NEW YORK— Parker Lee of Fuquay-Varina Senior High School and Abigale Verchick of Union Pines High School have been named the state winners for North Carolina in the Wendy’s High School Heisman program.

    School winners from nominations all across North Carolina, from both North Carolina High School Athletic Association member schools and other schools, were screened down to 20 state finalists and then Lee and Verchick were selected as the state winners.

    The Wendy’s High School Heisman Program looks for all types of high-achieving seniors from more than 29,000 public and private high schools within the U.S. Consideration goes to young men and women who participate in a wide range of sports and school and community activities.

    Students must be seniors and are judged based on their academic achievements, athletic accomplishments, community-leadership, and involvement in various extracurricular activities during grades 9 through 11.

    Scholarship Management Services®, a division of Scholarship America, the nation’s largest designer and manager of education assistance and recognition programs evaluates applicants and determines School Winners, State Finalists, and State Winners. After State Winners are selected, a distinguished panel of judges takes over.

    Program judges include representatives from the worlds of education, business, and sports along with former college Heisman Memorial Trophy Award winners and former national Wendy’s High School Heisman winners. The judges carefully review nomination forms and vote on the National Finalists and National Winners.

   The North Carolina winners will now be under consideration for national finalists for the national Wendy’s High School Heisman honor, which is presented in New York City during the Heisman Memorial Trophy weekend. Two national finalists will be selected from each of the six Heisman regions, which are the same regional divisions used for voting on the famous college football award.