Friends Senior wins National Football Foundation Scholarship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 30, 2009
Contact: Amy Mortimer / 410-649-3232

Baltimore, MD — On March 11, 2009, Kurt Herzog ’09 received double honors from the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation at their annual Scholar Athlete Dinner.  First, Kurt was chosen as a running back on the Academic All-State Football team.  He joins 27 other area scholar-athletes on the team who represent the “best and the brightest senior high school football athletes in the Baltimore Region for the 2008 season,” according to the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation program.

Kurt’s second honor came later in the evening when he was selected to receive a $5,000 college scholarship.  The Foundation has awarded $305,000 dollars over the past 45 years to more than 3,400 athletes. Kurt was one of five players to be awarded a scholarship this year out of an outstanding group of 95 scholar-athletes.

“Kurt is an ideal Friends athlete,” Athletic Director Keith Wilford commented after Herzog’s accomplishment. “He consistently understands the balance between life and athletics.”  Kurt has played many sports while at Friends and as a member of the Students Supporting Athletics group has also been very instrumental in the athletic department.  In a speech he delivered for the Fall Athletic Awards ceremony, Kurt remarked how important athletics were to him and what it meant to him to be a member of the teams. “The great thing about athletics at Friends is that it is seen as an essential part of the education, an extension of the classroom.  (The Friends athletic) attitude is responsible for the great social experience that I have had at Friends.”

As a football player, Kurt led the Quakers to their best season in several years.  He was almost always on the field. He played everything from running back to tailback as well as defensive back.  Occasionally he threw a few passes as quarterback and was also on the special teams unit.  “He could do whatever the team needed.  He had great drive to play at the best level and he was always ready,” commented Friends Head Football Coach Tom LaMonica ’68.  He joined the Squash team for the first time this past winter and was a real asset.  This spring he will play as a midfielder for the Quakers’ lacrosse team.

Kurt Herzog is the first Friends School recipient of the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation scholarship.