Bellefonte’s Krout, Stone win Snyder Awards

June 10--Grant Stone and Kylie Krout were the recipients of the James Snyder Award at Bellefonte High School on Monday night.

The award, sponsored by the Centre Daily Times, is given in memory of Snyder, a former CDT sports editor, who was killed in an automobile accident in December of 1957. The award is given to the male and female letterwinners who also demonstrated excellence in the classroom as well as being good citizens in the school and community.

Stone captained the Red Raider soccer team this past season, playing forward and helping the team to the District 6 Class AA semifinals. He scored the game-winning goal on a penalty kick to beat Huntingdon 1-0 in the quarterfinals, and earned All-State honors as a senior in completing his fourth season with the varsity.

"That was awesome -- definitely a high-pressure moment," Stone said of booting the game-winning penalty kick. "I knew I could step up and make it count. It was definitely a good feeling knowing we lost the previous game to them (the week before) so it was a revenge game. It felt good to do that."

Stone also was the senior class president, served on the student council, is the student school board representative, ranks fourth in his class with a 98.9256 average, is a National Merit Commended Student, won the AP Scholar Award, is a member of the National Honor Society and also serves on the superintendent's student advisory board. He has been on the Model UN, has worked as a youth soccer referee and has volunteered with the Special Olympics and for blood drives.

Stone plans to study systems engineering at Penn State'sDepartment of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering this fall.

"Ever since I was young I always thought engineering was something I wanted to pursue," Stone said. "I've always enjoyed math and science, and I wanted to translate that into business, and I felt that was a field I'd be able to do that in."

He is pondering trying to join the club soccer team when he gets on campus.

"It's definitely disappointing to know my career is over and I'll never lace up the boots for Bellefonte again," Stone said. "But at the same time, it was a fun, awesome experience the last four years. It was a blast."

Krout was a three-year member of the volleyball team as a defensive specialist, playing in the back row for the Lady Red Raiders.

"I'm really going to miss playing volleyball," Krout said. "The past three years, we weren't the best team but we always had fun together. Playing with everybody and working together as a team, it was great."

She ranks sixth in her class of 182 with a 97.9736 average and is a member of the National Honor Society. She is her class secretary, worked on the yearbook staff and was vice president of the key club as well as a member of the Future Business Leaders of America, earning three first-place awards at the FBLA's regional leadership conference.

She plans to take her business and math acumen to Penn State, where she will study statistics.

"I really love math, so I want to go into business somehow with that," Krout said. "Or like health insurance, with the statistics. Math is always fun, in my opinion. ... I like how always with math you have a right answer. It's never iffy either you're right or wrong. There's no guessing."

She also was on the Lock Haven math competition team and has volunteered with the United Way, Make-A-Wish, Alex's Lemonade Stand, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Kiwanis Club and the Red Cross.

"I feel like volunteering your time, doing what you can," Krout said, "and when you're finished knowing that made someone's day better, you helped someone out. That feeling is just so awesome and I love being able to do that."

Both are eager for graduation Wednesday -- with some mixed feelings for the end of high school.

"I'm really excited," Krout said, "but I'm also sad to be leaving these people because I've known most of them for the past 13 years and they're all I've known and now we have to go our separate ways. It's kind of scary."

"I'm looking forward to it," Stone said, "but I still have a speech to write. Otherwise I'm very excited."

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