Cade Huffman
By Alan Schmadtke
ORLANDO, FLA -- Cade Huffman, a senior at Auburn Riverside (Wash.) High School, was selected today as the 27th winner of the Volney Meece Scholarship by the Football Writers Association of America.
The FWAA gives the scholarship annually in the name of the late Volney Meece, who served as the FWAA’s executive director for 22 years and was the organization’s president in 1971.
The scholarship comes with a four-year annual grant of $1,000. The FWAA awards it to the child of an FWAA member or College Sports Communicator who is already in college or ready to start college. Student FWAA members are also eligible for the grant.
Cade, 17, is the son of FWAA member Brandon Huffman, national recruiting editor for 24/7 Sports and CBS Sports. He is the first winner from the state of Washington.
“This is a great honor,” Cade said. “My dad has been in the FWAA for a while, and journalism has been a part of my life for several years. The scholarship will definitely go towards college tuition, with the potential for going out-of-state.”
Cade is an honor roll student at Riverside and a Dean’s List student at Green River Community College, where he is dual-enrolled. He is also a two-year letterman in football and excels at baseball. As a junior, he was an all-league catcher for Auburn Riverside and played on the Reality Sports 18-under Select travel baseball team. In his spare time, he works in the kitchen at a local Chick Fil-A.
In one of his more meaningful roles, Cade represents the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain cancer that occurs almost exclusively in children. That cancer took Cade’s younger sister, Avery, 7, in 2016 following a seven-and-a-half-month battle with the disease. His parents established a West Coast-based foundation to raise money and awareness of the disease in 2016.
“Cade impressed me with the thoughtfulness and poise he displayed in his application,” said one of the scholarship judges. “He seems like an ambitious young man who has already had to overcome some tough times in his life, and I’m excited to see how this scholarship helps him fulfill his dreams.”
Added another judge: “Cade already has experience in and around the sports communication field and has gained a great sense of what it takes to succeed. He understands what storytelling is about.”
Cade is considering five schools for his college destination: the University of Washington, Baylor, Miami (Fla.), Missouri and Michigan State. He plans to pursue a career in sports management or sports journalism or sports communications.
He is already earning college credits as a dual-enrolled high school student, gaining credits from Washington’s Running Start program. He expects to start college in the fall.
The FWAA will open the window for 2024 scholarship applicants at the start of the 2024-25 academic year.