KHS, Sabine and KC top student athletes honored
ROTARY SCHOLAR ATHLETES BANQUET
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

SMART SPORTS STARS - Athletes from Kilgore High School, Kilgore College and Sabine High School were honored Thursday night at the annual Kilgore Rotary Club Scholar Athletes Banquet. Pictured (from left): Whitney Brown, Kilgore; Robert Shook, Kilgore; Filip Perunicic, Kilgore College; Jovana Petrovic, Kilgore College; Travis Daniel, Sabine; Chelsea Headley, Sabine. Below: the banquet's keynote speaker, former Baylor University baseball player and KHS standout Bobby Beane, shares a word with Shook.

In the mid 1980s, Kilgore Rotarian Richard Rorschach was on a trip to Houston, where he saw a college athlete honored by the Rotary Club there, and that's how the local version of the Rotary Club's Scholar Athletes Banquet was born.

Some 23 years later, the Kilgore Rotary Club is still honoring student athletes from Kilgore High School, Kilgore College and Sabine High School, and the latest version of the banquet was held Thursday night at Kilgore College's Devall Student Center banquet room.

This year's honorees: Robert Shook and Whitney Brown of Kilgore High School; Chelsea Headley and Travis Daniel of Sabine High; and Filip Peruniete and Jovana Petrovic, both originally from Serbia and both basketball players at KC.

The keynote speaker at the banquet this year was Kilgore native and athlete Bobby Beane, also a former Baylor University baseball standout.

In addition to being honored at the banquet, the six students selected receives a gift from the club as well as a cash scholarship.

• Whitney Brown: One thing of which no one can accuse Whitney Brown is being lazy.

Brown is No. 14 in her senior class, spent her high school career as a cheerleader, and took part on the field in softball, soccer and volleyball. She was a member of all sorts of clubs, as well, and also a part of the Citizens Bank student board.

And on top of all that, she took a trip with her church, Highland Park Baptist Church, to Honduras.

Whitney, who will pursue a degree in the medical field at Texas A&M University following graduation, lists her first soccer goal and being named a homecoming princess as her most memorable high school moments.

She is the daughter of Mike and Jennifer Brown, and said her parents were her biggest inspiration.

• Robert Shook: A young man who was once job shadowed in the Kilgore News Herald's sports department, Robert decided to go out for football in his sophomore year in school. As a result, he was named to the All-State Academic Football Team.

He is in the top 10 in the 2008 graduating class at KHS, and has a 4.0 GPA. He's participated on the school's yearbook and newspaper staffs, as well as band, FCA, and other activities.

The son of Sondra and Rick Shook (and he lists them as his biggest influences in his life), Robert plans to attend KC following his graduation, and transfer to Baylor, where he will major in computer science.

• Chelsea Headley: Here's one senior who's had a very busy life in and out of the classroom this week.

Headley helped the Sabine Lady Cardinals softball team to the No. 2 playoff seed in District 15-3A, and then to a firstround playoff win over Pleasant Grove on Tuesday night.

In addition to being a cornerstone of the softball team, Headley also participated in track and field and in basketball over the course of her four-year high school career. She's been all-district in softball, and plans to attend Kilgore College, then the University of Texas at Tyler after graduation from Sabine.

She is also a member of art, Spanish and Anchor clubs at Sabine, and was homecoming queen and prom queen. She said her dad, Scott Dee Headley, and sister, Cassie, have been her biggest influences, and that her most memorable moment was an 18-inning win over Spring Hill, and last year's district and area championships.

• Travis Daniel: Daniel is a multi-sport athlete at Sabine, having participated in football and cross-country this year, but also competed for the Cardinals in baseball, track and field and powerlifting over the course of his high school career.

He is a member of the Anchor and Spanish clubs, and said his most memorable moment in athletics at Sabine was getting stitches in his knee.

He also plans to attend Kilgore College after graduation and major in mechanical engineering, possibly including a career in the Army. He is the son of Steve Daniel and Rebecca Stuckey.

• Jovana Petrovic: Twenty-two year-old "Jo" was born in Serbia in 1986, and made her way to the Kilgore College campus by the route of basketball, where she played for the Lady Rangers and coach Roy Thomas.

She plans to transfer from KC to the University of California in Irvine and go into a career in biomedical engineering. She is the daughter of Slobodan and Lidija Petrovic.

• Filip Perunicic: Another Kilgore College basketball standout, Filip was also Serbianborn, to Ljubinka and Zarije Perunicic, and in high school, was named the best defender in soccer in Belgrade. He also won a national high school gold medal.

Filip said being selected as the best young player in basketball on the European championship in Switzerland in 2003 was his most memorable sports moment, and that at KC, his most memorable moment on the court was scoring 18 points, hitting all his shots and free throws in a game against Montgomery College.

He also said his brother Stefan was his best teammate ever, and is still his greatest motivator.

After he leaves KC, he would love to transfer to a university, major in business, and perhaps one day pursue a career playing professional basketball in Europe.