by Paige Heiden
Seniors Samantha Renfree and Andrew Leischner were selected by coaches as 2013 athletes of the year. This newly established award is designed to recognize the best overall female and male senior athlete, and was presented to Renfree and Leischner as a surprise during the Senior Athletes Banquet at the Gran Centurion in Clark on June 5.
To choose the winners, the head coach for each sport was asked to nominate an athlete based on the student’s national, state, county, and conference awards, athletic community service and overall athleticism.  Once the nominations were reviewed by Ryan Miller, assistant principal-athletics, the head coaches met to discuss each nominee and to consider information from all other coaches.
    In the end, the consensus fell on the boy and girl who showed a wide athletic range by excelling in multiple sports. However, according to Miller, the choice was a difficult one because each nominee was overwhelmingly deserving, especially considering the success of this school’s athletes overall.
“Internationally, about two to three percent of athletes compete at the Division I level, but we have 11 of 137 senior athletes—eight percent of the class—playing Division I sports next year,” said Miller. “Remarkable.”