St. John Bosco honors top scholar-athletes

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The term ‘student-athlete’ is often bandied about so loosely that it loses its meaning. A former college classmate of mine coined the phrase ‘student-laughlete’ to denote that the former part of the phrase rarely holds as much meaning as the latter, especially when it comes to elite players.

But St. John Bosco apparently has found a way to deftly balance athletics and academics. In fact, the top-ranked student in each class is also a varsity athlete: freshman Joshua Anatalio is a swimmer with a 4.0 grade-point average; sophomore Daniel Hazboun is a wrestler with a 4.14 GPA; junior Ricardo Lara is a soccer player with a 4.29 GPA; and senior Nathan Corkhill is a volleyball player with a stunning 4.57 GPA.

The foursome was among 157 scholar-athletes honored earlier this month during a luncheon hosted by St. John Bosco Athletic Director Monty McDermott. All of the honorees received a scholar-athlete patch for their varsity letter jackets.

In order to qualify, students had to letter in a varsity sport and post at least a 3.0 weighted GPA in classes not including religion or physical education. Among St. John Bosco’s 302 varsity letter winners, 51% had at least a 3.0 GPA and 10% had at least a 4.0 GPA.

So, yeah, go ahead and call them ‘student-athletes.’

--Ben Bolch