OHSAA awards FRHS graduate

The Ohio High School Athletic Association Association recently announced the 2024 class had the largest number of scholarship recipients since it started giving them out 30 years ago.

Among the list of high school student athletes is one from Fort Recovery.

Monday morning, the OHSAA revealed that they are awarding 200 recent high school graduates through its scholarship program, including Tiegen Fortkamp of Fort Recovery High School.

This 200 recipients was the most in the 30-year program’s history. Each student will receive a $1,000 scholarship, totalling $200,000.

Last year, the OHSAA gave out scholarships to 169 student athletes.

Fortkamp was one of 40 recent graduates to be selected from the Northwest District. Only the Northeast and Southwest districts had more recipients.

While at Fort Recovery, Fortkamp won letters in volleyball and swimming.

In four years for the varsity volleyball team, she earned 536 kills and 128 aces. In 2023, she led the Indians to the district semifinal game and had the most kills (293) and aces (50) on the team. She was also a part of the team in 2020 that made it to the Division IV regional semifinal.

Fortkamp made the state swim tournament in her freshman, junior and senior seasons.

Her highest individual finish came as a freshman when she swam a 24.61-second 50-yard freestyle to earn 18th place. That same year, she anchored the 200 freestyle relay team that took 16th.

As a junior, Fortkamp swam the backstroke leg for the 200 medley relay team that placed 18th, swam the 19th-best time in the 100 backstroke and finished 21st in the 50 freestyle.

As a senior, she made the state meet in the 100 backstroke and the 50 freestyle, placing 23rd and 29th, respectively.

Fortkamp plans to go on to play volleyball at the University of St. Francis, an NAIA school in Fort Wayne, alongside her older sister Paige Fortkamp.