The Tucson Citizen profiled the city’s finest high school student-athletes from 1957 through 2008. The tradition of recognizing only the very best was continued on the pages of the TucsonCitizen.com website and we have continued this tradition at AllSportsTucson.com since 2014.
Mica Mountain volleyball standout Addison Scott is the 2024 Southern Arizona Student-Athlete of the Year recipient and the $1,000 scholarship that goes with it. Also, we started a scholarship at Sunnyside High School to honor our brother, Hector J. Morales III, who passed away last year. Basketball standout Nayeli Nidez-Acuna is our 2024 honoree.
Addison will be attending ASU for sports journalism and she graduated with a GPA of 4.5.
ESSAY ON AN INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN HER LIFE
Mrs. Shannon Kornachuk
Mrs. Kornachuk was my WRT 101 & 102 teacher my senior year of high school. She, as many other teachers I have had, has truly inspired me to continue to follow my dreams. Mrs. Kornachuk and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together throughout the school year. The patience and compassion she showed me will never be forgotten.
At Mica Mountain this year, we had the opportunity for only the seniors to take Pima’s WRT 101 & 102 course. Mrs. Kornachuk had never taught a college class before. At the same time as teaching a brand new class for the first time, she was in the process of getting her master’s degree from Arizona State University online. She had managed to receive her master’s, be there for her students and take care of her family all at the same time. Not only did she just teach us throughout the course, she did the assignments with us. She truly has so much empathy for her students and was always there with us every step of the way.
I would constantly email Mrs. Kornachuk to look at my essays and make edits or to even just check over what I had written. We would sometimes have mini conferences to talk face to face about my writings and go over details I could change to better my writing skills. One of our assignments was to write a narrative essay, something about ourselves in any way. I chose to write my essay about how I was feeling about graduating. We had a conversation about college and she gave me different tips and tricks to be successful when I make my way to Arizona State University in the fall. I had felt so nervous and scared for college but Mrs. Kornachuk had reassured me and told me I am always welcome back in her classroom. And since that conversation, I have never been so excited to go to college and get my degree in Sports Journalism. She believes in me and my writing/reporting skills. She never failed to ask how I felt about college throughout the year and was always there for me when she could be.
She was not only my teacher, she was also the one who helped create the newspaper for Mica Mountain with me. We troubleshooted and worked through all the steps in starting up a newspaper for our fellow classmates and teachers to read. It wasn’t easy but we did it together. I always looked forward to going to her class every day. Her bubbly and passionate personality made coming to school so much more enjoyable. After several times of questioning whether I was doing the right thing after high school, Mrs. Kornachuk was always there to reassure me and talk me through my thoughts and I could never be more thankful for her. Mrs. Kornachuk is truly one of those people who influenced me to keep following my dreams.
LINK: BOLD IMAGERY
TUCSON CITIZEN STUDENT-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
1957 D.L. Secrist Jr. Tucson High
1958 Donald Parsons Catalina
1959 Edward Brown Flowing Wells
1960 Terry DeJonghe Salpointe
1961 Robert Svob Catalina
1962 Ray Kosanke Tucson High
1963 Michael Aboud Tucson High
1964 Pat McAndrew Flowing Wells
1965 Charles Begley Sunnyside
1966 Eric Evett Catalina
1967 Ron Curry Tucson High
1968 Jeff Lovin Palo Verde
1969 Bruce Pawlowski Salpointe
1970 Dave Henry Sahuaro
1971 Tom Hagen Salpointe
1972 Bill Baechler Palo Verde
1973 Francisco Gomez Pueblo
1974 Richard Rucker Canyon del Oro
1975 Guillermo Robles Sunnyside
1976 Karen Christensen Rincon
1977 Michael Wing Rincon
1978 Craig Barker Amphitheater
1979 Ralph Gay Sunnyside
1980 Kristine Bush Sabino
1981 Lisa Kay Baker Sahuaro
1982 Vickie Patton Marana
1983 Martin Tetreault Sahuaro
1984 Molly Reiling Salpointe
1985 Timothy Roggeman Salpointe
1986 Jon Volpe Amphitheater
1987 Luis A. Padilla Pueblo
1988 Nicole Stern Catalina
1989 Robert Moen Flowing Wells
1990 Grace O’Neill Salpointe
1991 Angel Phillips Rincon
1992 Zenen Salazar Sunnyside
1993 Michelle Vielledent Sahuaro
1994 Julie Reitan Sahuaro and Brady Bennon Sabino
1995 Kelly Yablonski University High
1996 Joe Aguirre Palo Verde
1997 Andy Viner University High
1998 Scott Beck Canyon del Oro
1999 Glenn Schatz University High
2000 Nicole Voelkel University High
2001 Ai-ris Yonekura Catalina Foothills
2002 Philo Sanchez Sunnyside
2003 Tim Ashcraft Sahuaro
2004 Joe Kay Tucson High
2005 Tiffany Hosten Tucson High and Echo Fallon Catalina Foothills
2006 Michael Smith Sunnyside
2007 Tara Erdmann Flowing Wells
2008 James Eichberger Catalina
TUCSONCITIZEN.COM STUDENT-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
2009 Sun Park Cienega
2010 Christine Clark Tucson High
2011 LeeAndra Smith Palo Verde
2012 Rachel Ward (Pusch Ridge) and Robin Landrith (Ironwood Ridge)
2013 Mally McGarity (Marana) and Asha Esprit (University High)
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.COM STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2014 Amanda Nicholas Sahuaro
2015 Laura McGeary Flowing Wells and Courtney Brown Flowing Wells
2016 Cheyenne Pitts Mountain View
2017 Jacqueline Igulu Palo Verde
2018 Tyson Corner Marana
2019 Luc Rosenblatt Salpointe
2020 Shana Brown Ironwood Ridge
2021 Rumur Rouille Ironwood Ridge
2022 Tanvi Narendran University High
2023 Sammy Padilla Flowing Wells
2024 Addison Scott Mica Mountain
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