Franklin's Baretz named WIAA Scholar/Athlete

Franklin — Putting an exclamation point on an already stellar senior year, Franklin's Lance Baretz was recently named a WIAA Scholar Athlete for 2011.

Baretz, a quarterback, who was the NOW Newspapers Player of the Year in football after leading the Sabers to the Southeastern Conference championship and a berth in the WIAA Division 2 state semifinals, will be among 32 scholar athletes honored at an awards ceremony on Sunday at the Jefferson Street Inn in Wausau.

Each scholar athlete will receive a medallion and certificate, and will take with them a special plaque for display in the school. The speaker will be three-time Olympic middle distance runner Suzy Favor Hamilton.

A record total of 758 were nominated and four boys and four girls were named in Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The average grade point of all nominees this year was 3.84 and 180 of the nominees had perfect 4.0 GPAs. The honorees had a average GPA of 3.90 and earned a total of 315 letters collectively. Baretz is also a member of a state qualifying 1600-meter relay team in track.

He will walk on at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next fall after recording the third-highest total yardage numbers in state history at 9,472 yards. He threw for a state-best 34 TDs this season and accounted for 113 rushing and passing TDs over his three-year varsity career.

"You really don't replace a kid like that," said Sabers coach Jeff Klemp last fall.