Local athletes receive top academic honors throughout 2017-18 season

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One of the hardest things to do for any high school athlete is to maintain their academic standing throughout their playing career.
The rigors of practicing and still finding time for the most important part of being a student-athlete, studying, is one that athletes in school struggle with year in and year out.
Evangeline Parish is very fortunate that it possess some of the best and brightest student-athletes in the entire state. That was very evident in 2017-2018 as several local senior class athletes took home top academic honors in their respective sports.
The biggest academic award that a student-athlete can earn is the composite award, which includes all schools in a particular sport. In order to earn that distinction, the recipient must undoubtedly have achieved a 4.0 grade point average over the four years of playing that sport. In softball, Sacred Heart’s Natalie LeBas and Pine Prairie’s Karli Ortego took home that great honor for their hard work on and off the field.
Also in softball, Pine Prairie’s Tori Johnson (3.9230) and Gabrielle Briscoe (3.7500) were named to the Class 3A Academic All-State team, while Ville Platte’s Peyton Vidrine (3.5510) received that honor in Class 2A.
Basile’s Cameron Berzas (3.9200) was awarded academic all-state in Class 1A for two sports, football and wrestling.
The Sacred Heart Cross Country teams had several students represented in Class 1A. Dreu Fontenot (3.8095), Brook Soileau (3.7619), Nicholas Reed (3.7143), Dawson Buller (3.6667) and Lucas Kincanon (3.6190) all placed on the team.
In boy’s basketball, Pine Prairie’s BJ Ardoin (3.6500) was a Class 3A selection while Sacred Heart’s Shani Fontenot (3.9524) picked up the nod in Class 1A for girl’s basketball.