KU's Scholar Athlete

Tough, Disciplined, Smart: Just What the Military Needs

scholar-athleteWilliam Bossert

• School: Lafayette High
• Grade: 11
• Sports: Football, wrestling
• Academics: William has a 4.9 weighted GPA, scored 31 on the ACT and plays viola in the school orchestra.
• Parents: Susan & Mike

If it’s dangerous, then Lafayette High junior William Bossert is all for it. Consider his hobbies on his parent’s farm in Mercer County:

  • He got his first motorcycle as a 6-year-old. Now, he rides dirt bikes amid the rocky, heavily treed 270 acres of the farm.
  • His father, Mike, is a retired fireman and has maintained a roofing business for years. William climbed his first ladder as a 3-year-old and is at home on the top of the roof as he is on seat of a motorcycle.
  • Along with dirt bikes, William rides horses, tractors and operates a bobcat on the farm.
  • And his two sports at Lafayette? Football and wrestling – the two toughest sports on campus.

But there’s another side to William – the quiet intellectual. A member of the pre-engineering program at Lafayette, William, 17, carries a 4.9 weighted GPA, scored 31 on the ACT and ranks No. 5 in his class.

He has taken four A.P. classes, including three this year – chemistry, calculus and English. His course load also includes U.S. history, physics, Spanish IV and Japanese IV.

And, oh by the way, he is a member of the Lafayette chamber orchestra where he plays viola.

An All-State Orchestra selection this year, William also has received a recognition of Distinguished all three years at the District Solo and Ensemble Festival.

An accomplished musician, a tough athlete and a strong math-science student, no wonder William was selected to attend summer leadership camps at West Point and the Naval Academy.

“He was military before the academies even considered him,” said his mother, Susan. “He is self-motivated and a hard worker.”

William played center at Jessie Clark Middle for three year before he grew into a tall and lanky freshman. Now, he’s a 6-foot-1, 200-pound linebacker who wrestled this season at 195.

He started wrestling as a way to stay in shape for football but then fell in love with the sport.

As a 182-pound sophomore, he wrestled at 195 in the Woodford County tournament and went 4-0.

This year, he won 26 matches, was ranked 12th in the state, placed second in the City and second in the Region, losing to the eventual state runner-up.

He twice lost narrow decisions in the regular season to the eventual state champ and qualified for the State tournament.

With football, wrestling, the viola and his schoolwork, William’s mantra is the same: “I want to be the best I can be.”

Sounds like the kind of man the military needs.

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