Award Winner Profile

AR-301089907

Haley Wagner 2013 Taylor Haugen Award

Award: Taylor Haugen Award

Award Year: 2013

Organization: Baker School

Winner Sport: Basketball

Home Town: Baker, FL

The All Sports Association applauds Haley Wagner for earning the 2013 Taylor
Haugen Trophy.

The award was based on Haley’s outstanding commitment to Christian faith, athletics, community service, academics, and leadership and was presented this morning at the Buck Smith Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Breakfast in front of more than 1,000 students representing the FCA groups at our area middle/high schools. Haley is an accomplished senior excelling and serving as team captain in varsity volleyball and basketball at Baker School.

On the court, Haley is an effective middle blocker and steady force for the Gator volleyball team. This season, her competitive team captured the Regional Championship and made the FHSAA State Final Four Tournament. She has also developed into the floor leader as the starting point guard for the Gator basketball squad. As the Gators’ assist leader her last two seasons, this consummate team player enters her senior year aiming to continue feeding her teammates the ball and surpass her 104 assists for this District Championship-winning group. As her opponents might attest, she has an uncanny ability to “see the floor” and clearly knows the importance of putting the success of her team ahead of personal goals. She received the basketball team’s “Floor General” award during the school’s awards ceremony last spring.

Academically, Haley is ranked #1 in her class with a 4.56 weighted/4.0 unweighted GPA. She serves as the President of the BETA Honor Society, President of Mu Alpha Theta, Chair of the Gifted and Talented Program, and Treasurer of the Student Government Association. In addition to being a 2011 Florida Scholars Award winner, the Anne T. Mitchell Academic Award and the Baker School High Honors Award have been awarded to Haley each of the last three years. She is projected to graduate with 43 dual-enrolled college credit hours and plans to attend the University of West Florida to study nursing.

Haley was named the school’s 2012 winner of the Wendy’s Heisman Trophy for her excellence in school, sports, and community service. Her contributions in the community include more than 300 community service hours. She freely gives of her time as a youth basketball/volleyball coach and values her opportunity to work with kids. Because God has shown her that participation with the children is an important part of His will for her life, she also enjoys serving at her church as a Vacation Bible School teacher, a children’s camp counselor, a children’s choir teacher assistant, a children’s church worship leader, and a nursery infant caregiver.

All of Haley’s recent accomplishments have been achieved despite the onset of a significant obstacle: at age 11, Haley was diagnosed with Monogenic Diabetes, a rare form found in less than 5 of all diabetes occurrences in young people. Management of this illness requires a difficult and round-the-clock commitment to balancing diet, exercise, and rest—a challenge compounded with high-level athletics. Through her faith in God, she constantly overcomes the fatigue and mental stresses associated with her illness and other day-to-day adversities. Though it would be easy to quit, she hears God’s message loud and clear: “Through Me, you will.” Haley often recalls Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” According to Haley, “God’s plan for my life is so much bigger and better than anything I could dream up and achieve on my own. On my own, giving up would have been so easy. But through His strength, I have been able to persevere to fulfill God’s plan for my life.”

We congratulate Haley for her service, her perseverance, and her faith. Haley is the daughter of Brian and Lori Wagner. She is the sister of older brother Logan and younger sister Emma.