Klamath Falls, Ore. – The Klamath County Sports Officials Scholarship Committee announced today that they have awarded eight scholarships totaling $3,000 to local high school student-athletes representing five Klamath basin high schools.

Since 2011, when the fund was established, nearly $18,000 has been awarded to graduating student-athletes at the nine schools serviced by the Klamath County Sports Officials partnership – Lost River, Henley, Mazama, Klamath Union, Hosanna, Triad, Chiloquin, Bonanza and Lakeview. Winners are selected based on academic performance and at least one letter of recommendation from a varsity coach. Applicants must have a minimum GPA, and must have earned a letter in at least one varsity sport. The recipients received their awards during senior award banquets and graduation ceremonies this past week.

The scholarships are funded by donations from members of six local officiating associations representing various sports. Members of these groups officiate local youth and high school athletic contests in their respective sports, and are compensated for those services. Their contributions to the scholarship fund are either deducted from their compensation or contributed to the fund directly.

Joel Woodley, chair of the committee, said, “For the second year in a row, we were able to award $3,000 in scholarships to some very deserving student-athletes. We are very proud of the partnership among our local officiating associations, and the way they continue to step up to the plate and fund this scholarship program.”

The program consistently has significantly more applicants than awardees, and the 2019 process was no different. What was different this year, however, is the exceptionally high ratio of applications from female student-athletes.

“Surprisingly, we had significantly more female applicants than male,” said Woodley. “And those applications were wellqualified, as demonstrated by the distribution in our awards this year.” Additionally, this year the committee gave a special award to senior Cooper Roberts-Garrard from Klamath Union.

Roberts-Garrard is a three-sport official and himself has contributed to the scholarship fund. “Cooper is not a traditional student-athlete, but that’s because he’s busy officiating football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. He is an exceptional up and coming official, and we wanted to recognize his efforts as he continues his education and his officiating career.”

2019 Klamath County Sports Official Scholarship Winners

Past Scholarship Winners

Press release provided from the Klamath County Sports Officials.