Apr. 30—ANDOVER — More than 75 students were honored on Monday morning during the Pymatuning Valley High School Principal’s Breakfast at Andover Christian Church.

“This is the best of the best at Pymatuning Valley High School,” said PVHS Principal Mark Mollohan.

He said this year has been a year of firsts as the new principal at the school with many annual events.

“I get to see a lot of firsts,” Mollohan said.

“[The students] had to have a 3.5 grade-point average for all three nine-week grading periods,” he said.

Mollohan said students also had to have at least 95-percent attendance and no disciplinary issues.

“We had 77 that qualified,” Mollohan said.

Many of the students said they appreciated the recognition for their hard work. PVHS junior Gavin Hodge said this is his third breakfast and it is a motivating factor to get good grades and maintain good attendance.

“If you are thinking all A’s, you’re thinking the principal’s breakfast,” he said.

“It’s nice we get recognition for what we do during the school year,” said sophomore Stuart Jenick.

He said it keeps a focus on getting good grades and getting to school a lot.

Mollohan said he had the opportunity to seek a speaker for the event and with the assistance of school personnel he was able to find Sarah Urchek, who is now a lawyer with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Mollohan said he obviously didn’t have a long list of graduates to pick from since it is his first year as principal.

“Hopefully years down the line from here I hope I will have some of you in the room [as potential speakers],” he said.

Urchek is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Assistant District Council in Louisville, Kentucky. She got her undergraduate degree from Point Park University and graduated from Michigan State University College of Law.

She said she struggled in deciding what to speak about because she doesn’t like to talk about herself.

Urchek drew from her time as an athlete at PV and at Point Park. She said one of her motivational slogans is “Shooters Shoot,” which stems from the basketball world but has connections to the real world as well.

She said it is a reminder that it is important to realize it is OK to come back from a setback, a missed shot or other life event, and take the necessary risk to have a different opportunity.

“When we wait for perfection, we often miss opportunities,” Urchek said.

Students, and their parents, attended the event that included a breakfast followed by the speakers and awards.