ASF Student Athlete Scholarship Winners 2026!

For the seventh year, we are so proud to announce the recipients of the ASF Student Athlete Scholarship Fund!

Our community went above and beyond this time – we smashed our fundraising goal and raised $14,000! This enabled us to select seven amazing students for this year’s scholarship. Our 2026 winners are Sally Butler, Melea Carman, Amanda Kromer, Kate Loudamy, Megan O’Leary, Kean Olles, and Sebastian Segura.

The students always make it challenging to select the winners, as every application essay resonates with humanity and passion for sports. Each applicant told us about a lesson they learned through athletics, or a challenge they have overcome through it. 

As our selection committee (our staff!) considers the essays, interesting themes always emerge. This year, many writers mentioned feeling burned out by the sport they had been playing. We all experience this feeling in life from time to time. What was striking was the ways in which the students dealt with that feeling. For a few, it meant making changes in other areas of their lives, while several others either took a break or quit their sports entirely. But none gave up on athletics altogether. Even if they weren’t thriving on the basketball team, they still understood that sports benefitted their lives, and they tried something totally new. This resilience and ability to adapt will carry them far into their futures!

To date, the ASF Student Athlete Scholarship Fund has awarded $52,000 to 45 students. We owe it all to our generous community! Thank you!

Meet our winners:

Sally Butler

McCallum High School

Sport: Soccer

What are your interests outside of sports? Although soccer is a huge part of my life, I am very passionate about psychology. After taking AP Psychology in my junior year, I discovered my intrigue in behavior science. Specifically, in understanding how people think, make decisions, and interact in social environments. I’m excited about the opportunity to learn, research, and explore both cognitive neuroscience and social behavior in college.

What do you aspire to be? I aspire to work with adolescents in the field of applied behavior analysis. In this profession, I will work to help solve behavior-related issues in all sorts of environments with children, which is something very personal to me, as I was diagnosed with severe generalized anxiety when I was very young. I have done a lot of work to help manage my anxiety, but it is still something I deal with daily. With this career, I hope to make a difference with kids struggling with different mental health disorders.

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Melea Carman

McCallum High School

Sports: Archery and Marching Band

What are your interests outside of sports? I love art (specifically ceramics), playing music, movies, volunteering, and crafts.

What do you aspire to be? I aspire to be someone who connects with people. I have no idea what I am going to do or where I will be, but I do know I want to be kind and help people wherever I can.

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Amanda Kromer

L.C. Anderson High School

Sports: Softball, Powerlifting, and Girls’ Flag Football.

What are your interests outside of sports? I am passionate about justice, advocacy, mental health awareness, and suicide prevention.

What do you aspire to be? I aspire to be a lawyer, and possibly a Senator or Supreme Court Justice. 

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Kate Loudamy

Austin High School

Sports: Soccer and Track

What are your interests outside of sports? Outside of athletics I am passionate about making the people in my life feel valued and cared for. Sometimes this is just squeezing in a walk or a quick lunch to catch up. Other times it is baking a birthday cake to make their day a little extra special. I even got voted most likely to win the British Baking Show by my soccer teammates because of how often I brought cookies to practice. My friends and family play a huge role in who I am so I love to make sure they know just how much I appreciate them. I enjoy seeing a smile across their face or laughing alongside them. 

What do you aspire to be? Being diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in 8th grade was more than just a condition for me. It meant dealing with blood tests, x-rays, and MRIs, but instead of focusing on these challenges, I became fascinated by the biology behind my condition. I peppered my rheumatologist with questions, wanting to understand why my immune system was attacking my body, why my knee was the only joint affected, and how medications could alter my immune pathways to provide relief.

In high school, my interest continued in the classroom. I took classes like AP Biology and Biomedical Science that allowed me to dive deeper into these topics. Outside the classroom, I volunteered at a healthcare clinic where I had the opportunity to practice assisting patients, and shadowed an orthopedic surgeon, where I experienced the OR in action. I cannot wait to continue my biology education in college, where my degree will prepare me to launch my career in medicine.

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Megan O’Leary

Austin High School

Sports: Waterpolo (co-captain) and Swimming

What are your interests outside of sports? I am the Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta, a national math honor society. I tutor in math ranging from Algebra 1 up to AP Calculus, including AP Statistics. As a dual language speaker, I speak to kids in both English and Spanish to ensure they understand the concepts. 

Outside of school, I am passionate about arts and crafts, spending time with family and friends, and studying Spanish. I journal every night to help me stay mindful and ensure I am constantly improving myself. I love spending time with my family and friends, whether that is baking cookies with my mom or playing pinochle with my family. And I read Spanish literature weekly to build a better vocabulary and knowledge of the language.

What do you aspire to be? I would like to be a research scientist who studies women’s diseases, such as endometriosis and breast cancer. I’ve viewed firsthand how the lack of research surrounding women’s diseases has impacted people in my community. I hope to research these diseases to provide answers for women who have had their lives impacted.

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Kean Olles

L.C. Anderson High School

Sport: Varsity Soccer

What are your interests outside of sports? I am passionate about helping my community. One of my favorite things I did was 100+ hours volunteering at my local elementary school to help Spanish-speaking students learn English (I am trilingual).

What do you aspire to be? I aspire to be a mechanical engineer. I have pursued engineering coursework since middle school and am driven by the challenge of building solutions that serve a purpose.

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Sebastian Segura

James Bowie High School

Sport: Basketball

What are your interests outside of sports? I am passionate about traveling, trying new foods, making and editing videos, meeting new people, and community service.

What do you aspire to be? I want to go into the field of medicine and be an anesthesiologist or a family practitioner.