None of Paige Anderson’s many high school successes prepared her for the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship awards banquet in Birmingham last Monday night. Anderson has played on three AHSAA Class 1A state girls basketball championship teams and one state championship team in volleyball.
She’s been the state volleyball tournament MVP once and earned that honor in basketball as well.
Twice Anderson has been Alabama’s Class 1A Miss Basketball.
In late May, Anderson will graduate from Spring Garden High School as valedictorian of the Class of 2008. She’s never made a grade below an ‘A’ in her academic career.
None of that helped her when she heard her name called for the second time Monday night. She had just been named the overall Bryant-Jordan Scholar-Athlete Award winner for 2008 and she didn’t know what to say.
“We had to sit in front of everybody on a stage,” said Anderson later, explaining the setup in the banquet room.
“We” included Anderson and 95 other high school seniors, all regional winners in either the scholar-athlete or achievement categories. “Everybody” was over 1,000 family members, principals, teachers and friends who had come to witness the awards.
Prior to the announcements, all the regional winners had been told to think about what they would say in response if they were named their class’ overall winner. As the achievement winners were named in all six classes, Anderson planned how she would thank those who had helped her over her high school career if she was chosen as Class 1A scholar-athlete winner.
When the 1A scholar-athlete was named Anderson was the winner.
“I thought the first one out,” recalled Anderson.
When the overall state winner in the scholar-athlete category was identified, Anderson heard her name for the second time.
“Then they made me do it again,” she said of her second acceptance speech. “I didn’t know what to say the second time.”
“It’s a lot harder when you’re sitting there in front of all those people. It was really scary.”
One person not at any loss for words when talking about Anderson’s accomplishments is Spring Garden principal Mike Welsh.
Welsh said being named the most outstanding scholar-athlete in the state was the highest honor an Alabama high school student could receive.
“That’s just the ultimate (achievement) in my opinion,” he added.
“I’m really proud to have her represent us in the Bryant-Jordan awards competition. The example she sets for her teammates and our students, tremendous is the only word I can think of. I hope they really see the work ethic and the time spent that made things happen.”
All the regional winners received awards of $1,500. Being Class 1A winner added $3,000 and the overall winner was rewarded with another $3,000. It may prove to be a windfall for the women’s basketball program at Samford, where Anderson will enroll as a scholarship basketball player in the fall.
“I ended up with $7,500 but I don’t actually think I get any of it,” Anderson said.
NCAA regulations seem to require that this scholarship money go to Samford. Anderson said she understands she could use it to attend summer school but that she is not currently inclined to do that.
Right now, Anderson’s biggest problem is preparing her speech as valedictorian.
“I don’t think they’ll want a 15-second speech at graduation,” she said with a laugh.
Anderson said she expects to choose some form of business as her major – perhaps finance or accounting.
“I’m pretty sure I want to work with numbers. I’m pretty sure I want to be in business.”
