The Sunnyvale Sun
Sports
Fremont's Laine Armour wins REACH scholarship
By KEVIN SPARRER
There were 9,000 good reasons for the REACH Youth Scholarship finalists to get out of bed on the morning of May 3. And Fremont's Laine Armour can certainly give you 2,000 of them.
Armour walked away with a $2,000 scholarship when 34 REACH nominees got up early for a Wednesday morning breakfast at the San Jose Marriott to find out how the San Jose Sports Authority would distribute the $9,000 in scholarship funds.
Of the 34 nominees, only five would win scholarships in the Authority's 2006 REACH (Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard Work) competition. Joining Armour as winners were Amanda Polzin of Harker School, who won the top award of $2,500; Margo Cosul, $1,500; Nikhil Marathe of St. Francis, $1,500; and Justin Martin of Live Oak, $1,500.
The winners had to submit essays, explaining their participation in high school sports and how it aided them in overcoming adversity on the field, in the classroom and in life. Among the difficulties faced by the students were poverty, abuse, physical disabilities, disease and other such afflictions.
Armour won the $2,000 scholarship. Armour was severely injured in an automobile accident before her senior year of water polo. She suffered a ruptured spleen, four broken spinal processes in her lower back, a shattered bone below her nose and the loss of four front teeth. Her lower teeth were shoved through her chin.
After leaving the hospital barely able to walk, she forced herself to rehabilitate despite the doctor telling her she could have no strenuous activity. Upon her return to the doctor, he was amazed at the recovery and she was able to return to the pool for four weeks of games. Armour was one of only three members of the team to play for all four years and she was able to maintain a 3.38 grade point average.
Nikhil Marathe of St. Francis won one of the $1,500 scholarships. Nikhil suffered a great loss in May 2004 when his mother was taken by cancer. It was through his mother's optimism, courage and confidence that he was able to find an escape on the tennis court. He imagined her there with him, and he was able to maintain the No. 1 ranking on his team that he had held the two years prior. Marathe had a grade point average of 4.39, competed in mock trial, played piano and guitar, volunteered on the Santa Clara Youth Commission and was elected president of the National Honor Society.
The other nominees included Nick Aurelio and Timothy Danser of Bellarmine; Brittany Baza, Joeseph Maes and Filip Novachkov of Fremont; Esperanza Sanchez of Gilroy; Ahmed Abdi, Eric Espinoza, Maria Luisa Flores, Jorge Mendoza and Venese Morgan of Gunderson; Carolyn Finney of Independence; Jose Ramirez of Lincoln; Tyler Fischer-Colbrie, Katherine Near, Minh Nguyen and Matthew Yu of Monta Vista; Priscilla Arzate, Juan Castillo, Julio Gomez and Kao Saetern of Overfelt; Brianna Clay and Kheaton Scott of Palo Alto; Jenna Brogan of Presentation; Sioeli Fakalata and Sela Paini of St. Francis; Britteny Westphal of Santa Teresa; Nick Twitchell of Westmont; and Maria Sosa of Willow Glen.
