Kentucky freshman quarterback Patrick Towles is a finalist for the 2012 High School Scholar-Athlete Awards given by the National Football Foundation.
Towles was an All-American at Highlands HS in Fort Thomas, Ky., leading his team to three consecutive state championships. His career totals featured 7,429 passing yards and 73 touchdown passes while rushing for 1,718 yards and 38 TDs. In the classroom, he earned a place in the National Honor Society.
Kentucky has had one previous winner of this award, defensive tackle Jeremy Caudill in 2000, for his achievements at Prestonsburg (Ky.) High School.
Here is the release:
[h=2]NFF Announces Finalists for 2012 High
School National Scholar-Athlete Awards[/h][h=3][I]Selected from more than 400,000 high school football players, 26 finalists will be narrowed to five outstanding student-athletes who will be recognized in New York City in December at the NFF Annual Chapter Awards Luncheon presented by Under Armour.[/I][/h][FONT=arial][B]DALLAS, August 30, 2012 -[/B] The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced today the names of the 26 finalists for the 2012 NFF High School National Scholar-Athlete Awards, which will honor one young man from each of the country’s five regions as the best and the brightest for their accomplishments as athletes, scholars and citizens at the high school level. The five winners, who are now playing college football but are being recognized for their previous accomplishments in high school, will be announced the week of October 8.
“We take great pride in the work of the NFF Chapter Network,” said NFF President & CEO[B]Steve Hatchell[/B]. “Each year our chapters honor thousands of student-athletes who have excelled in all aspects of their lives. It is an incredibly difficult task choosing 26 finalists from thousands of honorees, and even nearly impossible to select just one winner from each of our five regions.”
With 120 chapters and more than 12,000 members, the NFF Chapter Network impacts more than 400,000 student-athletes at 4,800 high schools in 47 states each year. The centerpiece of their efforts are the annual chapter awards banquets, which recognize more than 3,300 of the nation’s top scholar-athletes and distribute $1 million in scholarships. From this pool of 3,300 scholar-athletes, the chapters have nominated 26 individuals in 2012 as finalists for the highly sought-after NFF High School National Scholar-Athlete Awards. During the week of October 8, a national committee will select and announce the five winners, one from each region, of the 2012 NFF High School National Scholar-Athlete Awards.
The five winners will travel to New York City to be honored during the NFF Chapter Awards Luncheon, presented by Under Armour, on Tuesday, December 4, 2012, at the Waldorf-Astoria. First bestowed in 1991, the NFF National High School Scholar-Athlete Award has become one of the most prestigious high school honors in the country. Criteria for the award include but are not limited to academic achievement, athletic accolades and community involvement.[/FONT]
