GREENFIELD — Last year, Greenfield-based Elite Athletic Trend started a scholarship program, giving out a $5,000 scholarship to a college-bound senior athlete.
Saturday night, EAT, a company founded by former NFL player Junior Aumavae, handed out the award for the second consecutive year. Greenfield-Central football player Noah Evanoff was selected as this year’s EAT Scholarship recipient.
“This is the first scholarship I’ve won, so I’m very thankful for it,” Evanoff said. “I was very appreciative of Junior and them for considering me for it. It’s very nice to have. With college, there’s a lot of stuff you have to pay for, and that will just help me through the four years of not having any debt, paying fees off.”
The scholarship comes with a bit of a catch, designed intentionally by the company to ensure the winner continues displaying the traits that led to the award in the first place.
“It’s a second-semester scholarship, so like Junior said, I have to prove myself to get it for the second semester,” Evanoff said. “I’m ready for that challenge, and I’m very excited for what’s coming.”
Evanoff, who played basketball for Greenfield-Central from his freshman to junior year and football his senior year, started working with EAT this summer as part of the company’s Free Agency Program.
That program allows students from schools they aren’t currently partnered with to take part in their sessions.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the summer, Evanoff and fellow Greenfield-Central athlete Chris O’Connor would attend sessions together. Evanoff said it was very hard work with difficult, quick-moving, fast-paced drills. He gained a lot of speed and learned a lot from the experience, he said.
After those daily sessions, attendees would spend time talking with Aumavae about everyday life. It wasn’t just about the athletic training. It was a more personal relationship, Evanoff said, as Aumavae listened to problems and gave advice that stretched far beyond athletics.
That’s an important aspect of what EAT does. The company was developed to do much more than just help students with athletics.
“The scholarship we offer today isn’t just for athletics,” Aumavae said before presenting the award. “It’s for how this kid is good in the community, how this kid carries himself, everything that we represent. With this individual, we believe he represents Elite Athletic Trend.”
Last year when the scholarship was handed out, EAT had worked with just over 200 kids in the Hancock County area. Now, the company is in five school systems and has worked with over 5,000 kids.
“Two years ago, Junior had the idea of doing something to impact this community here in Greenfield,” current NFL player Matt Overton said. “It’s been an incredible journey to see how much impact he’s had and the positive influence the EAT program has had on the kids here at all levels.”
Overton, who played for the Indianapolis Colts for five years, is now a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He went to college with Aumavae and flew in for the award presentation since the Jaguars played a Thursday night game last week instead of Sunday.
He is a developmental coach at EAT and worked with Evanoff during the Free Agency Program.
“Junior wanted to bring something to Hancock County that was different,” Hancock County Court Commissioner Cody Coombs added. “He wanted to create something where he could help kids become better athletes, better in school, better in their home life and lead them into success beyond sports.”
Coombs met Aumavae two years ago while playing basketball at the Hancock Wellness Center and is now a board member with EAT.
Coombs and Overton joined Aumavae in presenting the scholarship to Evanoff, who is planning to attend Ball State and is still deciding on a major.
The company wouldn’t be able to do what it does as a nonprofit without a lot of outside support, and that includes the people who were in attendance Saturday night and people like Bruce Culbreth, the general manager of the Greenfield Walmart, who has been a huge supporter in EAT’s programs by helping provide food and other items of need at EAT events, Aumavae said.
Being able to help a student financially, in addition to the other ways EAT helps students grow and learn, is important to the company’s founder and president.
“It’s a big deal to be able to do that, man,” Aumavae said. “But the only way we could do that is the support of the educational systems, of parents, kids. What we do is only because of them. For me growing up, I came from a poor family, a small school. I understand that there’s a need. We need to fill it.”