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Scholarship Process

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This is not the official or complete set of rules registered with the Community Foundation to qualify for a scholarship.  But this summary reflects the intent of the rules, of which some are legal requirements and others are specific to the Legacy Club requirements.

Awards Given
   Neal Lineman Scholarship:    $4000
   Brian Hills Scholarship:          $2000

Link to apply for scholarships
    https://comm-foundation.org/scholarships/   
    near the bottom of that page is a big button titled "Find a Scholarship >>"

Important Dates
    January 1 to the end of March 1, 2025   -   Application period.
    You can start to look at scholarships on the system by mid December.
 
  • The Community Foundation of Western PA & Eastern OH application system is available starting January 1 to 11:59 PM on March 1, 2025.
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  • The Reynolds Wrestling Legacy Club’s Scholarship committee reviews the applications during March and submits their selection to the Community Foundation.
    • Categories: Wrestling Performance, Academics, Essay, Citizenship and Financial Need.
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  • The award winner is announced at the annual Reynolds Wrestling Banquet.  Also, we present the official certificate and scholarship instructions at the school's Senior Awards ceremony just before graduation.​
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To be a candidate for an award ...:
 
  • The applicant must have actively participated and completed at least their Junior and Senior years in the Reynolds High School boys or girls wrestling programs as a wrestler or mat maid.
    • Note that a student is eligible if they were unable to compete during either of those years due to injury but otherwise contributed to the team according to the coaching staff's standards.
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  • Residency Rules: the applicant must satisfy one of these two conditions.
    • The applicant must be a resident in the Reynolds School District for their Junior and Senior years
    • The applicant must have attended Reynolds as a non-resident of the school district for their Freshman through Senior years.
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  • The applicant must have a minimum 2.5 GPA as defined by the Reynolds High School Guidance Office methodology.
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  • The applicant must must provide a letter of recommendation from a Reynolds High School faculty or administration representative.
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  • The applicant must must submit a FASFA report to the Community Foundation.
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  • The applicant must complete the Community Foundation application (includes a separate essay).
    • Note: Based on input from students during the previous years, the process requires you to submit some of the same information for both scholarships. Again, ask the Community Foundation for any clarification of the process.
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  • The applicant should plan to attend any accredited college, university or trade school. Please contact the Community Foundation if you have questions concerning the school you want to attend.
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Legacy Club Specific
 
  • The applicant must submit an essay to the effect “Describe what the Legacy of Reynolds Wrestling means to you”.
    • This must be sent by email to Reynolds.Wrestling.Legacy.Club@gmail.com by the application deadline (see "Schedule" above).
    • This is a different essay than the one required by the Community Foundation.
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  • These next two items are completed by Reynolds faculty and staff members.
    • Student academic performance and “citizenship” review provided by RHS Guidance office and faculty.
    • For the Neal Lineman Scholarship, the coaching staff will provide the Legacy club with each candidate's wrestling history at Reynolds.
Contact Information:
   Community Foundation of Western PA & Eastern OH
       7 West State Street, Suite 301
       Sharon, PA 16146
       PHONE: (724) 981-5882

   Legacy Club:
       Reynolds.Wrestling.Legacy.Club@gmail.com
       Chuck Coryea --  203-215-0146
It isn't apparent on the application system that the link will happen.  Most people are flagged automatically by their system but some are missed. The best thing to do is to send us an email (see contact info above) that you have started the application.  We will work with the Foundation people to make sure you are included.
 
Sorry, NO!

According to previous applicants, the data entry screens can be challenging navigate.  Just work with us or the foundation.

One particular issue (we learned just last year) is that you apply to both scholarships separately!  This requires more effort but simply submit the same exact material to both tracks.
 
First, if you are awarded a scholarship, you get just one of the two.  But I guess you assumed that.

If you qualify according to the rules in the Selection Criteria/Eligibility section above, you should apply to both of them.  Note the Brian Hills scholarship does not consider any wrestling accomplishments.
 
Yes.  Their essay prompt is different than our essay requirement and is required for the Foundation to completely close out your application.

However, we do NOT look at their essay.  We review only the Legacy Club essay.  And we take the essay question quite seriously.  Please make sure to give a heartfelt effort!

The Foundation has several hundred scholarships available.  If you are trying to win other scholarships, you should do your very best to submit a quality essay for their requirement.  At worst, please put some effort into their essay.
 

This happened in 2024.  And the Foundation was aware of the issue.  Thus we did not include the FASFA requirement in the scholarship review process.

 

The short answer is ...
 
  • For the Neal Lineman Award, we add up the points from all five categories and the top scorer wins
     
  • For the Brian Hills Award, we add up the scores of four categories, excluding the wrestling performance points.
     
  • Note that it is very possible the person placing 2nd for the Neal Lineman Award may not be the winner of the Hills award.

And the full answer ....

We have five major categories, each with a weighted point value attached.
 
  • 15 points Wrestling  (used only for the Neal Lineman Award)
  • 10 points Academics
  • 10 points Legacy Club Essay
  • 10 points Citizenship
  •   5 points Financial Need

 

The academics score is based from the Guidance Office reports.  It is a relative ranking with the top students
earning 10 points and fewer points for a those with lower performance in class.

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Citizenship is also determined by Guidance Office reports, letter of recommendation and other Community Foundation application requirements such as reported community service.  Quite honestly, most every applicant has been given high point values in this category but this will catch the exception if a person has not been trying to be a good member of the community.

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The financial needs category is basically a tie breaker.  FASFA reports numbers in a very general
sense, so this is also a relative rating.

 

Our essay is the one category that is completely subjective by our selection team.  We are looking for heartfelt responses:  Did/does the history of the program mean something to you?  Has the schools success been a major reason that you wrestled?  Did any individual, wrestler or coach, influence you  ...not just as a wrestler but as an inspiration?  Grammar and spelling are important but if you write clearly enough to convey your emotions to our selection committee, they will overlook minor English composition mistakes.

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The wrestling component requires a detail explanation.  It is the one category that has explicit scoring rules.  Each of the pieces that go to scoring wrestling points are within just this category.

 

Think of it like a dual match.  You win a match 7-1 but the team gets 3 points.  8-0 earns 4 points and so on.  So all these things below may earn 50 or more wrestling points but only the top wrestling score earns the full 15
wrestling category points.

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  •  1 point  for year participation starting from kindergarten 

  •  2 points for each varsity letter earned

  •  2 points for each Section Championship

  •  5 points for each District Championship

  •  7 points for each Regional Championship

  •  5 points for each State Qualifier    (but did not place)

  • 10 points for each State Place Winner** (2nd-8th place)

  • 15 points for each State Championship** (1st only)

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** State Place Winners or Champions do not earn State Qualifier points too. If you qualified for states, you get just one of those three point categories.

 

For each wrestler, we tally up all the wrestling points earned. The highest point earner gets all 15 scholarship points.  Everyone else gets the same  percentage of the 15 points as they did in the wrestling points.

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Example 1:  The top wrestler has 30 wrestling points and gets 15 scholarship points.
                     The next wrestler has 26 wrestling points and gets 13 scholarship points.
 

Example 2:    This is more complicated and requires a little bit of math

                      The top wrestler has 110 points.

                      The next three candidates have 80, 73 and 45 points.
 

                      Wrestler    Scholarship
                       Points         Points           Calculation
                       110                15               --
                         80                11               (80/110)*15 = 10.91... rounded to 11
                         73                10               (73/110)*15 =  9.95... rounded to 10

                         45                  6               (45/110)*15 =  6.14... rounded to   6

 

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  • You will get specific information on how to proceed with the award given to you at the Senior Awards Day.  PLEASE READ THIS!
     
  • Once you have verified your intended institution with the Community Foundation, they will work directly with that school's bursars office (a college department that handles all students' funds).  You do not touch any money.  This is done during the summer.
     
  • When you get your bill from your institution, please review it in detail and be sure that the scholarship amount is recorded and paid.
    • The award will be paid in equal annual payments for the normal period required for the program enrolled.  E.g. A student in a four year college will receive $1000 per year for the Lineman Award.
    • For the remaining time of your school years, the Community Foundation will continue to pay the remaining parts of your award to the school as long as you are eligible.
    • You must remain in good academic standing with the school. For instance, you must submit a copy of your college transcripts to the Community Foundation in the timeframe defined in their instructions to verify you are still eligible.
       
  • The student is not required to participate in wrestling in college.

The Community Foundation is run by people and people do make mistakes.  They support hundreds of scholarships and each has their own special set of rules (e.g. no one else has a section for wrestling performance). And the Foundation works with hundreds of colleges.

If you see a mistake, immediately contact the Community Foundation!  They really are a good bunch of friendly people and will work to resolve issues.  Just be sure to provide them with as much information as you can.  Also, the Legacy Club may be able to provide some help, even if only to identify the correct person to work with at the Foundation.  And remember, you might make a mistake too!

Issues we have seen so far:
  
In some cases, the Foundation paid the entire ($4000 or $2000) amount of the scholarship in the first bill.  In this case, not much can be done.  You will not receive any more money.  You didn't lose anything and in fact, this is possibly better for you.

We had one student not get his money paid on his second year's bill.  It ends up that he didn't submit transcripts to the Foundation and they didn't know if he was still in school.  We quickly remedied this by having the transcripts sent over. The Foundation immediately paid the scholarship money.

 
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