FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 1999


Day, Walker named FHSAA Scholar-Athletes of the Year

TAMPA – Jared Day of Liberty County High School (Bristol) and Tiffany Walker of Naples High School were named the Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year at the Fifth Annual Gatorade/Florida High School Activities Association Academic All-State Awards Banquet held Friday, June 18 at the Wyndham Westshore in Tampa.

The two students – among the 24 chosen to the Academic All-State Team – received a $2500 scholarship and commemorative trophy in addition to the $500 award and medallion for being selected to the team. The Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award is generally regarded as the most prestigious award the Association confers upon a student-athlete.

Day, a recent graduate of Liberty County High School in Bristol, finished the year with a 4.0 cumulative grade point average and was the valedictorian in his 77-member senior class. He earned varsity letters in four sports - football, basketball, baseball and track & field - during his junior and senior years and will attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, studying medicine. Day was named to the 1998 Florida Sportswriters Association Class 2A All-State Football Team as well as earning such honors as the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation Leadership Award, Sunshine State Scholars Award, Walt Disney Dreamers & Doers Award, Mosonic Lodge Community Award and U.S. Achievement Academy Award. He is also an Eagle Scout and served as an official Olympic torchbearer in 1996.

Walker recently graduated from Naples High School where she earned a 4.0 cumulative grade point average and was the valedictorian in a senior class of 369 students. She earned varsity letters in basketball and track & field during her junior and senior years, and, while she remains undecided on her choice of college, she plans to pursue a degree in pre-medicine. Walker has won many an accolade, including the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation Leadership Award, Sunshine State Scholars Award, Principal’s Leadership Award, Harvard Book Award, Daughter of American Revolution Outstanding History Student and Golden Key Community Service Award.

Last April, twenty-four student-athletes – 12 boys and 12 girls – were chosen from among 175 qualified nominees from the Association’s 534 member high schools as the Gatorade/FHSAA Academic All-State Team. To be eligible for selection to the team, a student must be a graduating senior, must have a cumulative unweighted grade point average of 3.5 or better, and must have earned a varsity letter in at least two different sports during their junior and senior years.

Contact:
Robert Hernberger
Assistant Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 190
roberth@fhsaa.org