Belgreen's Billingham wins 1A Bryant-Jordan Award

By Staff
Belgreen senior Mary Billingham was named the Class 1A winner of the Bryant-Jordan Award.
Billingham was a four-sport athlete and honor student at Belgreen, where she helped the Lady Bulldogs win the area championship in basketball. She also played softball and ran cross-country and track, which placed third at the state meet this spring.
Billingham received $4,500 in scholarships and will attend the University of North Alabama this fall.
She also has won the "There's A Way" and Robert C. Byrd honors scholarships, plus an academic scholarship to UNA.
The Bryant-Jordan Foundation, which gave out more than $400,000 in scholarship money this spring, recognizes excellence in athletics and academics.
The student-athlete program is named in honor of the late coaches Paul "Bear" Bryant of Alabama and Ralph "Shug" Jordan of Auburn.
Each of the eight region winners per class received a $1,500 scholarship. The overall winner in each class received an additional $3,000 scholarship.
From that select group in each category came the overall winner, who received an additional $3,000 scholarship. This year's overall winner was Trae Strain of Woodland.
In addition to the individual awards, the school of each class winner will receive $2,000 and the school of each overall winner will receive an additional $1,000.
– from staff reports