It’s buried in the Sharks news digest from a few days ago, but it was a nice moment between periods last Sunday night when the San Jose Sharks — along with the four other Bay Area major league sports franchises — honored high school student-athletes in their competitive sports scholarship program.

San Jose’s professional hockey team honored WG’s Mohamed Abdalla with its award:

BAY AREA SPORTS TEAMS TO PRESENT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS

In a collective effort to support youth working towards the goal of higher education, Bay Area professional sports franchises, including the Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and San Jose Sharks, have teamed up for the 12th year of the Bay Area All-Star Scholarship Team (BAASST). As part of this program, the first of its kind among professional sports teams, five high school seniors have been selected to receive a $3,000 scholarship to be applied toward their college education.

Each Bay Area sports franchise will recognize this year’s five Bay Area All-Star Scholarship Team recipients in a ceremony this year. The first ceremony is set for Sunday, March 16 when the recipients will be honored during a special in-game ceremony during the San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers game at HP Pavilion at San Jose. A representative from each Bay Area sports organization will be in attendance to participate in each ceremony.

The 2008 BAASST recipients are Joshua Ortiz of De Anza High School in Richmond (Oakland A’s), Lauren Hunt of Calistoga Junior Senior High School in Calistoga (Oakland Raiders), Jasmine Nachtigall of Hillsdale High School in San Mateo (San Francisco 49ers), Elaine Chow of Galileo Academy in San Francisco (San Francisco Giants) and Mohamed Abdalla of Willow Glen High School in San Jose (San Jose Sharks).

Students were selected from high schools within nine Bay Area counties, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. Each high school was provided with information about this scholarship and was encouraged to nominate candidates that met the following criteria: a minimum grade point average of 3.0, displays leadership qualities in the classroom and/or inspirational qualities on the athletic field and demonstrates the value of education, good work ethic and community outreach.

It’s great to see high school athletes honored like this, but only $3,000? … that’s not going to go very far …