MOSCOW, Idaho – Scotty Blakney of men's basketball and Hailey Pelton of volleyball have been named this week's Vandals of the Week.
 
Blakney currently boasts a 3.93 cumulative grade-point average in business economics, and has finished five of his six semesters at Idaho with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Pelton is in her second season with the Vandals and has a 3.91 GPA in animal and veterinary science – pre-vet.
 
While Blakney hopes to continue his playing career after Idaho, both he and Pelton have already set their eyes on what the next step might be.
 
"I'm a pre-vet major, so I want to go to veterinarian school after I'm done with my four years here," said Pelton. "I don't know if I want to be a small animal vet or large animal vet, I've only had experience with small animals with job shadowing at a clinic. But Idaho is offering different programs and experience with large animals, so I'll definitely be getting some experience there."
 
"First of all, what I want to do out of college is I want to try to play professional basketball," Blakney said. "But if that all falls through, I want to come back to the states and want to work somewhere in sporting goods, probably move to a bigger city and try to work my way up. But I haven't really looked that far ahead yet."
 
Each also described a class this semester at the University of Idaho which has helped give them a better idea as to what might come next.
 
"One of the classes that I'm really liking that I'm taking right now is business 490," said Blakney. "We broke off into smaller groups and were given a problem that a certain company is facing. We have to work through how to solve that problem. It's kind of interesting right now because we're dealing with some current issues, like COVID, and how we can solve that and work through it."
 
"My favorite class right now is my livestock anatomy and physiology class," Pelton said. "It's just super interesting learning how the body works and why it works that way. Idaho has a really cool program because we get to focus on the specifics of animals compared to humans."
 
The recognition for academic success is also something that Pelton and Blakney don't take lightly.
 
"It's super cool, recognizing athletes who work hard in the classroom," said Pelton. "I think we all have a competitive side that is brought out through our sport. I think a lot of athletes are successful in the classroom because we have that competitive side and are allowed to apply it in the classroom."
 
"It means a lot. Since I can remember academics has always been a really important thing to me," Blakney said. "My parents kind of drilled that into me at a young age. It matters to me too, so being recognized for it means a lot. Any time I can set an example for anybody and showing that this is important and it's more than just sports and we're out here to get an education, I think that's an important thing to do."
 
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