Ruiz, Emerson finish at top

Leaders on and off the field for the Beatrice Orangemen and Lady Orange this year, Zach Ruiz and Chloe Emerson ended their senior campaigns by taking the top honors at the annual Beatrice High School Orange and Black Athletic Banquet Saturday night.

Ruiz was named as the winner of the Cook Trophy as the outstanding male athlete for the Orangemen in 2007-08, while Emerson received the Uhl’s Award as the outstanding female athlete.

The awards highlighted honors presented during the annual sports banquet.

Voting for the Cook and Uhl’s awards is a two-step process with all high school coaches voting on a pool of all senior athletes initially and then a second round with final honorees being selected from a pool of top vote-getters by head coaches.

Both Ruiz and Emerson said receiving the awards means a lot to them.

“It means a lot,” Ruiz said, “knowing the coaches respect me and think I did a good job here.”

Having been in the Beatrice program for just two years made it an even bigger honor, Ruiz said.

“This feels good,” Ruiz said, “it’s a big honor.”

Ruiz competed for Beatrice for two years after his family moved to the community from Virginia, but had a big impact as a leader in both football and boys basketball.

The senior quarterback helped lead the Orangemen to the state football semifinals the past two seasons and had a hand in Beatrice winning the 2008 Class B State boys basketball title.

Ruiz said being “coachable” was one of his biggest assets in high school.

“I understand things,” Ruiz said. “If coaches tell me to do something, I’ll usually do it the first time and I learn from mistakes, if I make mistakes.”

Coming into a new school as a junior was “really hard,” Ruiz said, but added Beatrice’s coaches and his teammates made the transition much easier.

“Everybody helped me and it made it a lot easier,” Ruiz said. “They all acted like I’d been here all the time and made me a part of the group. They accepted me right away and that felt good.”

Highlights for Ruiz during his career at Beatrice include defeating Omaha Gross 63-62 in overtime in the Class B State football quarterfinals and winning the state title in basketball.

“I’d never won a state championship and it was great,” Ruiz said.

Being a high school athlete takes a certain amount of determination, Ruiz said.

“You have to workout everyday,” Ruiz said. “You also have to be good in school, too. School comes first, because it’s most important.”

While his prep career is over, more football lies in Ruiz’ future.

This spring, Ruiz accepted an invitation by the Nebraska football program to be a recruited walk-on.

Ruiz said he plans to report for summer classes at Nebraska June 8 and begin conditioning for the fall football season.

“It will be pretty exciting,” Ruiz said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

If he could leave one bit of advise with Beatrice’s underclassmen, Ruiz said it would be to “study first.”

“You have to study first before sports,” Ruiz said. “Then you can work hard in sports.”

Along with being named as the Uhl’s Award winner, Emerson was one of three senior athletes honored for being a three-sport participant all four years of her high school career.

Emerson competed in golf, basketball and soccer, which combined for 12 seasons of athletic competition.

The other two honored as four-year, three-sport athletes in this year’s senior class were Desi Bartels and Mallory Johnsen.

Bartels competed in cross country, swimming and track, while Johnson competed in softball, basketball, track and tennis.

Receiving the outstanding female athlete award was a “real honor,” Emerson said.

“It’s a real honor to have my name with a lot of great athletes from the past,” Emerson said.

Emerson said she’s “worked hard” playing three sports each year.

“You don’t get any breaks,” Emerson said. “Most of the seasons run right from one to the other.”

It takes some effort to manage competing in back-to-back-to-back seasons and still keep up with the academic side of things, Emerson said.

Being a three-sport athlete and staying with those sports all four years resulted in teammates “looking up” to her, Emerson said.

“They saw the success that came with hard work,” Emerson said.

Emerson will continue her athletic career as a member of the womens golf team at Rockhurt University in Kansas City, Mo.

“I’m pretty excited,” Emerson said. “I will probably have a chance to play with the varsity as a freshman.”

The senior said she also knew she wanted to play college sports.

“I always thought I’d play golf, for sure,” Emerson said.

Winning the Class B State golf championships, as a team and as an individual, this past fall were the highlights of her high school athletic career, Emerson said. Another highlight was defeating Lincoln Pius in the girls basketball district final and advancing to state as a senior.

Emerson said the best advice she can leave underclassmen is to “stick with it.”

“Just stick with it and never give up,” Emerson said.

Among the other awards presented Saturday night were the Orange and Black Scholarships, which are given annually to qualifying athletes in each high school sport by the Orange Booster Club.

This year’s scholarship winners were Cassie Baete-Jobman, softball; Ryan Root, boys cross country; Ruiz, football; McKenzie Wiese, volleyball; Tommy Luers, boys tennis; Marni Stuart, girls golf; Devin Schroeder, wrestling; Courtney Wallman, girls basketball; Lydia Wagner, girls swimming and diving; Mike Fox, boys basketball; Bobbi Millwood, girls track; Austin Niedfeldt, boys track; Mac Henning, boys soccer; Emerson, girls soccer; Johnsen, girls tennis; and Justin Wittler, baseball.