Standout volleyball athlete Addison Scott of Mica Mountain has been named Southern Arizona’s 2024 Student-Athlete of the Year

The Tucson Citizen profiled the city’s top high school students from 1957 through 2008. The tradition of recognizing only the very best continued in the pages of the TucsonCitizen.com website and we have continued this tradition at AllSportsTucson.com since 2014.

Mica Mountain volleyball striking Addison Scott is the recipient of Southern Arizona’s 2024 Student-Athlete of the Year and its accompanying $1,000 scholarship. We also started a scholarship at Sunnyside High School in honor of our brother, Hector J. Morales III, who died last year. Basketball highlight Nayeli Nidez-Acuna is our 2024 honoree.

Addison attends ASU for sports journalism and graduated with a 4.5 GPA.

ESSAY ABOUT AN INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN HER LIFE

Mrs. Shannon Kornachuk

Mrs. Kornachuk was my WRT 101 & 102 teacher my senior year of high school. She, like many other teachers I have had, really inspired me to continue following my dreams. Mrs. Kornachuk and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together throughout the school year. I will never forget the patience and compassion she showed me.

At Mica Mountain this year we only had the seniors have the opportunity to take Pima’s WRT 101 & 102 course. Ms. Kornachuk had never taught at a university before. While teaching a brand new class for the first time, she was earning her master’s degree online from Arizona State University. She had managed to get her master’s degree, be there for her students and take care of her family at the same time. She not only taught us during the course, she also completed the assignments with us. She truly has so much empathy for her students and was always there with us every step of the way.

I continually emailed Ms. Kornachuk to review my essays and make changes, or even just check what I had written. Sometimes we would have mini-conferences to talk about my writing in person and discuss details that I could change to improve my writing skills. One of our assignments was to write a narrative essay, something about ourselves in any form. I chose to write my essay about how I felt at graduation. We had a conversation about college and she gave me several tips and tricks to be successful when I attend Arizona State University in the fall. I was so nervous and scared about college, but Mrs. Kornachuk had reassured me and told me that I am always welcome in her classroom. And since that conversation, I have never been more excited to go to college and get my degree in sports journalism. She believes in me and my writing/reporting skills. Throughout the year, she always asked what I thought about college and was always there to help me whenever she could.

Not only was she my teacher, she was also the one who helped create the newspaper for Mica Mountain with me. We solved and went through all the steps involved in starting a newspaper so that our fellow classmates and teachers could read it. It wasn’t easy, but we did it together. I always looked forward to going to her class every day. Her bubbly and passionate personality made going to school so much more fun. After asking several times if I was doing the right thing after high school, Mrs. Kornachuk was always there to reassure me and talk me through my thoughts, and I could never be more grateful to her. Ms. Kornachuk is truly one of those people who influenced me to continue following my dreams.

LINK: Cool images

TUCSON CITIZEN STUDENT ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
1957 DL Secrist Jr. Tucson High
1958 Donald Parsons Catalina
1959 Edward Brown Flowing Wells
Terry DeJonghe Salpointe from 1960
1961 Robert Svob Catalina
1962 Ray Kosanke Tucson High
1963 Michael Aboud Tucson High
1964 Pat McAndrew Flowing Wells
Charles Begley Sunnyside, 1965
1966 Eric Evett Catalina
Ron Curry Tucson High from 1967
1968 Jeff Lovin Palo Verde
1969 Bruce Pawlowski Salpointe
Dave Henry Sahuaro, 1970
Tom Hagen Salpointe, 1971
1972 Bill Baechler Palo Verde
1973 Francisco Gomez Pueblo
1974 Richard Rucker Canyon del Oro
1975 Guillermo Robles Sunnyside
1976 Karen Christensen Rincon
Michael Wing Rincon from 1977
1978 Craig Barker Amphitheater
Ralph Gay Sunnyside from 1979
1980 Kristine Bush Sabino
1981 Lisa Kay Baker Sahuaro
1982 Vickie Patton Marana
1983Martin Tetreault Sahuaro
1984 Molly Reiling Salpointe
1985 Timothy Roggeman Salpointe
1986 Jon Volpe Amphitheater
1987 Luis A. Padilla Pueblo
1988 Nicole Stern Catalina
1989 Robert Moen Flowing Wells
1990 Grace O’Neill Salpointe
1991 Angel Phillips Rincon
1992 Zenen Salazar Sunny side
1993 Michelle Vielledent Sahuaro
1994 Julie Reitan Sahuaro and Brady Bennon Sabino
1995 Kelly Yablonski University High
1996 Joe Aguirre Palo Verde
1997 Andy Viner University High
1998 Scott Beck Canyon del Oro
1999 Glenn Schatz University High
2000 Nicole Voelkel University high
2001 Ai-ris Yonekura Catalina foothills
2002 Philo Sánchez Sunnyside
2003 Tim Ashcraft Sahuaro
2004 Joe Kay Tucson High
2005 Tiffany Hosts Tucson High and Echo Fallon Catalina Foothills
2006Michael Smith Sunnyside
2007 Tara Erdmann flowing wells
2008James Eichberger Catalina

TUCSONCITIZEN.COM STUDENT-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
2009 Cienega Solar Park
2010 Christine Clark Tucson High
2011 Lee Andra Smith Palo Verde
2012 Rachel Ward (Pusch Ridge) and Robin Landrith (Ironwood Ridge)
2013 Mally McGarity (Marana) and Asha Esprit (University High)

ALLSPORTSTUCSON.COM STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2014 Amanda Nicholas Sahuaro
2015 Laura McGeary Flowing Wells and Courtney Brown Flowing Wells
2016 Cheyenne Pitts Mountain View
Jacqueline Igulu Palo Verde 2017
Tyson Corner Marana 2018
2019 Luc Rosenblatt Salpointe
Shana Brown Ironwood Ridge 2020
2021 Rumor Rouille Ironwood Ridge
2022 Tanvi Narendran University High
2023 Sammy Padilla Flowing Wells
2024 Addison Scott Mica Mountain