Got Scholarship?

Kuna Athlete Wins Prestigious National Award

By Jennifer Gelband, 6-27-06

Kuna is getting some time in the national spotlight thanks to teenager Austin Andrus, who was honored as one of America’s 25 best and brightest high school athletes by the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign and USA Today's 9th annual Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year (SAMMY) Award. The prestigious SAMMY awards are distributed annually to the best of the best high school seniors in academics and in sports.

Andrus and his 24 co-winners beat out more than 51,000 students from across the nation for the honor. Each national winner received a $7,500 scholarship and appeared in the pages of USA Today last week in a milk mustache ad.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselback and Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes presented the awards at The Milk House at Disney's Wide World of Sports. (Odd how all these companies – Disney, milk, USA Today, NFL, USA figure skating – are in support of each other, no? Might they all be owned by the same blanket company? Scary!)

“We are proud to have the opportunity to honor and award these extraordinary teens who understand the importance of staying focused on studying hard, staying active and making healthy lifestyle choices, like including milk in their daily routine," Kurt Graetzer, CEO of The National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign, said in an announcement. "The 2006 SAMMY winners serve as inspiring role models to teens across the nation and future SAMMY Award winners."

Andrus is a standout in several sports including basketball, baseball and soccer. And he should probably have a park named after him or something. Austin, you have my support if you go the route of trying to get your name on something in the city. Congrats, you done Kuna good.

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