By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
While it wasn’t 100 percent the perfect ending for Alex Van Dyke, he still walked last week with a hefty college scholarship.
The Union Grove Union High School senior learned May 7 that he won a $2,000 scholarship at the Wisconsin Sports Awards at the Beacon in Kohler.
“Even though I didn’t win the $5,000, it was still a lot of fun,” said Van Dyke.
Van Dyke battled leukemia as a middle school student, and fought to not only maintain his grades but also a basketball career.
He will attend the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh next fall and hopes to play basketball.
Claire Monzel of Menomonee Falls and Cannon Cooley of Waukesha were the two $5,000 scholarship winners, while Kaitlin Squier of Appleton was the female $2,000 scholarship winner.
The scholarships are funded through Cousins Subs’ Make It Better Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization established by Cousins Subs in 2013. The Make It Better Foundation focuses on three areas vital to any community: health and wellness, hunger and youth education.
Finalists were able to walk the blue carpet and meet prominent athletes, including Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, Sacramento Kings coach George Karl, as well as Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan, football coach Paul Chryst and athletic director Barry Alvarez.
Van Dyke said he got to meet all of the above, as well as Josh Gasser and Sam Dekker of the Wisconsin Badgers NCAA runner-up team.
“I talked to George Karl for a while,” Van Dyke said. “We talked about the NBA playoffs. He also had cancer, so we talked about that. We’re both five years off treatment, so that’s pretty cool.”
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