SammyMac Arner Captures Amanda Cullinan Scholarship

Huntington High School senior SammyMac Arner has captured the Amanda Hertig Cullinan Student-Athlete Resiliency Award. The $2,500 scholarship was presented for the first time ever at the 55th Blue Devil senior athletic awards ceremony last week.

The new scholarship honors a Class of 1996 member who starred on the girls’ lacrosse team and who also served as the high school’s student government president. The Huntington alum passed away last May after a four year battle with breast cancer. She was a married mother of three living in Summerfield, North Carolina who served as a head coach of the varsity girls’ lacrosse team at Northern Guilford High School.

Mrs. Cullinan’s best friend, Erin Zammett-Ruddy was on hand to announce Mr. Arner had captured the inaugural scholarship and to present it to him and speak briefly about the award. Fifteen truly exceptional Blue Devil senior student-athletes submitted applications. Mrs. Zammett-Ruddy said she wished “we could give every single one of them a scholarship. They are all so deserving.”

Known as Amanda Hertig during her time at Huntington High School, she played on the Blue Devils’ 1994 county and state championship girls’ soccer team and on the 1996 county champion and state finalist girls’ lacrosse team.

Born in Keokuk, Iowa on June 21, 1978, Amanda Hertig moved to Huntington as a first grader. After playing for the Blue Devil girls’ lacrosse team’s founding coach, Mary Paar she went on to study biology and play lacrosse at Brown University.

“Amanda wanted the award to be given to a student-athlete who has demonstrated great resiliency in the face of adversity, whether that be in the classroom, on the playing field or in life,” according to the application. “Someone who has faced obstacles big or small and not given up; a person who has struggled, but kept fighting. No one was more resilient than Amanda. This foundation and these scholarships will be a huge part of her legacy and will give all of those who loved her a way to honor her inspiring life.”

The Huntington alum served as the mistress of ceremonies at Huntington High School’s 1996 commencement exercises.

“To sum up Amanda’s zest for life, while in hospice care she and her family went on vacation to Turks and Caicos,” according to an online tribute. “On day five, she said, ‘I’m leaving it all on the field’ and went down a waterslide. She never missed an opportunity to show her kids how life should be lived.”

The All-County goalie of the Blue Devil boys’ lacrosse team, Mr. Arner embodies everything the Cullinan scholarship is all about. He lost his mom to ovarian cancer and two other “influential role models” to untimely deaths, including one of his coaches as well as Greg Kline, a Huntington alum and well-known parent in the community who also played a key role in the teenager’s lacrosse career.

“Being a lacrosse goalie is a physically and mentally challenging position, but since my mother’s passing, I have used my emotions to become more focused on the game,” wrote Mr. Arner in an application essay submitted to the scholarship committee. “When I am in the moment and completely focused, I have complete control of my body and I am able to give it my all. I believe that the lessons and values taught to me by my father (Marc Arner), Coach Will and Mr. Kline have helped shape me into the person I am today.”

Mr. Arner’s mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer when he was 10 years old. She went through chemotherapy, lost all of her hair “and showed me incredible strength and resilience, which inspired me to be strong as well,” the teenager wrote in his essay.

Following a period of remission, the cancer returned and ultimately claimed the life of Nancy Arner. “The only things that helped me get through this difficult period were my father and my love for the sport of lacrosse.”

Mr. Arner plans to continue his lacrosse career at Rollins College in Florida.