Congratulations to the Class of 2014 Salutatorian, Daniel Benish, who is the son of Dan and Deb Benish. Dad has lived his entire life in Hillsboro and Mom is from La Crosse.

Another proud member of his family is his sister, Lydia, who is currently in eighth grade.

Dan  is a three-sport Tiger letterman, including plenty of action in football, baseball, and track, with football holding the favorite position “by far!”

He was named an All-Conference linebacker in his senior year.

However, Dan’s years at HHS were spent mostly with books....and not playbooks!

His favorite subjects were math and science, a good start for someone who is considering biomedical engineering in his career path after attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he is already signed up for the fall.

That is a challenging profession dealing with the development or improvement of medical instrumentation that will play an important role in future research.

In addition to all the athletics, Dan was quite a busy guy during his high school days. He enjoyed playing the trumpet in the school band, and being a member of the H Club, Spanish Club and Future Businesses Leaders of America.

He went to State in FBLA competition and finished First at Regionals in “Introduction to Business” and Third at Regionals in “Business Ethics.’

When asked about his favorite teachers, Dan also displayed quite a talent for the art of diplomacy in his quick and thoughtful answer: “Mrs. Olson and Mr. Salsbury, among many others. I liked them all. There were none that I didn’t like!”

If the biomedical engineering doesn’t quite work out, there could be a seat in Congress waiting for him.

The Spanish Club trip to Costa Rica ranks high on his HHS memories but, overall, the football team in general out scores them all. “I was close friends with my teammates, and we all have some great memories,” he reported.

A member of the National Honor Society, Dan was named a Scholar Athlete, received the President’s Education Award, and was on the First Team of the All-Academic Conference.

As for advice for incoming high school students, he said:

“Realize that education is more important than anything else, and some sacrifices have to be made. My parents always told me that education is the most important thing, and it is your future.

“It starts with advice from parents, but eventually you have to push yourself.”