This week’s SCVTV/AMG & Associates Student-Athlete of the Week is Zane Patterson from Canyon High School. Zane has a 4.43 GPA and scored 1940 on the SAT. And despite his love for football, he knows the sport won’t be his livelihood.

“Good grades are more important than football to me actually,” Zane said. “I’m not going to make a career out of football. My education is what is going to take me further in life.”

And while football has not had a great influence on his performance in the classroom, it has provided a valuable lesson.

“It has taught me that hard work does pay off,” he said. “If I work hard on homework, study for tests and things like that it will pay off and I will get the grades that I deserve. It’s all just putting the work in. If you do everything you’re told to do good grades should just come.”

Stanford, UCLA, USC, the Air Force Academy… These are the colleges Zane has his eye on. His career goal would be to become an aerospace engineer. His advice to incoming high school students?

“I would say just don’t give up,” Zane said. “When it gets hard you can’t just give up and act like you don’t know how to do it. You’ve just got to keep trying and get the help that you need if you need the help.”

Congratulations to Zane Patterson from Canyon High School, the SCVTV/AMG & Associates Student-Athlete of the Week.