Scholar athlete is a series that The Mav will be doing while working alongside the athletic director, Chad Eisentrager. Through this series, we will visit two different sports each month and, with the help of Mead’s head coaches, we will nominate a scholar-athlete of the month. This athlete not only excels in their sport but performs extremely well academically. 

For the month of October, The Mav looked into football and volleyball. Because there are many participants that excel in these sports, picking one student was difficult. The athletes that were chosen are Prestin Tillema (’20) and Morgan Munro (’22).

Tillema has participated in football almost all of his life but, “[has] been doing tackle [football] since 8th grade.” 

Tillema explained that he thought it was neat to be able to accomplish being Scholar-Athlete.

Not only does Tillema thrive in the football program here at Mead, but he is also able to maintain a 3.95 GPA alongside that heavy commitment. 

As you can imagine, especially as a senior, keeping track of a strong commitment to sports as well as finding time to get school work done isn’t easy. Despite this, Tillema explains, “you just have to have good time management.”

Munro has been doing volleyball since she was ten years old.

“[Being a scholar-athlete] for my sport is cool and something I never thought I’d get,” expressed Munro.

Volleyball is also a large commitment to have as a sophomore, missing school for games, as well as long practices after school. Regardless, Munro stays focused and maintains a 3.95 GPA, excelling academically.

Similar to Tillema, because of all of the work that she has missed as a result of volleyball, she says that it is “important to stay ahead and manage [her] time.”