ASHLAND — Scholars and soccer. At Ashland Blazer, that’s quite a match.

All seven of the school’s Governor’s Scholars for 2010 also happen to be key contributors for Ashland’s girls and boys varsity soccer teams. Both won regional championships last season.

“It was pretty amazing this spring finding out we had four and the guys had three,” said Lucy Davis, a senior defender for the Ladycats.

Ashland principal Derek Runyon put the numbers in perspective.

“Typically, we don’t have more than two Governor’s Scholars at a time from one sport,” Runyon said. “It’s really neat that all seven play soccer. It bodes well for their team grade-point averages.”

Ashland girls soccer coach E.B. Lowman, who started the program in 1993, said he couldn’t recall having more than two of his players selected as Governor’s Scholars at one time.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It goes to show what girls in the school are participating with us. They are all smart kids.”  

GSP is a summer residential program for outstanding Kentucky high school students who are rising seniors.

The selection process considers academic achievement, volunteer service, extracurricular activities and also requires an original essay. Each high school’s allotment of Governor’s Scholars is based on enrollment of the junior class.

This summer, Ashland had representation at all three of GSP’s college campus sites for several weeks of study and interaction.

Davis and Jacob Adams were assigned to Centre College in Danville. Nikisha Patel, Jamie Leistner and Adam Mayo traveled to Bellarmine University in Louisville, while Emily Salyers and David Stapleton made the long trek to Murray State University in the western corner of the state.

Fruitful experience

All of them counted their experiences as both enjoyable and enriching.

“It was probably the best time of my life,” Adams said. “When I got back home my Facebook had almost doubled in size. There were 200-some people there and I think I met 150.”

Adams’ focus area of study was visual arts. He’s more into photography, but learned about painting with watercolors and charcoal. The group made a trip to Shakertown and painted landscapes and animals.

A senior midfielder for the Tomcats, Adams is happy to be contributing on the field again after missing the second half of his junior season because of illness and injury.

“We’re all close and have a lot of fun,” Adams said of a squad that includes 11 seniors. “Sometimes, my mom does spaghetti dinners for everyone.”

Ashland boys coach Ken Wheeler has coached Adams and Mayo since grade school, and Stapleton for nearly as long.

“They have very good organizational skills, and are good leaders,” Wheeler said. “They are never negative to any of their teammates.”

For Stapleton, who plays fullback, getting to know Governor’s Scholars from across the state made the whole experience worthwhile.

“One of the things we did was try to sit at different lunch tables every day to meet as many people as we could,” he said. “I met so many that will be friends for the rest of my life.”

Stapleton and Mayo are both interested in studying engineering in college.

“In my focus group, we built a lot of machines like catapults and mechanical arms,” Mayo said. “We took field trips to Toyota, Eastern Kentucky Power plant and LexMark. It was a great experience.”

Mayo carries a 4.16 GPA and, like Ashland’s other Governor’s Scholars, is involved in a variety of school clubs.

“I put academics first,” Mayo said. “If I have something to do, I get my studies done before that.”

Lowman has always placed a high priority on academics. Even to the point of including in team rules that he expects players to make straight A’s.

“That’s something that’s hard to enforce, but I put an emphasis on it,” Lowman said. “They are in school to get an education, not necessarily to become great athletes. It’s great that we have kids than can be awarded scholarships at the college level, but more often that not, it’s contingent on academics as well as athletics.”

Tracking progress

Lowman keeps track of his players’ grade averages. Last year, Salyers had 4.57, Davis 4.33, Leistner 4.17, and Patel 4.33 for the first nine-week period that coincides with the soccer season.

“Academics are really important to us, and to coach Lowman,” said Salyers, the Ladycats’ All-Area goalkeeper. “He expects us to not only get the soccer aspect, but the character from it. Playing for him, you learn respect, teamwork and to have passion for what you are doing.”  

Davis is a dynamo on and off the field. She’s currently taking five advanced-placement classes along with college math. In addition to soccer, she has a part-time job on the weekend and plans to squeeze in some cross country meets after the soccer season.

“I have very good time management,” Davis said. “I enjoy constantly being busy. When I have down time, I get bored.”

She could play most anywhere on the soccer field but is most important to Ashland defensively, according to her coach. Still, the Ladycats like to bring Davis up for set plays, such as corners and direct and indirect kicks. She scored three goals in a game earlier this season.

“Lucy is not very big, but she has a strong leg,” Lowman said.

Davis and Bourbon County player Courtney Tyra became good friends at Centre College this summer. Last weekend, Davis helped Ashland beat Tyra’s team 4-0 to avenge a Sweet 16 loss from a year ago..

“Soccer is my passion,” said Davis, who hopes to play at Centre, Georgetown College or Transylvania University.   

Like their other classmates, Patel, Leistner and Salyers called the Governor’s Scholar Program a great experience.

Patel, who plans to study engineering or pharmacy, had cultural anthropology as a focus area.

“We studied religions and rituals,” she said. “My other class was about conspiracy theories. We learned about the Enron scandal.”   

Sans cell phones

To promote interaction at GSP, scholars were not permitted to carry cell phones or I-phones outside their dorm rooms.

“It helps you to make friends,” Patel said. “There were always activities going on. You don’t miss the technology until you come home.”

Patel suffered a potential season-ending knee injury early in the season against Russell but will continue to attend games and support her teammates.

“I love the soccer team,” she said. “It’s a tight-knit family we have.”

Leistner sat out last season because of asthma but has returned to find a niche at forward for the Ladycats.

“I couldn’t run before,” she said. “Now I’m on a different part of the field and everything is a lot better.”

Leistner’s emphasis as a Governor’s Scholar was astronomy.

“We actually built a telescope with PVC pipe that worked great,” she said. “You could see the rings of Saturn. We also saw some shooting stars.”

Salyers also studied astronomy.

“It was really fun,” she said. “I’m just sad that a lot of the friends I made from central and western Kentucky live so far away. We already planned reunions.”

Although Salyers would love to play college soccer, her goal is to study pre-med at the University of Kentucky.

ROCKY STANLEY can be reached at rstanley@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2671.