Bourne, Horner Take Top Honors at Times-Dispatch/Sports Backers Scholar-Athlete Awards
Top 20 regional high school scholar-athletes recognized in program’s 30th year
Richmond, VA – The Richmond Region’s finest high school scholar-athletes were rewarded for their hard work last night at the Times-Dispatch/Sports Backers Scholar-Athlete Awards ceremony which was presented virtually during a livestream on Richmond.com. Top honors and $5,750 scholarships went to Michael Bourne of Cosby and Ellie Horner of St. Catherine’s. The $3,500 runners’ up scholarships went to Elvin Edmonds IV of Hopewell and Caroline Bowe of Midlothian.
2021 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the program that honors area scholar-athletes for their athletic, academic, and extracurricular achievements. Since the program’s inception in 1992, $1,302,000 in scholarships has been awarded to 602 outstanding student-athletes from the Richmond region.
The remaining 16 scholar-athletes won scholarships of $2,500 each. They were:
Girls Boys
| Landin Bostian | Mills Godwin | Grayson Clark | Mechanicsville | |
| Sydney Clayton | Monacan | Quint Dingledine | Monacan | |
| Kate Miller | Atlee | Carter Morris | Mills Godwin | |
| Kerry Nease | Douglas Freeman | Jacob Plummer | L.C. Bird | |
| Hanna Pawela | Deep Run | Ian Sellors | Atlee | |
| Keriann Slayton | Maggie Walker | Gavin Timmons | Powhatan | |
| Jada Walker | Henrico | Ryan Tremain | Benedictine | |
| Raine Weis | Hanover | Charlie Unice | Maggie Walker |
Additional scholarships for 2021 included the Cheryl Lockett Oliver Memorial Scholarship, which was awarded to Alyssa Patterson of L.C. Bird, and the Raymond Delaware Patterson Memorial Scholarship, which went to Omari DeVeaux of Douglas Freeman. They were awarded scholarships of $2,500 each. DeVeaux will attend Virginia Wesleyan University, and Patterson will attend James Madison University.
George Wythe High School Girls Volleyball Wins Williams Mullen Community Impact Award
The George Wythe High School Girls Volleyball team dedicated their time and energy to support their fellow students as well as residents and families in the school community. As a result they were recognized with the Williams Mullen Community Impact Award during the ceremony.
Despite being unable to play their season, they continued with community outreach efforts that included Thanksgiving food donation drives for families in neighborhoods near the school as well as the delivery of PPE supplies to a nearby senior living facility to help decrease the spread of COVID-19. The team also stayed connected and engaged with students during virtual schooling by delivering supply bags and Chromebooks to their homes to support online learning efforts. In addition to being recognized with the honor, the team receives a $2,500 award, which the program will use to expand their community outreach efforts in the future. The Williams Mullen Community Impact Award aims to recognize a Richmond region high school-based sports team for improving their community through volunteerism, fundraising, or other altruistic activities.
For the second year in a row, the awards ceremony was held virtually through a livestreamed event organized by Sports Backers and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and hosted at Richmond.com, rather than an in-person awards ceremony and dinner. Each finalist and award winner was recognized for their outstanding academic and athletic achievements, and the program can be viewed on-demand at https://richmond.com/sports/high-school/live-at-7pm-watch-as-the-rtd-and-sports-backers-announce-the-scholar-athletes-of/article_3d343544-84b9-5ba8-abf2-46250ae6f565.html.
Sports Backers would like to thank the following sponsors for their continued support of the Richmond Times-Dispatch/Sports Backers Scholar-Athlete Awards program: Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods, Ted Cox Memorial Scholarship, Williams Mullen, McGuireWoods, Universal Leaf Foundation, KPMG, Truist/Truist Securities, and Dixon Hughes Goodman.
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About Sports Backers
With a key message of Let’s Go, RVA, the mission of Sports Backers is to inspire people from all corners of our community to live actively. A non-profit organization, Sports Backers is dedicated to producing nationally recognized quality sporting events and programs that motivate residents and visitors alike to be more active, supporting youth running and fitness programs, and advocating for safe and connected networks of bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Learn more at sportsbackers.org.