By Amanda Roach
May 05, 2008 06:13 pm
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Two Hendricks County students will join 30 others in representing Indiana in its Super Bowl 2012 bid.
Dianna Boyce, a representative for the Indianapolis Bid Committee, said committee officials have been striving for more community involvement in this year’s bid process. For the 2012 bid, she said they decided to hand deliver the bids to all 32 NFL teams on May 9. The ambassadors chosen to represent both the community and the committee are eighth-grade students from throughout Central Indiana.
“We chose the class of 2012 because we are bidding on Super Bowl 2012,” she explained.
Boyce said students were chosen from around the Indianapolis area and as far away as Lafayette, Terre Haute, Muncie, and Shelbyville.
Committee officials provided school districts with few rules about choosing a student to represent them, but they did stress that those selected would have to be an exemplary representative of both the school and the community.
“We left the decision in the school districts’ hands,” she said.
Among those chosen were Brian Decker of Avon Middle School and Luke Huston of Brownsburg East Middle School.
Paul Quirke, a guidance counselor at AMS, said Drecker was chosen as an ambassador after school officials took a look at class ranks, citizenship reports, and athletic involvement.
“He was one of the students who is at the top of his class,” he added.
Quirke said they narrowed it down to four students and asked them to write a one-page essay on why they should be chosen. A school administrator read the essays and chose Drecker as the winner.
“His essay was incredible,” Quirke added.
Greg Hill, athletics director for Brownsburg High School, said he spoke with both the athletics director and the football coach for Brownsburg East Middle School to chose the appropriate student.
“We selected someone we thought would represent the community and the school, and be able to articulate and make the proper presentation,” Hill said.
He said Huston seemed to be an obvious choice.
Both Quirke and Hill will be chaperoning the boys to their NFL destinations.
The boys attended an informational and training session Sunday to learn what they will be doing and where they would be going.
The pool of representatives were put into a draft, much like the NFL players go through. Once their number was called, they picked a bid that held a jersey of the team they will be visiting.
Decker chose the San Francisco 49ers, while Huston chose the Carolina Panthers.
Quirke said the boys are required to wear the jerseys when they travel to present the bids to the owners of the chosen NFL team.
“It gives it a personal touch, showing that the community is involved,” he added.
Huston said he’s excited to be an ambassador.
“It’s an honor to deliver the bid package with Mr. Hill to the Carolina Panthers to help bring Super Bowl 2012 to Indianapolis,” he said. “The NFL franchise was awarded to the Carolina Panthers in 1993, the same year I was born.”
Decker said he had a couple of cities in mind as to where he wanted to go, but once his number was drawn he just wanted to go anywhere.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that only a few people get the chance to experience,” he added. “I’m thrilled to be going to represent not only Avon, but the whole state and the city of Indianapolis.”
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