The Woodstock-Midday Optimist Club each year honors one male and one female high school athlete for their academic excellence.  This year’s honorees are River Ridge High School junior Parker Nayman and sophomore Steven Spears.

Parker is a member of the basketball and track teams and is a competition cheerleader.  On the basketball team, she is the second leading scorer and fourth on the team in assists and was selected for the 7AA All-Region Second Team and for the All-County Second Teams selected by the Cherokee Tribune and Cherokee Ledger News.  As far as her track success, she holds the school record in the 400 with a time of 65 seconds and, in what has been her first year in track, helped lead the Lady Knights to their first Girls Region Championship.

Steve is a member of the football and basketball teams.  In his first year as quarterback, Spears led the team to an 8-2 record and had 5 rushing touchdowns, 6 passing touchdowns, one rushing 2-point conversion, one passing 2-point conversion, 380 yards rushing and 340 yards passing.  On the basketball team, he led the team in both assists and steals, was second on the team in scoring and was named to the All-Sub-Region and All-County First Teams.