At the end of every school year, the Everett School District celebrates its most outstanding student-athletes at the Walsh-Platt Athletic Scholarship Banquet.
I’ve been fortunate to cover the banquet several times. I always leave feeling inspired by the variety of ways candidates contribute in sports, academics and the community. (To be fair, I’ve felt the same way at other local prep scholarship ceremonies.)
The Walsh-Platt award has been around a long time. It was first handed out in 1962; Everett’s Terry Ennis was the winner.
Click here for an updated list of Walsh-Platt winners.
Here is an explanation of the award’s origins, sent to me by Everett School District athletic director Robert Polk and athletic secretary Danielle Marks.
The first Walsh-Platt/Everett School District Athletic Banquet was held in the Spring of 1962. Construction of Cascade High School had been completed the preceding Fall, and now housed on the new campus were 800 students in the sophomore and junior classes. There was no senior class until the following school year (1962-1963).
With the opening of the new high school, the whole concept of high school athletics in the city of Everett would undergo a change. In an effort to encourage continuing the existing high standard in athletics in both high schools, Walsh-Platt Motors (now Dwayne Lane’s Family of Auto Centers) made this proposal:
“In furtherance of the meritorious desires of the Principals for Everett High School and Cascade High School and their athletic directors to jointly build a high standard, good citizenship athletic program with a reasonable competitive relationship appealing to the parents of the school district, and to properly reward scholarship and good sportsmanship, Walsh-Platt deem it a privilege to sponsor an award to the individual school representative in the form of a college scholarship.”
In September 1994, the Everett School District opened Henry M. Jackson High School. With the continued support of Dwayne Lane and the Everett School District, we are happy to continue this athletic presentation honoring athletes from Cascade, Everett and Jackson for many years to come. It is our privilege to honor and recognize all the athletes of our Everett Schools.
Which male and female student-athletes will win the 2009 Walsh-Platt awards? We won’t know for a few more months.
Here are links to articles from the past two Walsh-Platt banquets.
*Jackson’s Kingma, Everett’s Hopkins win scholarships
*Walsh-Platt athletic scholarships awarded to Everett’s Frauenholtz, Cascade’s Snel
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