It is not every month that Lake Zurich athletes are nominated for the Chicago Tribune’s Athlete of the Month. Maxx Wayne, junior wrestler, was nominated for the February Athlete of the Month by his coach.

Teachers and coaches can nominate athletes, and the finalists are chosen by the Chicago Tribune. After being nominated  by his coach, Wayne is now representing Lake Zurich in the finals.

“I feel like it’s a nice reward [to be nominated] because it shows how all my hard work is really paying off. It’s awesome to be recognized like this because us wrestlers don’t usually get much recognition for all our hard work,” Wayne said.

Wayne won with nearly 50 percent of the votes, followed by a senior basketball player at Barrington High School.

“He embodies everything our wrestling program wants to instill in an athlete: strong academic record, displays sportsmanship in every possible situation, good teammate in that he cares more about the team than he does about himself,” Dan Strickler, wrestling coach, said. “For those reasons and many others, I believe that he should be athlete of the month.”

Voting closed at noon on Friday, February 12.