Top-notch talent: The 2009 Jennifer Beach Memorial Scholarship winners
One way to honor a lost loved one is to continue their legacy through other people and that’s exactly what Gary and Mary Beach continue to do.
The Hillsdale County couple lost their daughter Jennifer in a car accident when she was a high school student at North Adams-Jerome. Jennifer had a passion for life, especially athletics and in her honor the Beach family presents a pair of college scholarships each year to two of the county’s finest student-athletes.
All applicants were required to have lettered in at least two varsity sports, carried at least a 3.5 GPA and were asked to submit an essay about their life goals.
A panel of community members who are part of the county’s high school athletic scene select the winners, and the recipients will be given plaques from the HDN at tonight’s Area Best Track Meet at Hillsdale College.
This year’s winners are Connaught Blood of Hillsdale Academy and Steven Smith of Reading.
Here is look at what makes each of these individuals so special.
Connaught Blood
In five short years Blood moved from Alaska to Hillsdale with her family, took on the challenge of embracing a new school and community, and ultimately became a stepping stone for the Hillsdale Academy girl’s sports program.
Connaught and her father Charles helped transform the Academy girls golf program, as they reached their first-ever state finals as a team, Blood became the first Colts basketball player to score 1,000-plus points in her career and she was also a member of the 2006 state championship track team as a freshman.
[caption id="attachment_630" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hillsdale Academy senior Connaught Blood was successful at anything she touched in high school, in part because of her sheer determination. "]
That’s not all though.
Blood is one of the most intense competitors you will ever see at the high school level, but not in a cut-throat sort of way, rather in a 110 percent is still not enough effort kind of way.
She’s like that in the classroom and other facets of life as well, whether it be when she’s helping out at her church, cleaning up lawns in the heart of Appalachia, or even just talking about why she loves the NBA so much.
Those reasons, combined with a 3.74 GPA and score of 33 on the ACT made her a natural choice as one of the Jennifer Beach Memorial Scholarship winners — even though she admits she was stunned when she heard the news.
“To me this is crazy, it’s such an honor....I’m just really honored and thankful they gave it to me,” she said. “But it’s been like the last four years of (Hillsdale Academy athletic director Mike) Roberts and my parents and my teams — it didn’t just all happen this year. My parents, friends, teammates and coaches have pushed me here my entire life and I think this award is a testament to them.”
