Congratulations to the winner of the 2017 Convention Scholarship — Matt Deinlein.
We had six applicants in this process and any one of them would have been a solid choice. The selection was made by the membership committee AND three outside individuals (sports officials). I would like to share some of their unsolicited comments about all of our candidates:
“Thanks for asking for my help, I appreciate it. I feel you guys have an excellent pool of talented individuals to choose from. I took several factors into consideration when making my list: perceived effort in the application essay itself, tenure of involvement in lacrosse, goals of what to do with the experience gained.” (HS & Collegiate Baseball Official, Wisconsin)
“First, thanks for asking me to assist with the task of awarding this scholarship. Officiating has been a part of my life for 30 years now and I’m excited to help someone have an opportunity to further not only their own officiating career, but also others’, even though it’s in a different sport.” (HS & Collegiate Basketball Official, Indiana)
“This is harder than I thought it would be. They all make a good argument.” (Youth Football Coach/Official, Indiana)
Our first round actually generated a tie. To break the tie, we went back to the non-ILOA panel members and had them rank ONLY the two candidates that were tied. In the end, it was Matt Deinlein 2 to 1, with Dave Levine as the runner-up.
Thanks,
Chris Purvis
