger than sports … more about our whole lives and less about our time in high school.
Second Half: It’s been two months. How have you been navigating the disappointment, the sadness? And is there advice you’d give to other people your age trying to do it?
As time went on, it got a little bit better. The day after was pretty sad; that’s all I could think about. Now there’s so many other things to do – the weather’s nicer, we can go outside. And I’m playing college basketball – not everyone has that chance – but at least I have that to practice for, look forward to.
I guess, it’s just … time heals.
Second Half: Even though you can’t be with them and hang out with them, I’m sure you’re talking a lot of your friends and teammates. What kind of conversations are you having? Is it looking ahead? Is it still thinking about, “We’d be playing softball right now?"
I think we kinda tried to leave the basketball stuff in the past because it was too sad to talk about. We made sure we do talk, obviously not in person, but on social media or FaceTime, we just talk about our memories and everything. That helped. It didn’t close the chapter, but it was nice to talk to them when we were all alone. And now we just don’t talk about that anymore. Nobody really wants to talk about it. We see memories popping up on Facebook and all these other things about, “Oh, we had a softball game last year at this time.” And it’s pretty sad. But no one else is playing. So it’s like we’re all in the same boat.
Second Half: You can turn on the news and you can see what every adult has to say about what’s going on right now. … You’re 17, you’re finishing your last year of high school, you’re going through something no one has gone through in more than 100 years. How do you see everything that’s happening in the world right now, as you look at it from a 17-year-old’s point of view and see seasons end and school end?
I know we can’t help what happened. But obviously I think it’s unfair that it happened to our class. It stinks for every grade, but (as seniors) we’re missing out on our best parts of high school right now and it’s pretty horrible. We’ve been waiting years for our senior proms and graduations, banquets and award ceremonies, like the MHSAA one. So that kinda stinks.
Ever since March 12, I’ve been staying optimistic. But I’m proved wrong every time because things just keep getting canceled and canceled. … (But) I’m a pretty optimistic person, so I still have some left.
Second Half: What happens next? What does your summer look like? What happens for people who are in your shoes?
I’ll keep working out, and one of the girls on my high school basketball team is going to play at Michigan Tech so (eventually) we can work out together. … I think the biggest thing to do this summer, that I think I’ll do, is appreciate time with my family. I have gotten to spend a lot of time with them. And then maybe once summer rolls around and we’re allowed to be in bigger groups, I’ll be able to be with people other than my mom and dad, like my grandparents and cousins and my aunts and uncles. … (My sister Jillian and I) have been playing the same varsity sports for the last couple of years, and she’s been really successful. It’s been fun to win all these championships and stuff with her.
Second Half: What do you think you’re going to remember from this in five years, 10 years, when people ask you what your experience was like?
I’m probably going to say it’s a pretty bad experience. I guess it was an eye-opener that life can change at any moment. That’s kind’ve it. It didn’t change in a good way.
PHOTO: Westwood's Madelyn Koski sets up a play as Negaunee's Breanne Giotto defends her during their Jan. 24 game. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)