Mars graduates Sara Getsy, Noah Tresky and Ali Goetz were honored with the Jeff Danner Memorial Scholarship, which was established in 1985.

ADAMS TWP — Jeff Danner’s legacy is alive and well.

The 1982 Mars graduate — who died of leukemia in 1984 — played basketball for the Planets until his illness curtailed his playing career and ultimately his life.

“He was such a quality kid and a great teammate,” said Larry McDonough, who played on the same Mars team as Danner. “Jeff was enthusiastic and intense on the basketball court. He was a go-getter.

“His family wanted to reward and honor other Mars players like him and I’m honored to be a part of that.”

The Jeff Danner Memorial Scholarship was established in 1985 and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with $1,500 scholarships given to Sara Getsy and Ali Goetz of the Mars girls basketball team and Noah Tresky of the boys squad.

McDonough presents the scholarships annually at a Mars awards banquet.

“It’s hard to believe this program has gone on for this long,” Betty Danner, Jeff’s mother, said. “Most scholarships like this fade away by now, but this is still going very strong.

“I’m thrilled we can keep helping Mars basketball players like this.”

The Danner Memorial Scholarship has provided roughly $50,000 in scholarship funding to approximately 75 Mars graduates in the past 30 years.

McDonough serves on the scholarship board along with Bob (Jeff’s father) and Betty Danner, Mars teacher/coach Terry Dillner, Mars softball coach Michele Goodworth, Planets boys basketball coach Rob Carmody and girls basketball coach Tony Howard.

Any Mars senior boys or girls basketball player is eligible to apply for the scholarship. Students must complete a written application and go through an interview with the scholarship board.

“That’s my favorite part of the process,” Mrs. Danner said of the interviews. “Getting to meet and talk with the young people, learning what they’re all about ... There are a lot of good kids out there.

“Other than being a senior basketball player, there isn’t much other criteria out there that we use to determine the winner. It’s based on a feel we get as a board after reading the applications and talking to the kids.”

Among Jeff Danner’s characteristics the board looks for in the applicants are courage, humility, positive attitude and pride in accomplishments.

“There’s no set number of scholarship winners from year to year,” McDonough said. “We get a different number of applicants each year, based on how many seniors we have.”

Mrs. Danner said another $25,000 in scholarship money is in the bank despite the annual Jeff Danner Memorial Scholarship Alumni Basketball Games ceasing five years ago.

Those games — played over Christmas break — served as the fundraiser for the scholarship.

“We stopped having the games mainly because the people who played ball with Jeff and knew Jeff were getting too old to play basketball or didn’t want to play anymore,” Mrs. Danner said.

“I’m just proud we’ve been able to carry this on in Jeff’s name for so long.”

Jeff Danner was inducted into the Mars Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. His sister, Val Danner, played on the 1976-77 Mars girls basketball team that was inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame last year.