MILL CREEK — Jackson seniors Aaron Roe and Brooke Kingma have been linked together since they were little kids. They were neighbors as children and both have grown into two of the finest high-school distance runners in the state of Washington.
After Thursday night’s annual Everett School District Awards Banquet, they will forever be linked together as the male and female winners of the 2015 Dwayne Lane’s Athlete of the Year award.
The award, formerly known as the Walsh-Platt award, recognizes students who not only have found success in athletics, but also in the classroom and community. The winners were selected from a group of 12 finalists that included two girls and two boys from each of the three high schools (Jackson, Cascade and Everett) in the Everett School District.
Thursday’s honor caps off a special year for Roe, who has a cross country and track scholarship to Notre Dame. He won the 4A state cross country championship in November and placed second in the 3,200 meters at last weekend’s 4A state track meet.
“It was surreal,” Roe said. “It was an amazing experience. I’m really thankful for everyone that came out and supported me tonight for the culmination of all my hard efforts over the years.”
Academically, Roe has a cumulative 3.85 grade point average and is involved in several school activities and honors courses.
Kingma, who will continue her running career at Lipscomb University, placed seventh at the state cross country meet and finished fourth in the 3,200 meters at the state track meet this past weekend. After winning the award she credited her fellow nominees.
“It feels really good, but I also feel like everybody that was nominated was so deserving of the award. Everybody is so active in the community and helps so many people around them. I just think that this whole event is a really great thing and all the kids are really great nominees.”
Roe and Kingma both acknowledged their happiness in being able to share in the honor with the other.
“Aaron has helped me in so many ways over the year,” Kingma said. “I’ve watched the example he sets for people and how hard he works. It’s in honor to be his teammate and his friend and he’s going to do great things at Notre Dame.”
Roe returned the praise.
“She was my neighbor and I remember going to her house when she was like three years old,” he said. “We’ve been running together for so many years. It’s really incredible. She and I are going different ways, but I wish her the best of luck in everything she does. It’s pretty cool that someone like us that have been linked so closely together in running for four years and are teammates can both win the award — especially for cross country and track. That’s kind of cool.”
Seeing two of his star athletes win such a prestigious award pleased Eric Hruschka, who coaches the cross country team and is the boys track coach at Jackson.
“I’m excited for them and proud of how far they’ve come since their freshman year,” Hruschka said. “It’s so cool to see them finish on top at the end. They ran great at the end of the season in both cross country and track. To finish out their senior year and be recognized — they’ve earned it.”
Other awards were handed out on Thursday. Each school recognized a boy and girl scholar-athlete award winner for each season. The Cliff Gillies Award Winners from each school were announced as well as the three-sport letter winners. Individual and team state champions were also recognized.
Student-athletes weren’t the only ones honored, each school also named a coach of the year. Cascade recognized boys basketball coach Darrell McNeal, who led the Bruins to state for the first time in 10 years. Everett honored Mike Millar, who led the softball team to a second-place finish at the state tournament and Jackson gave its award to Drew Whorley, who coaches the boys and girls swim teams. In the fall, he led the Timberwolves to a tie for the girls state swim championship with Richland.
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