Westside high school had their 28th annual scholar-athlete and spirit awards banquet on April 17. The banquet acknowledges academic excellence of Westside’s athletes and spirit members. Each year the banquet is held at University of Nebraska-Omaha. The banquet is important to Westside because athletes get caught up in only being recognized for their sports accomplishments. The athletes get rewarded based on their level of distinction. Normal distinction is a grade point average of 3.50 to 3.69, High distinction is 3.70 to 3.89, and highest distinction is 3.9 to 4.0. The keynote speaker of the banquet was Bob Danenhauer, who is a Westside graduate and excelled in wrestling and football. After high school he excelled in college playing football and later on became University of Nebraska-Omaha’s athletic director.
The student athletes are given two different awards. The Masterson award is given to a male and female athlete from the senior class. The award was established in 1997, by Joan and Robert Masterson. It is given to the two students who are in a varsity sport while being top of their class. The male and female recipients receive a $2,000 scholarship.
The female winner of the Masterson award is a two sport athlete, while keeping her GPA at a 4.0 she also attends many school activities and community service projects. She was a DECA member, Red Shield, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and assisted Westside sports camps. She volunteered at the open door mission, Westside’s back door BBQ, food drives and many others. The student athlete was the captain of volleyball and track, which allowed her to letter her junior and senior year on both teams. Tatum Godinez is the winner of the women’s Masterson award.
“There are a lot of great student athletes at Westside so to be recognized as a one of them is cool and I am just so grateful for it,” Godinez said.
The male winner of the Masterson award has kept his GPA high and his work ethic higher. He has been started in two varsity sports his senior year, while still being active in school community service projects. He is a proud member of National Honor Society and DECA. He has volunteered at the Omaha Food Bank and sang Christmas carols before helping at a toy drive for kids in need of presents. One of his best services was when he went to special needs prom the football and baseball player will have a great accomplishment of seven varsity letters when he graduates. This amazing student athlete is Nick Anglim.
“I was kinda surprised there is a lot of great guys in our class so I was really honored to hear my name. It’s a great scholarship, I’ve been coming to the banquet for three years and I’ve seen a lot of great guys and girls get it,” Anglim said.
The “Heart of a Warrior” award was the third honor given to a student-athlete. The award was created by 2022 Westside graduate, Kaitlyn Hanna. The student winning this award also has a “team first mentality,” a love for Westside, teammates and their community. The third attribute the student needs is their love for the sport and was wanting to compete at the collegiate level.
The winner of this award has shown all of the qualities of the award. The athlete is a varsity player at Westside high school, with many setbacks in career. He had suffered a serious injury early in his career, which caused him to be out for six months. But this athlete stayed consistent when he was injured. He was always cheering on his teammates and never skipped a practice. If this athlete hadn’t put in as much effort that he could while on the bench there was a high chance he wouldn’t have been able to play basketball his senior year. The recipient of the award was C.J. Mitchell.
“Always fighting through and persevering, not being about yourself, being about others helping others and, being about the community,” Mitchell said.
