Brevin Egbert and Carley Sexton were named the 2024 NIAAA National Student Athlete Scholarship winners. They were selected by the NIAAA board of directors during their annual July meetings.
Every year two national winners are selected from the pool of NIAAA section scholarship winners – 16 student-athletes in all. The national winners are chosen based on their notable scholastic, leadership, and sportsmanship qualities, as well as community involvement.
The scholarship awarded each year by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) to one male and one female student-athlete is a one-time award of $2,500 for higher education.
Sexton is a graduate of Greenwood High School in Greenwood, Arkansas. The athletic
director is Chris Young and Sexton’s parents are Aaron and Crystal Sexton. Sexton graduated with a 4.09 GPA and was a two-sport athlete at Greenwood. She participated in softball for two years and basketball for three years. In softball, she contributed to the team earning runner-up in the state tournament. On the basketball team, Sexton helped the team earn a state title and she was named all-conference in 2023 and all-state in 2022.
As a leader in her school, Sexton was a member of the Student Leadership Team, the
Fundraising committee, Spanish club, and mentored freshmen at Greenwood. Furthermore, Sexton was the vice president of finance for the Greenwood High School Health Occupations Students of America.
In her local community, Sexton was an active member at her church – Fellowship
Baptist. She was on their hospitality team, a member of the Mission Team, and was
active in their youth group. In addition, for close to six years Sexton volunteered for the
Special Olympics.
In Sexton’s essay she wrote for the NIAAA student scholarship program, she wrote
about the time and effort she put into high school sports, and how failure is never final.
“It might seem simple to some, but through athletics, I learned you are not a failure if it
takes a while to learn it. Setbacks are opportunities to learn,” Sexton wrote.
Both Egbert and Sexton were invited to the 55th National Athletic Directors Conference in
Austin, Texas in December 2024. They were given the chance to read their scholarship essays, as well as receive a glass etching which recognizes them as national winners. Sexton was unable to attend the conference, but accepting in her place, her brothers, Travis Cooper and Noah Sexton. Also present at the Conference, Chris Young. The award was presented by Tol Gropp, CMAA – NIAAA Board President, Director of Athletics, Timberline High School, Boise, ID.
For a student to apply for and receive the scholarship at the state, section, or national
level, they must meet distinguished requirements. This includes a certain level of
athletic and academic achievements, amongst other rigorous criteria. Their athletic
director must also be an NIAAA member. To learn more, visit https://niaaa.org/awards-recognition.
