Henry Elsner named 2017 Scholar Athlete, given $1,500 scholarship at NCW Sports Banquet

WENTACHEE - Between an 11th place finish in the 1A State Cross Country meet, a near bid to state in basketball, and a 6th place finish in the 1A State Doubles Tournament, it has been quite a good year for Henry Elsner.

To top it off, Elsner was awarded a $1,500 scholarship on Tuesday, June 6 after being recognized as one of the two Scholar Athletes in the NCW region.

Elsner was named the valedictorian for Chelan with a 4.0 GPA and has already earned 39 college credits. In addition to being a scholar and three sport athlete, Elsner was the student liaison representative on the school board and the president of theInteract Club and Honor Society. He plans to attend California Polytech State University in San Luis Obispo next year.

After accepting his award with co-scholar athlete Kalea Bokma from Eastmont High School, both posed for a photo with keynote speaker, former Chelan Goat and current Brooklyn Nets forward Joe Harris.

Harris, a three time CTL Player of the Year and former Washington Mr. Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year gave a motivational speech prior to the award ceremony where he cited a young Luke Ridnour as his inspiration. Harris had attended the Sports Banquet in 2002 as an 11-year old with his mother on his dad’s behalf and the keynote Speaker, Bill Moose had recruited Ridnour from Blaine to the University of Oregon.

“(Moose) spoke about his relentless work ethic and how he had never heard of a kid so committed,” Harris stated in the beginning of his speech Tuesday night. “At 16 Ridnour asked his dad (the high school basketball coach) for the keys to the gym and he would drive in early in the morning and late at night spending countless hours on his game. The coaching staff was surprised that Ridnour got off the plane for his greeting he had a basketball in hand. He was always working on his game and so I was sitting here, even as an 11-year old, thinking this was pertinent for me. He inspired me to be like him so I started carrying my basketball everywhere I went as well.”

Harris even copied Ridnour in writing inspirational quotes and goals around his room -- although doing so with a sharpie -- so that he would see them every day.

“I had grand visions in mind, and that is the advice that I would like to give to every athlete here,” Harris motioned to the audience. “Every athlete has goals, identify what your vision is and get committed to the process to accomplish that vision. You can’t just write them down though and kick back on the couch watching Netflix. It doesn’t work like that. You have to have discipline and focus to work toward your goals every day. It is easy to be motivated for a few days and another thing to want it hard enough to work every day. The world is not devoted to making you happy and you are going to face some sort of adversity. No one goes unscathed, we all get knocked down, but the important thing is how you respond. You can succumb or bounce back, (but) just control what you can control. It doesn’t matter where you grow up, all that matters is what you believe and up here in your mind,” Harris said. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something and always believe in yourself.”

Harris closed his speech with a couple quotes from Joe Paterno and John Wooden before congratulating all the athletes in the room for their many accomplishments over the past year.

Other athletes and coaches that were honored in the CTL league were Tyler Kert and Brent Darnell from Cashmere. Kert, a three sport athlete in football, basketball and tennis took home the Male Athlete of the Year award and Darnell, the Cashmere girls basketball coach was honored with Best Coach of a Female Team.

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213