In the money: Meneguzzo earns scholar-athlete award

EAST LANSING -- Kingsford senior Michael Meneguzzo is one of nine Class B student-athletes selected by the Michigan High School Athletic Association to receive scholarships through the MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award program.

Farm Bureau Insurance, in its 33rd year of sponsoring the award, will give $2,000 college scholarships to 32 individuals statewide. The first 30 scholarships are awarded proportionately by school classification and the number of student-athletes involved in those classes. Also, there are two at-large honorees who can come from any classification.

Now playing his third season of varsity basketball, Meneguzzo played two seasons of varsity football and will compete in a third season of track and field in the spring. He also played varsity tennis as a freshman.

The Flivver standout is the son of Paul and Tricia Meneguzzo of Breitung Township.

Meneguzzo holds multiple school football records and earned all-Upper Peninsula recognition. He had a runner-up finish at the U.P. Track and Field finals. He has served as captain of both the football and basketball teams.

Meneguzzo is participating in his second year of National Honor Society and fourth of Key Cub. He was a school representative on Youth Coalition and served as French Cub vice president. He has given more than 100 hours of volunteer service including for American Red Cross, Salvation Army and at youth football and basketball camps.

He is undecided where he will attend college, but intends to study business.

Students applying for the Scholar-Athlete Award must be carrying at least a 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average and have previously won a letter in a varsity sport in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors a postseason tournament.

Other requirements for the applicants were to show active participation in other school and community activities and produce an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.

Meneguzzo, in his essay, reflected on lessons from his father.

"I have always been very competitive," he said. "(But) whenever I exhibited poor body language or questionable sportsmanship, my dad would talk to me after the game about how my actions affect the team and also, how they make me look as an athlete. My dad ... has always held me to a different level than other players when it came to sportsmanship and body language during a competition."

The 32 scholarship recipients will be recognized March 26 during the MHSAA boys basketball finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.

The Class C and D scholarship award recipients were announced Feb. 8, and the Class A honorees will be announced Feb. 22.

The only other scholarship recipient from the Upper Peninsula is Jillian Koski of Ishpeming Westwood in Class C.