Gavin Comero, center, of Westwood High School was one of three Upper Peninsula high school students honored as a recipient of a Scholar-Athlete Award from the MHSAA and Farm Bureau Insurance at the state group’s boys basketball state championship games played Saturday at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Flanking Comero at left is Don Simon, Farm Bureau chief executive officer, and at right, Mark Uyl, MHSAA executive director. (Photo courtesy MHSAA)

EAST LANSING — Two area students were among three from the Upper Peninsula who were honored with a Scholar-Athlete Award sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Farm Bureau Insurance and presented at the MHSAA boys basketball state championship games on Saturday.

Thirty-two of the awards were given out to high school students statewide at the finals, which were held at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Gavin Comero of Westwood, Maya Carlson of Manistique and Jack Nelson of Ontonagon were the U.P. students receiving the award, which for each student included a $2,000 scholarship made possible by Farm Bureau Insurance, which is in its 37th year of sponsoring the award.

Recipients in each of the four traditional letter classes — Class A, B, C and D — were awarded proportionately by the number of students in schools in each classification.

Students must have a 3.50 grade-point average on a 4.00 scale and previously lettered in at least one sport that the MHSAA offers postseason competition. Each prospective winner had to show active participation in other school and community activities and produce an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.

With Comero and Carlson representing Class C schools and Nelson in Class D, there were several more U.P. students who were finalists. They included Clare O’Donnell and Liliana Saunders, both of Negaunee, in Class B.

There was also Emily DelFavero of Wakefield-Marenisco, Audrey Stone of Bessemer and Brady Jungwirth of North Dickinson in Class D; and Ashley Carlson of Norway and Lillian Kwiatkowski of Rudyard in Class C.

Here are sketches of the Scholar-Athlete Award winners from area schools:

Gavin Comero, Westwood — He played two seasons of varsity football, four seasons of wrestling and will compete in his fourth season of track and field this spring. Comero was named all-state in track and field, all-conference in football and wrestling, and also all-academic in wrestling. He was a team captain in both football and wrestling.

He is participating in his second year in the National Honor Society and third year on student council, while also playing in the concert and pep band throughout high school and has competed with the Business Professionals of America for three years, earning state and national places while serving as president as a senior.

Comero was also student council vice president for two years and band council VP this year. He has participated for two years with Key Club and has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, also serving as a volunteer youth wrestling coach throughout high school.

He plans to attend Northern Michigan University to study multimedia production.

This is a quote from his essay from the Scholar-Athlete Award application — “Throughout the season I learned the bigger picture of sportsmanship, playing with integrity at all times. No matter what that scoreboard read at the end each Friday night, we continued to play with 110-percent effort. We had every reason to be negative and start pouting, but we remained positive and persisted.”

Maya Carlson, Manistique — She played three seasons of varsity volleyball, ran three years in cross country and played two seasons of varsity basketball, one of golf and just finished her first year in swimming and diving. She will compete for her fourth year in track and field this spring and also played travel hockey during high school.

In cross country, she finished in the top four in the MHSAA U.P. Finals twice, also earning all-state and academic all-state in the sport. She was all-region and academic all-state in volleyball and qualified for the MHSAA U.P. Finals in track and field the past three seasons.

Carlson is in her second year with the National Honor Society, serving as treasurer this year, and serving her third year as student council president and first year as student leadership vice president. She has been with the Youth Advisory Council and participated in YETI service club throughout high school, serving as president with both groups.

She plans to attend Trine University in Indiana and major in exercise science.

Here is a quote from her Scholar-Athlete Award essay — “I learned that being competitive and being a good sport aren’t opposites. In fact, they depend on each other. When you respect the game and the people playing it, your victories feel more accomplished, and your losses teach you more.”

Story contents based on an email received from MHSAA Director of Communications Geoff Kimmerly and an examination of the MHSAA website at www.mhsaa.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.