SHS athletes honored at annual banquet

Prior to the school year ending recently, Stillwater High – keeping with tradition – honored seniors with a scaled back Senior Awards ceremony in the Performing Arts Center’s lobby. Athletic scholarships and awards were included in the brief morning ceremony, which was emceed by Krissi Morton, an SHS counselor.

McKenna Burns, an SHS swimmer and cheerleader, received the Stillwater Pioneer Athlete Memorial’s Jim Harris Scholarship. The $12,000 scholarship, given over four years, was presented by Tom Dearinger and Tonya Barngrover, SPAM committee members.

Stillwater Radio and The Hideaway Pizza presented the annual Big Kahuna Football Player of the Year award to senior standout defensive lineman Judah Schwoegler.

My wife Becky and I were honored to present the Brad Holt Memorial Scholarship to Cale Webber, who played basketball for the Pioneers.

Webber plans to study Biomedical Science at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford.

One tradition has ended. In years past, the Gallagher Award was presented to the Outstanding Male Student- Athlete at SHS.

The award was discontinued by family request. And, the annual Dearinger Award, which goes to the Outstanding Female Student-Athlete at SHS, hasn’t been announced by the school.

Another summer tradition ending is the popular Brad Holt Memorial Tournament, which honored our youngest son Brad, a 1991 SHS graduate who died in an automobile accident on July 4, 1991. Despite the baseball tourney ending, plans remain to continue presenting the Brad Holt Memorial Scholarship.

Brad loved playing American Legion baseball. Anyone who played, coached or watched Legion ball back in the day understands. It was competitive, stressed discipline and was affordable.

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SHS senior McKenna Burns, center, was awarded the $12,000 Jim Harris Scholarship by Stillwater Pioneer Athlete Memorial committee members Tonya Barngrover and Tom Dearinger during a recent ceremony.

RON HOLT/FOR THE NEWS PRESS

The Holt Report

RON HOLT

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Hanner-Sharp American Legion Post 129, which began hosting a summer American Legion baseball tournament in 1967, renamed its tourney in Holt’s memory with the first Brad Holt Memorial Tournament held in July of 1992. We also presented the first scholarship in 1992.

Post 129, led by baseball chairmen Genio Colasacco and Lawrence Roy, sponsored the tournament each summer before the local Legion baseball program ended in 2012. The tourney continued under the direction of Stillwater High baseball, Red Dirt Baseball and Guthrie baseball, coached at the time by Brad’s longtime friend and teammate Casey Porter.

With the tournament renamed in Brad’s memory, Becky and I, along with our family, worked to make it a special time for teams and fans. In 1996, we started the First Pitch Club with former players, coaches or supporters throwing out the first pitch prior to a Stillwater game. Looking at the list of First Pitch Club members is a cherished memory.

Throughout the years we were blessed by Hanner- Sharp’s commitment to the tournament, blessed to meet many coaches, players and fans from around the state, many of whom became friends. We appreciated tourney program sponsors and businesses who donated gifts to be given away during the tourney. And we appreciated all the workers and the umpires, several who we consider friends.

We also appreciated Phil and Jean Brown of Brown Engineering for providing a memorial garden near a tree planted in Brad’s memory inside Couch Park diamond. And we appreciate the Stillwater Baseball Booster Club for refurbishing the area last year.

Brad would have been proud and humbled.

Ron Holt is a sports columnist for the Stillwater News Press. Holt served as sports editor for the News Press for more than 30 years and resides in Bixby.