Kahuku High School's Joseph Broc, Hilo's Katrina Chong and Hana's Cody Estocado each received a $3,000 college scholarship yesterday as the top individual student-athlete honorees at the inaugural HMSA Kaimana Awards & Scholarship Program luncheon at Ko'olau Golf Course.

Eighteen other recently graduated student-athletes received $2,000 each in recognition of their athletic and academic achievement, as well as community service and sportsmanship. The 21 honorees were chosen from a pool of over 200 applications by a five-person selection committee.

Broc, Chong and Estocado received the extra $1,000 as the top three awardees.

"All three of their applications were exceptionally compelling, as explained in their letters of recommendation," said selection committee member Keith Amemiya, the executive director of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association.

Broc, who is in a wheelchair, participated in paddling for four years and kept the campus loose with his comedy routines at school assemblies. Chong was an all-league soccer player and student government leader. And Estocado, a standout volleyball and basketball player, volunteered for construction projects at the high school and in the community.

The 21 student honorees are Broc, Chong, Estocado, Campbell's Lihau Akau, Punahou's Kelly Aldinger and Spencer Jim On, Kamehameha's Alyssa Chun, Mid-Pacific's Krystyn Funasaki, Ka'u's Kealani Gangwes, Leilehua's Ruth Gerola, Iolani's Charlene Hoi and Marci Kang, Waiakea's Brittany Johnston, Mililani's Jaime Kataoka, King Kekaulike's Kreig Kihara, Kaua'i's Kassy Morishige and Rachael Taira, Waipahu's Lester Orsino, Baldwin's Kai Sarmiento, Waimea's Sharla Shimono and Pearl City's Cheryl Yasumoto.

In addition, 10 high schools (representing each of the state's five leagues) received Kaimana awards of $1,000 each for achieving the highest scores on a point system incorporating achievement in athletics (league championships and participation), academics (collective GPAs), sportsmanship and community service.

The winning schools were Waiakea and Hawai'i Prep from the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Punahou and Hawai'i Baptist from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, Kula from the Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation, Lahainaluna and St. Anthony from the Maui Interscholastic League and Mililani, Kahuku and Kailua from the O'ahu Interscholastic Association.

The Kaimana Awards program, which the Hawaii Medical Service Association has committed to for three years, is similar to the 23-year-old Nissan Hawai'i Hall of Honor but is much more broad and complex.

The Nissan program awards scholarships of $2,000 each to 12 senior student-athletes, with the emphasis on athletic achievements but also taking into account academic performance and school/community service. The Kaimana program's applicants must have a minimum grade point average of 2.75 and may fit a different profile from the Nissan honorees — most of whom were well known through extensive media attention.

The Kaimana program is administered in part by the HHSAA.

About 200 people attended yesterday's awards luncheon, and World Boxing Council light flyweight champion Brian Viloria, a former scholar-athlete at Waipahu High School, delivered the keynote address.

"They asked me to give you some words of inspiration," Viloria told the honorees, "but you're the ones who are inspiring me."