MAPLE — Northwestern High School senior Tanner Kaufman is one of 32 students from across the state selected to receive to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association's 2023 Scholar Athlete Award.
More than 840 student athletes were nominated for the 2023 award, according to a news release from the WIAA. A total of 16 boys and 16 girls will be recognized during an awards ceremony on Sunday, May 7 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Wausau.
Kaufman earned eight varsity letters in football, wrestling and track and field, while maintaining a 3.75 grade-point average.
During his senior wrestling season, Kaufman was the WIAA Division 2 state runner-up at 170 pounds. He was also selected to the Superior Telegram's All-Area Football Teams both in 2021 and 2022.
As for additional extracurricular activities, Kaufman was part of Northwestern's Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Student Athletic Leadership Team (SALT) and on the student council for three years. Furthermore, he spent two years in the "N" Club and one year in Tiger Manufacturing.
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In his essay, Kaufman wrote about several lessons he learned from participating in school sports, including leadership.
"Being a captain put a whole new perspective on leadership for me. I learned how to work with every kid on the team no matter what our differences were," he wrote. "I learned how to balance helping struggling kids improve, while also improving myself. These leadership positions helped me gain a better understanding of how to work with others and lead my peers through different situations."
Kaufman plans to study economics and play football at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
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