The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) has selected 9 student-athletes from Class B member schools to receive scholarships through the MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award program. The honorees include two of our very own high school students and former GRACEAC athletes: Maggie Duba (St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School | Grand Rapids West Catholic High School) and Jack Rellinger (St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School | Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School).
Maggie and Jack have been brought up in diocesan Catholic schools and are living testimonies to the effort, talent, dedication, and faith of their families, their school communities, and the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids whose mission is to “prepare students to seek and fulfill God’s plan for learning and life.”
“My wife, Noreen, and I strongly feel that parents cannot not afford Catholic education especially in the current culture. We would like to personally thank the administration and teachers at West Catholic. This represents a part of their life's work. This was four years of Maggie's life and she has been embraced, guided, and supported the entire time by WC, as all the students are,” said Don Duba, father of Maggie.
Bryan Rellinger, father of Jack, echoed the sentiment saying , "Everyone at Catholic Central has played a part in helping Jack, and all students for that matter, excel. From coaches, to teachers to administration, everyone leans in and helps Catholic Central students become the best version of themselves. This community, the sense of family, the level of support, the fact that it is centered on Christ, is unmatched; it has manifested itself in every aspect of his life and we are thankful and blessed to be a part of it."
Farm Bureau Insurance will give $2,000 college scholarships to 32 individuals who carry at least a 3.5 grade-point average and have won a letter in a varsity sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Other requirements for the applicants were to show active participation in other school and community activities and produce an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
The scholarship recipients will be recognized March 26 during the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing. Congratulations and God bless you, Maggie & Jack!
To read more about MHSAA and the Scholar-Athlete Award program, please click here.