District honors top scholar-athletes

EDMONDS — To be able to balance school and athletics is an achievement of itself. To be rewarded for your hard work and dedication as a student athlete makes all the difference.

Both Mountlake Terrace student Stuart Milner and Grantland Over, of Meadowdale, took home $3,000 scholarships at the Edmonds School District Scholar-Athlete and Coach/Community Banquet due to their commitment to excellence not only on the field but in the classroom in a ceremony held on May 23 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

“It feels amazing. I didn’t get much scholarships for my school in the first place,” Over said. “I love volunteering and love playing sports so much and it was real nice to be rewarded – for everyone to be rewarded.”

Over, who graduates from Meadowdale with a 4.0 GPA, was a two-sport star for the Mavericks playing basketball and baseball in his four years and was a standout volunteer in his community. Over will be attending the University of Notre Dame this fall. Although he isn’t quite sure what will come next while in school in Indiana, he is interested in studying medicine and is looking forward to attending a few Fightin’ Irish football games.

For Milner much of his recognition comes from his 3.5 GPA and his leadership on the track, basketball and tennis teams. While captain of the tennis team during his junior year, Milner was able to recruit enough payers to form a JV team for his school.

“I didn’t want my senior season to be a terrible season,” Milner said. “So, I went out, recruited 12 guys and doubled the size of my team. We hired a JV coach and even though we didn’t gain any talent, because the guys that were brought on the team weren’t club players or anything, we gained a family-like atmosphere on the court that resulted in four more wins for us this season.”

Milner will be attending the University of Puget Sound this fall and will be competing for the track and tennis teams. Later he plans on going to medical school at the University of Washington with the goal of being a surgeon for Operation Smile, which provides free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children worldwide.

The banquet, now in its 11th year, honors 17 student-athletes from four Edmonds School District high schools – Edmonds-Woodway, Meadowdale, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace – with scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. The ceremony also honors one coach and one community contributor from each school, along with an athletic director’s award.

Award Winners

$3,000: Stuart Milner (Mountlake Terrace), Grantland Over (Meadowdale)

$2,500: Blake Lord (Lynnwood)

$2,000: Alex Springer (Edmonds-Woodway), Michelle Rumpel (Edmonds-Woodway)

$1,500: Alex Basabe (Lynnwood), Sarah Hamburg (Meadowdale), Ariana Garcia (Lynnwood)

$1,250: Kelsey O’Neill (Mountlake Terrace), Megan Alfi (Edmonds-Woodway), Payton Shrum (Meadowdale), Justin Jolly (Edmonds-Woodway)

$1,000: Brianne Rhodes (Mountlake Terrace), Tanner Davenport (Meadowdale), Jordyn Berg (Lynnwood), Ben Pierson (Mountlake Terrace), Liz Wilson (Edmonds-Woodway)