2024 Nominations Open
Nominations Open for 2024 Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund Scholarship
Contact: Jennifer Paulson, RBStrengthAndHonorFund@gmail.com
PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—October 19, 2023—Wrestling coaches across all of Colorado now have the opportunity to nominate graduating-senior wrestlers (class of 2024) for the annual Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund scholarship. The fund was established in 2020 in honor of legendary Colorado wrestling Coach Ray Barron, and the scholarship intends to recognize graduating-senior Colorado wrestlers—male and female—who demonstrate strength and honor in all they do, on and off the mat.
“We begin the process with a coach nomination because the relationship between coach and wrestler was so important to my dad, Ray Barron,” said fund president Jennifer Paulson. “We make the nomination quite simple for the coaches to complete, and then the qualified nominated wrestlers are sent an application to complete that encompasses the real effort. The fund’s board then considers both the coach nominations and the wrestler applications to determine the recipient of the $10,000 scholarship for one graduating senior to use at an accredited college, university, junior college, or trade school.”
The coaches’ nomination form can be found here, and the complete rules can be found here. Nominations close December 30, 2023. Other important dates in the nomination and application process are:
· December 30, 2023: Coaches’ nominations close
· January 30, 2024: Athlete applications are due
· March 30, 2024 (or sooner): Recipient(s) notified and scholarship awarded
Earlier this year, the fund awarded its second scholarship to Darrell Miller of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. During the past three years, the fund has also provided camp grants to the three schools where Barron served as head wrestling coach: Fort Lupton High School, Heritage High School, and Columbine High School. The fund, members of the board, and other supporters also complete other outreach efforts throughout the year to support Colorado wrestling in Coach Barron’s honor.
About the Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund
The Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund is a 501(c)3 organization that raises funds to provide scholarships to universities, junior colleges, and trade schools to graduating Colorado wrestlers. Ray Barron was a wrestling coach for nearly 50 years, leading teams in Fort Lupton, Colorado; Worland, Wyoming; and Littleton, Colorado, at Heritage and Columbine High Schools. He received numerous honors, including being inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame and being named the 2020 5A Wrestling Coach of the Year. He passed away in 2020 due to glioblastoma brain cancer. Learn more about the Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund and Coach Barron at www.RayBarronStrengthAndHonorFund.com, by following the fund on Facebook, and by donating here.