Staff Report

GALLIPOLIS — Gallia Academy High School recently held its 2007-08 Winter Sports Banquet to honor the participants of the most recent winter sports season. The event was sponsored by the GAHS Athletic Boosters, and by the end of the night, 99 student-athletes were recognized for their efforts athletically and academically during the season.

Following the dessert, GAHS Principal and Master of Ceremony Bruce Wilson began by introducing each team’s coach who gave season comments and introduced their respective team members and assistant coaches.

Freshman cheerleader advisor DeShawn Sanders introduced squad members Haley Angel, Katie Corbin, Stephanie Edelmann, Mary Neal, Cayla Plese, and Kayla Sanders.

Varsity cheerleader advisor Christy Randles introduced junior varsity squad members Carly Atkins, Stacie Cummons, McKenzie Hood, Alyssa Kessel, and Lindsey Mink.

Randles then introduced varsity squad members Alexandra Clark, Allison Diehl, Brooke Howell, Monique Leming, Megan Wise, Valerie Richie, and Amanda Trout. Howell and Richie both received All-SEOAL Academic awards for the season.

After the cheerleading squads was the announcement of the basketball teams. Varsity girls basketball head coach Jeff Duduit first introduced varsity volunteer assistant coach Derrick Barnes, junior varsity coach Joe Justice, eighth grade coach Renee Barnes, and seventh grade coach Garry Adkins.

Duduit then introduced junior varsity team members Tara Young, Emily White, Morgan Daniels, Amanda McGhee, Morgan Leslie, Mollie Blake, Molly Carroll, Katie Dunlap, Kayla Harrison, Heather Caldwell, Sydnie Moritz, Claudia Farney, and Sara Eberhard.

Varsity team members Samantha Barnes, Kari Campbell, Lauren Kyger, Hannah Cunningham, Allie Troester, Amy Noe, Rachel Jones, Alexis Geiger, and Ryann Leslie were announced next. Receiving All-SEOAL honors was Geiger, who was also co-Most Valuable Player with Leslie. Leslie also received All-SEOAL Academic and girls Winter Sports Scholastic awards. Other All-SEOAL Academic winners for the girls varsity were Barnes, Campbell, Cunningham, Troester, and Noe.

Following girls basketball were the boys. Varsity boys basketball head coach Jim Osborne introduced varsity assistant coach Roger Brandeberry, junior varsity coach Tom Moore, freshman coach Tyler Swackhammer, eighth grade coach Jim Niday, and seventh grade coach Tom Hopkins.

First, Swackhammer introduced freshman team members James Gray, Jacob Lively, Joe Ritter, Cody Billings, Casey Denbow, Tyler Eastman, Dalton Jarrell, Joe Jenkins, Ben Robinson, Cody Robinson, Corey Straight, and Caleb Warnimont.

Moore then introduced junior varsity team members Jordan Cornwell, Jared Golden, Austin Wilson, Nick Mitchell, Brad Valley, Nathaniel Gordon, Corey Eberhard, Dylan Hunter, Nate Allison, and Chuck Calvert.

Varsity team members Quinton Nibert, John Troester, Ethan Moore, Chris Armstrong, Kyle Mitchell, Zach Brown, Chris McCoy, Cole Jones, David Rumley, and Nick Wilson were announced next. Nibert, Troester, Moore, and Jones were All-SEOAL Academic award winners, while Rumley was All-SEOAL and co-MVP with McCoy, the boys Winter Sports Scholastic Award winner.

Varsity wrestling coach Craig Wright introduced junior varsity wrestling coach Brent Simms and junior high coach Todd May before introducing junior varsity team members Kyle Dray, David Faro, David Saunders, Nathan Mathews, and Cole Simpson.

Wright then introduced varsity wrestling team members Jonathan Caldwell, Russell Dennison, Morgan McKinniss, Benjamin Saunders, Matt Watts, Lawrence Wedemeyer, Jason Wray, Evan Downey, Kris Lloyd, Tyler Wachs, Tyler Adkins, Kyle Bays, Mike Brown, Robert Daniels, Jared Gravely, Mike Hackett, Zach Swisher, Cory Mason, Cody Pullins, and Clint Saunders. Bays, an All-SEOAL honoree, was named Most Valuable Wrestler. He also received the All-SEOAL Academic Award, as did teammates Caldwell, Gravely, Hackett, Watts, and Wray.

GAHS Scholar Athlete Awards were presented to the following student-athletes: Haley Angel, Stephanie Edelmann, Mary Neal, Cayla Plese, Carly Atkins, Stacie Cummons, Alyssa Kessel, Megan Worley, Allison Diehl, Brooke Howell, Monique Leming, Valerie Richie, Amanda Trout, Cody Billings, Casey Denbow, Tyler Eastman, Jared Golden, James Gray, Dalton Jarrell, Joe Jenkins, Jacob Lively, Ethan Moore, Joe Ritter, Ben Robinson, Cody Robinson, Corey Straight, Caleb Warnimont, Austin Wilson, Nate Allison, Zach Brown, Chuck Calvert, Jordan Cornwell, Corey Eberhard, Nathaniel Gordon, Dylan Hunter, Cole Jones, Chris McCoy, Nick Mitchell, Quinton Nibert, David Rumley, Brad Valley, John Troester, Samantha Barnes, Mollie Blake, Heather Caldwell, Kari Campbell, Molly Carroll, Hannah Cunningham, Morgan Daniels, Kimber Davis, Katie Dunlap, Sara Eberhard, Claudia Farney, Alexis Geiger, Kayla Harrison, Lauren Kyger, Ryann Leslie, Amanda McGhee, Sydnie Moritz, Amy Noe, Allie Troester, Emily White, Tara Young, Tyler Adkins, Kyle Bays, Mike Brown, Jonathan Caldwell, Russell Dennison, Evan Downey, David Faro, Jared Gravely, Mike Hackett, Cory Mason, Nathan Mathews, Benjamin Saunders, Clint Saunders, David Saunders, Matt Watts, Lawrence Wedemeyer, Jason Wray, and Kyle Dray.

Trophy awards were presented by GAHS Principal Bruce Wilson for GAHS Principal's Fund, GAHS Assistant Principal Tim Massie for GAHS Academic Boosters Club, GAHS Athletic Director Bill Wamsley for Brown Brothers Agency, Inc., David Tawney for Tawney Studios, and Karen Sprague for Karen and Patty Sprague.

The evening concluded with acknowledgements of maintenance supervisor Andy Hout and the maintenance and custodial staff, athletic director Bill Wamsley, rincipal Bruce Wilson, superintendent Jack W. Payton, and the GAHS Board of Education members for their efforts to make the athletic and academic programs at Gallia Academy High School a success.