Juan Diego CHS player receives Utah High School Hockey Association scholarship

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Juan Diego Catholic High School senior William Conley, pictured above right, has received the Tim Hixon Memorial Scholarship from the Utah High School Hockey Association.

DRAPER — William Conley, a Juan Diego Catholic High School senior and a defenseman on the school’s hockey team, has been named as a recipient of the Utah High School Hockey Association’s Tim Hixon Memorial Scholarship.

“He’s a great defensive hockey player,” said Maurice van der Sluys, the Soaring Eagle hockey coach. “He leads by example; he does everything we ask. He’s a motivator on the ice, off the ice.”

Because high school hockey is a club sport in Utah, van der Sluys is not at the school regularly, so it can be difficult to communicate with team members and build strong ties between the players, he said. Conley “is one that I relied on over the years to help interact and bring the team together while at school,” the coach said.  

Conley, an alternate captain on the hockey team and a varsity athlete in golf, hockey and lacrosse, also is a Juan Diego CHS ambassador, student body officer and Kairos leader. In addition, he occasionally volunteers at the Food Justice Coalition. Despite his busy schedule, he maintains a 3.65 GPA. He plans to study pre-med at Elmhurst University in Chicago and hopes to become a dentist.

He is honored to have won the scholarship, he said.

“I feel like it’s very special, especially [with me] coming from Juan Diego,” he said. “Juan Diego had never won the award prior to last year, but we’ve won twice now.”

Zachary Meehan received the scholarship last year.

Although his schedule can be hectic at times, Conley believes his activities are a way to give back to the Juan Diego community, which is “very student-led,” he said. “A lot of the things come from the students themselves. You get more and more opportunities to serve, and it’s a very big part of the Juan Diego culture.”

Conley moved from Idaho Falls prior to his freshman year and was warmly embraced by the Juan Diego community, he said.

“They really made me feel like I belonged, and I wanted to make other people feel like that. I wanted to give back what I had gotten,” said Conley, who is a St Joseph the Baptist parishioner.

Named for Hixon, a young hockey player who lost his life in 1982 to a drunk driver, the $2,500 scholarship is given each year to two recipients, a defenseman and a goaltender/forward, who are chosen as the most well-rounded UHSHA participants. Each recipient receives a personal trophy and has his or her name inscribed on a permanent trophy on display in the UHSHA trophy case.