MISSOULA — We're back for the second day of unveiling the KPAX Sports Awards nominees, and today we'll meet the finalists from Valley Christian High School, and the female nominee is Emersyn DeGroot and the male nominee is Elijah Fisher.
DeGroot has been a three-sport athlete for the Eagles in volleyball, basketball and tennis.
She was a team captain in volleyball and basketball this past fall and winter, and has been an academic all-state selection in all three of her sports.
In the classroom, DeGroot is a 4.0 student and has achieved highest honors at the school every year, and has been the class president the past two years, as well as a member of the national honors society.
DeGroot will be staying right here in town for her next step, as she'll attend the University of Montana where she plans to study business.
"They've meant a lot to me," DeGroot said. "I've done sports pretty much every season that I could. I love it. It's so nice to be active and the main part that I really love is getting connected with my team whether it be upperclassmen or underclassmen, it's just meant so much to develop friendships so that's the main reason I really go out and play sports."
Fisher has been a standout in football and basketball for Valley Christian.
The past two seasons he's been a team captain in both sports and was an all-state selection in football as a senior as he led the Eagles to the 8-Man playoffs.
With a 3.5 GPA, Fisher has been academic all-state every year and is also a leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
He'll also be staying in Missoula for school as he'll attend UM and study pre-engineering with hopes of walking on to the Grizzly football team.
"All the sports at Valley Christian have pretty much meant the world to me," Fisher said. "They've helped me not just physically and through workouts and endurance, they've actually helped me mentally too. You go through a lot of mental stuff when you're going through high school, you go through insecurities and things like that but sports just really give you a base and a foundation for those things that you go through."
Those are the representatives from Valley Christian, and on Friday, we'll introduce you to the nominees from Big Sky High School.
