Ram of the Year and Bernie Saggau Award winners announced

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com

The Ram of the Year and Bernie Saggau award winners were presented at Greene County High Schools Senior Awards Night on Tuesday. The Ram of the Year Awards are given to the top female and male athlete in the senior class based on the student’s participation in athletics during their entire high school career. T.J. Lint was the male recipient. Lint lettered in football, basketball, track, and baseball at East Greene before playing for Greene County during his junior and senior years. He lettered in football both his junior and senior years and was an all district selection both years. He was named the football team’s MVP his senior year, was an all district selection, and was named to the Iowa Newspaper Assocation’s 2A third all state team. T.J. has lettered in track both years since playing for Greene County High School and is on the 4 x 200 meter relay team that qualified for this year’s state track meet. He was also a starter on the Ram baseball team as a junior.

Allison Higgins and Kate Sandage were co-recipients of the award for the top female athlete. Both girls excelled in cross country and track and lettered all four years in those sports. Sandage was a member of Greene County’s 2013 cross country team that placed ninth at the state meet in Fort Dodge. She has qualified for the state track meet in the shuttle hurdle relay for the past three years. The past two years, Sandage also made it to state in the 100 meter hurdles, and this year, her times in  both the relay and the individual hurdle event rank in the top five going into the meet.

Higgins forte is long distance running. She participated in the state cross country meet in 2012 and 2013 and led the Greene County team to a top ten finish in Class 3A this past November. Her third place finish in this year’s state meet was the highest state placing by a cross country runner participating in a Jefferson based program. Allison ran the 3000 meter run at the 2013 state track meet and has qualified for the 1500 and 3000 meter runs at this weekend’s state meet.

The Bernie Saggau Award is named after the former executive director of the High School Athletic Association. One award is usually given out at each high school, but since Greene County is not officially consolidated until July 1, 2014, one award was given for an East Greene student and another given for a Jefferson-Scranton student. The recipients are athletes who are patriotic, religious, are willing to give back to their communities, and are great team mates. Thea Ballard and T.J. Lint were the recipients. Ballard has lettered and basketball all four years and was a  sprinter on the track team throughout high school until an illness ended her season early. She participated in many fund raising activities while on the basketball team. T.J. was a captain and leader on his football team earning the team’s Hustle Award his junior year, and many accolades previously mentioned during his senior year.