East Hardy Middle School Female Athlete of the Year – Harper Kline
East Hardy Middle School and Moorefield Middle School honored their student-athletes for their teamwork, leadership, sportsmanship and excellence throughout the year with special awards.
East Hardy Middle School’s Joellen Harper Memorial Outstanding Student Award recipients were Marshall Walker and Shaye Barb.
This award has been bestowed upon East Hardy Middle School students for 32 years.
Joellen Harper, wife of Roy Harper, was a teacher at East Hardy Early Middle School in the early 1990’s and was killed on a snowy day coming to work in her vehicle in 1993.
Harper was an honest, sincere and dedicated person.
She was the salutatorian from high school with a 4.0 GPA, graduated college with a 3.7 GPA in Elementary Education and obtained her Masters in Elementary Education with a 4.0 GPA.
She spent many hours after school in her classroom and teaching preparation as she cared and loved all the children under her charge for the 6.5 years she spent at EHMS.
East Hardy Middle School’s Dennis S. Brill Student-Athlete Awards were given to Ian Brill and Charlee Hahn.
Dennis Brill was a physical education in Hardy County for 38 years from Wardensville High School to Wardensville Junior High School to East Hardy Early Middle School and was a coach for 28 seasons.
Brill was the middle school girls and boys basketball head coach for the Cougars and EHHS boys basketball head coach.
Coach Brill enjoyed coaching athletes that were dedicated, the ones that show up every day for practice ready to learn and ready to do whatever was asked of them.
He let each player practice as much as needed and didn’t turn off the gym lights, until every player was ready to leave after practice.
East Hardy Middle School Athletic Director Kathy Strawderman was coached by Brill in junior high and felt privileged to teach alongside him before he retired in 2012.
This year’s recipients took pride in the green and gold, showed leadership, worked hard and were great teammates with dedication to the team at all costs.
The Outstanding Athletes of the Year awards chosen for East Hardy Middle School were Harper Kline (female)and Cole Lantz (male).
Kline held a 3.71 GPA this past year, while competing as a three-sport athlete in volleyball, girls baseball and track.
Kline was named the most valuable player for girls basketball for the second year in a row, received the outstanding offense award for volleyball and was presented the top female sprinter award for track.
Moorefield Middle School’s Bill Hunt Sportsmanship and Character Award was given to a male and female student-athlete from each grade level for their exceptional integrity.
Bill Hunt was a physical education teacher at Moorefield Middle School and lead teacher, in addition to being the first girls track coach in school history.
The MMS Bill Hunt Award sixth grade winners were Kylan Markwood and Sawyer Shirk.
The MMS Bill Hunt Award seventh grade winners were: Bella Linville and Jacob Dolan.
The MMS Bill Hunt Award eight grade winners were: Derringer See and Thomas Simmons.
The MMS Joe Sherman Track and Academics Award recipient was Madison Thompson.
The MMS Athletic Directors Most Outstanding Athlete Award in its second season created by current AD Paul Keplinger was presented to Kiersten Rinker and Mathew Iman.
