As a captain of the Georgiana varsity boys basketball team, senior Richard Boggan is used to calling the shots.

But last week, the student-athlete decided on a rather important course of action for the future of Georgiana sports.

As the recipient of the 2016 Class 1A Bryant-Jordan Achiever Award—the first-ever award granted to a student-athlete in Butler County—Boggan earned his school an additional $2,000 donation from the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship program, with one catch.

“The stipulation behind the donation from the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship award is that the student athlete had to have say-so in where the money is spent inside the athletic program,” said Bryant Marlow, principal of Georgiana School.

“So what Richard did, since he played all three sports—football, basketball and baseball—at Georgiana for four years, is that he decided to split the money and help out all of those organizations.”

One of the things that makes Boggan such an ideal candidate for the Bryant-Jordan Achiever award is his experiences across every sport at Georgiana, according to Marlow.

And that perspective granted some fairly helpful insight when it came to deciding how the donations would be used.

“I felt honored to do something great for my school and its sports programs,” Boggan said.

“I was thinking if I only played two sports, it probably would’ve been difficult to decide what athletic department to help.  But by playing three, it made my decision a whole lot easier.

“Instead of just spreading the money and giving it to the programs, Richard actually looked at what is needed inside the programs,” Marlow added.

“For basketball, one of the things he said was that basketballs are always in use 24/7 throughout the summer, and he’s also going to use some of the money to help Coach [Kirk] Norris buy a large picture of this year’s state runners-up basketball team to be placed inside the R.L. Austin Gymnasium. “

Boggan also suggested that the school purchase some new shoulder pads, pre-wrap and tape.  The remainder of the football team’s portion went toward redesigning the players’ helmets.

As far as baseball is concerned, Boggan highlighted a need for two new bats as well as some new helmets and baseballs.

According to Boggan, those were the items each program needed, based on his four years’ experience with each team.

And though the donation will certainly be of use to Georgiana’s athletic programs, Marlow said that it’s also a benefit to the school as a whole.

“It’s definitely an honor to receive that,” Marlow said. “It’s such a great scholarship that rewards student-athletes throughout the state of Alabama, and for them to turn around and make another donation back to the school is even bigger.  We’re grateful for that donation, and we’re definitely going to put it to use to help out our programs.

“And because the students that we have returning are a great group of kids, they do the right thing in the classroom, as well.  So hopefully they can look at Richard and those other guys from this past year and pull more motivation from that and see that it can be done, and to take care of business on and off the field.”

Based on Boggan’s own experiences alongside his underclassmen, his outlook on the future of Georgiana sports is similarly bright.

“Many athletes work so hard to be the best they can be, so it’s kind of hard to say who it will be, but I believe the next Bryant-Jordan winner will come from Georgiana,” Boggan said.

“The future of Georgiana sports will continue to rise.  Georgiana will have some great athletes to leave, but more and more guys at Georgiana have the mentality to succeed, and I believe they will.”