Alamosa Athletics looks to recognize students

Alamosa senior Emily Crowder was the first recognized with the ‘You Make a Difference’ award. (Courtesy AHS)

ALAMOSA — You make a difference. That’s the message that Alamosa’s Athletic Department is spreading to the Mean Moose student body. The seed was planted at a Colorado Athletic Directors Association (CADA) convention.

Melgoza’s fellow directors discussed the topic of a coin program being implemented at their respective schools. Melgoza brought the idea back to Athletic/Activities Assistant Connie Childers and the two stewed on it over the summer.  “I think an honor coin is pretty cool, but I mentioned a dog tag and Connie really liked the idea so we went with a dog tag.” said Melgoza, thus the ‘You Make a Difference’ Award at Alamosa High School was born. The athletics office explained that these awards will be finite and that those recognized will be a select few.

While the award can only be presented by Melgoza and Childers, that doesn’t restrict recipients to the strictly athletic. “The big thing that we want to get across to kids is it’s not just for athletes, it’s for activities, it’s for anybody in the school as far as a student at AHS that we see make a difference,” said Melgoza of the award. “It may be something in the lunchroom where they’re cleaning up after somebody else, it could be our drama people just performing so well that they’re just going above and beyond, and it may be one of our athletes that does something well.”

The first award winner at Alamosa has since been named.  Softball’s senior pitcher Emily Crowder was recognized during Alamosa’s Softball VPV Tournament at Platte Valley High School on the weekend of August 23rd. In three games at the tournament, the Moose would fall short by one run. Despite that, Crowder was a calming presence to her team during what would have been a stressful three games. The Alamosa senior was also seen as well as a good sporting role model; leading by example, competing through adversity.

“Her leadership, you could feel her presence, and I think that’s what made a difference in her team.” As a result, Melgoza felt that Crowder showed the positive qualities that they are hoping to cultivate further at AHS. “It’s not always about winning, it’s how they compete, and how they carry themselves… hopefully, we see kids do that every day just walking the halls at Alamosa High School.”