Staff reporter
Ss. Peter and Paul senior is a finalist for the Wendy’s High School Heisman for academics and athletics
EASTON, Md. – Around the Ss. Peter and Paul High School campus, everyone knows Emily Granger. She is a three-sport standout athlete and active in several other extracurricular activities, and she has distinguished herself academically as well. In a few weeks, the entire country will meet her.
Granger is one of 12 high school seniors from around the country who is a finalist for the 2013 Wendy’s High School Heisman, which recognizes students based on academics, athletics, community leadership and extracurricular activities during their freshman through junior years. [Granger won the women’s award at a banquet in New York City Dec. 13. The broadcast aired on ESPN2 on Dec. 15 at 3 p.m.]
Granger was happy enough being the state winner from Maryland, let alone winning.*
“I was thrilled,” she said last week. “I was just so shocked. I didn’t expect this in Maryland, which is filled with amazing athletes.”
(One of two Delaware state winners was Kennedy Wong, a senior at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington.)
Her list of accomplishments is strong. In the classroom, according to information on the Wendy’s High School Heisman website (www.wendyshighschoolheisman.com), Granger is ranked second in her class and has won several academic awards. She was named an Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction based on her performance on AP exams.
Athletically, she plays three sports, all of them well. She was captain of the soccer team and its most valuable player for two years, and she holds school records for goals scored and assists. The Sabres won the Eastern Shore Independent Athletic Conference (ESIAC) championship in the recently completed season.
Emily Granger, a three-sport athlete and AP Scholar with Distinction at Ss. Peter and Paul High School in Easton, Md., is one of 12 national finalists for the Wendy’s High School Heisman.
In the winter, Granger played three years of varsity basketball and was all-ESIAC in each of those years. This winter, she has given up basketball and will swim for the Sabres instead.
It’s lacrosse, however, that Granger considers her strongest sport. She has been on the varsity squad since her freshman year and was the captain and team most valuable player last year. Granger has earned all-conference honors each year, has twice been all-district, and last year she was all-state.
She will continue her lacrosse career next year, most likely at Yale University. Granger can’t wait to get to the Ivy League school, where she said she will major in math or science.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to know that my hard work is paying off,” she said.
Her school activities include Key Club, Health Careers Club, Lectio Divina, peer-tutoring and Pro-Life Club. She also helped with the senior class retreat. She has worked at an open gym for kids with disabilities at Kent Island Elementary School and at a community environmental day.
A foundation in faith
A resident of Grasonville, Md., and a parishioner at St. Christopher’s in Chester, Md., Granger has attended Ss. Peter and Paul since kindergarten. It’s a 30- to 35-minute commute each way, but she said it has been worth the travel.
“It’s just a place that has brought me up, it has made me grow into the person I am today. It’s an amazing place to get an education,” she said.
The school community got together Nov. 18 for an assembly where her nomination was announced. After word got out that she had been named a national finalist, her schoolmates were as excited as she was, she said.
Granger received the celebrity treatment after that. A photographer spent two days shooting her in the classroom and on the athletic field; ESPN sent a crew to the school and her house to record her daily activities for the award banquet and national broadcast.
Granger is looking forward to the New York trip. She has looked at the High School Heisman website and said every nominee has strong qualifications.
She is the third of four sisters to attend Ss. Peter and Paul. Two are older, and her younger sister is a freshman.
“My parents really wanted the Catholic foundation, so they thought the drive was the least of their worries when it came to school,” she said.
Apparently, it was time well spent.
