Our Scholar Athletes Award winners are multi-sport athletes with the highest GPA in their class.  This year’s Scholar Athlete Award Recipients are Kaitlyn Aupperlee and Ethan Lenters!

Kaitlyn Aupperlee

GPA: 4.340
Sports:  Cross Country, Unified Basketball, Girls Soccer

From Unified Basketball Coach Muller:
Kaitlyn was the quiet leader and glue of the Grand Rapids Christian Unified Basketball Team.  She set an incredible example and treated the inclusion athletes exactly like we all should — like her equal and her teammate.  Kaitlyn was always early to practice to shoot the breeze with the athletes, assisted our only female player, Faith Kelly, with her braids and practice penny, provided grief to Isaac Muller for bringing advance theological literature to a basketball practice, and proudly gave high fives and fist pumps to all her inclusion teammates in the halls of school.  As a trail-blazer for Inclusion Athletics, we will have big basketball shoes to fill with Kaitlyn's graduation and move to Hope College.

From Athletic Director Jason Heerema:
I am also so proud of your performance in Cross Country. You got sick every single race, and yet came back over and over to be part of the team. It is student-athletes like you that see that value in educational athletics beyond wins and losses that make our Cross Country experience so powerful. Now you are also a starter on the girls soccer team after waiting patiently in the wings. Can’t wait to see what is next for you. 

Ethan Lenters

GPA: 4.3270
Sports: Ski, Track and Field

From Ski Coach Mencarelli:
Ethan is one of the hardest workers I have met, and he possesses one of best traits a person can have, he is reliable.  That not only showed on the slope, but in the classroom as well.  Hard work aside, he is a good person, and he has all the makings of becoming a great man.  That transition you can probably already notice.  Over the past 4 years Ethan never gave up and battled through a lot of adversity to become a key contributor to our team. Ethan earned multiple All Conference Awards and All Region and no surprise, the Academic All State Team.

From Athletic Director Jason Heerema:
When you put these accomplishments into perspective, considering that Ethan's 1st ever finish was 43rd in a JV race, I think it really shows the traits mentioned above. Ethan is enormously coachable and such a remarkable asset to each team he has been on. He will be missed! Ethan, we can’t wait to see what you will accomplish.