Plymouth, Northville athletes finalists for esteemed MHSAA awards

Plymouth senior Tara Creekmore is among the finalists for the prestigious MHSAA student-athlete awards. PHOTO BY VASILNEK IMAGES
Several local high school student-athletes are among the 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Scholar-Athlete Awards for the 2024-25 school year, which are presented by Farm Bureau Insurance.
Plymouth senior volleyball player Tara Creekmore is among the Class A finalists. Northville’s Cameron McVittie also made the cut — impressive considering the MHSAA received 1,513 applications for the awards.
McVittie has competed in golf, hockey and cross country for the Mustangs.

The program, in its 36th year, has recognized student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year and again this winter will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament.
Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Awards and will present a $2,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 960 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarship breakdowns
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male.
In addition, two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification and could have more than one finalist.
Birmingham Seaholm has six finalists this year, while Munising and Whitehall have four, and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Midland Dow and West Bloomfield each have three finalists.
Eight schools have two finalists: Ann Arbor Greenhills, Ann Arbor Huron, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit Catholic Central, Grosse Pointe South, Kingsford, Olivet, and Saline.
Multiple-sport participation the norm
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.88.
There are 75 three-plus sport participants in the finalists field, and all but one of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.
Of 431 schools which submitted applicants, 25 submitted the maximum allowed.
All applicants will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete Award information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the Scholar-Athlete page.
Here’s how applications were judged
The applications were judged by a 65-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools.
Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 4, Class B scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 11 and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 18. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale) and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament.
Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions and submit two letters of recommendation and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.