Jackson’s Barnes, Cascade’s Gross win Walsh-Platt scholarships

Published 10:42 pm Wednesday, June 3, 2009

EVERETT — When Jahleel “JB” Barnes got up to the podium he asked for a show of hands.

How many here, Barnes asked, had rocks and racial insults thrown at them in elementary school?

“Well, I have,” Barnes told the audience when no one raised their hands.

As a result of the teasing, he was angry and depressed. Playing football, Barnes explained, helped change that. It helped him make friends. It helped him raise his grades.

Now, it will help him go to college. Barnes, a senior at Henry M. Jackson High School, was awarded a $5,000 college scholarship at the 48th Annual Walsh-Platt Athletic Scholarship banquet, which was held at Everett High School’s Civic Auditorium on Wednesday.

Since 1962, the Walsh-Platt scholarships have recognized students that excel at athletic competition in at least two sports while maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.5. The three Everett area high schools of Cascade, Everett, and Jackson each nominated two male student athletes and two female student athletes for the awards, and a committee of community leaders decided who received the scholarships.

The primary financial sponsor of the Walsh-Platt awards is Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers.

“(Playing football) balanced me out extremely,” said Barnes, who has played football since fifth grade and participated in track and field since he was a freshman in high school.

Since transferring from Redmond High School to Jackson in the second semester of his sophomore year, Barnes raised his GPA from 2.9 to 3.4.

Next year, Barnes plans to go to Pacific Lutheran University and major in business. He chose Pacific Lutheran in part because friends of his older brother, Kevin, whom Barnes credits as a major influence in his life, attended the university and found success in the business program there. Barnes said he will be the first person in his family to attend a four-year university.

“The first coach I ever played for really influenced us to keep our grades up,” Barnes said.

Katy Gross of Cascade won the other $5,000 dollar scholarship.

Gross, who played basketball, soccer and track and field all four years of high school, is a team captain on both the Cascade basketball and track and field teams.

Boasting a 4.0 GPA, Gross will attend Seattle Pacific University next year and plans to major in engineering.

The 2009 guest speaker at the award ceremony, Jean Berkey, a Washington State senator and Everett graduate, urged the student nominees to use what athletics has taught them about team work and leadership in the years ahead.

“Attitude,” Berkey said, “determines altitude.” In other words, how far you go in life is depends on how you react to life’s curveballs.

Berkey used Conan O’Brien as an example. O’Brien was roasted by television critics when he started hosting a late night talk show, Berkey said, “but look at him now (taking over the Tonight Show).”

The Walsh-Platt awards started in 1962 after the construction of Cascade High School, in an effort to make sure a two-high school city did not become divided and to develop a healthy way for the students to compete.

“They wanted to celebrate…,” said Tom Lane of Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers, himself a winner of the Walsh-Platt award in 1988. “… To make sure we don’t separate the city.”

Nominees: Chris Chung, Breanna Huschka and Nick Morley of Cascade high school; David Andre, Jake Frauenholtz, Suzy Olsen and Valerie Stahl of Everett High School; Cerise Knakal, Ben Lance and Alison Ponce of Jackson High School

Coaches of the Year: Scott Stencil (Cascade), Kosta Pitharoulis (Everett), Drew Whorley (Jackson)

Mom and Pop of the year: Cascade: Ron Mattson, Ken &Marla Gross. Jackson: Susan Swinson, Chip Higinbotham. Everett: Mike McCormick, Robin Diede.