News 3 Sports would like to congratulate our latest Classroom Champion Taylor Haby. The Caldwell High School senior has a 4.0 Grade point average and ranks 5th in his class. He's a four-year band member and an officer in the band, as well as a member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Club, and Young Republicans. Taylor also advanced to regionals in UIL Math this year. Outside of school, Taylor is a volunteer for organizations all over the Brazos Valley. To him, it's all a part of broadening his horizons and preparing for the future.

"He's the epitome of what you would want. He asks the questions, sometimes you hope he doesn't ask - because you don't always know the answers. But he challenges you and he just wants to learn more than he has to to get his grade. He wants to learn all he can to help him prepare for his future."

Athletically, Taylor plays football and track & field. He was named to the first all-district, Brazos Valley, and all-state academic teams in football. On and off the field, Taylor is eager to lead, but always willing to learn, a quality Coach Williams says is one of his strongest.

"He's a tremendous leader. He's a tremendous student, which allowed him to become a tremendous ball player for us. He would do anything we asked him to do. He lead by example - he was here every summer. He has the 'one of the first here and the last one to leave' mentality. That's why you see him academically where he's at."

"Coach Williams' dictum is 'hard work pays off.' That has gotten me to many places. It's gotten me where I am today actually. That's one of my foundations - that hard work pays off. It's not what's happening now, it's what will happen."

Taylor plans on attending Texas A&M University to obtain a degree in nuclear engineering.

Congratulations to Taylor Haby of Caldwell High School. This week's News 3 Sports Classroom Champion.