Willowbrook High School’s Athletic Booster Club held its annual senior athletic banquet near the end of the 2025-26 school year. The event featured the presentation of scholarships and awards to several student-athletes in the school’s Class of 2026. Six student-athletes received the Susan Jurkonis Memorial Scholarship. That scholarship honors 1994 Willowbrook graduate Susan Jurkonis, who played badminton and volleyball for the Warriors, and received a scholarship to play volleyball at Purdue University. Jurkonis died in 1998, at the age of 22, after battling a malignant brain tumor. Her parents, Karl and Ellen Jurkonis, joined her two sisters to attend this year’s senior athletic banquet. Susan’s parents and sisters are all Willowbrook graduates. The first of the Susan Jurkonis Memorial Scholarships was presented in 1999. This year’s six recipients are: Miteku Branch, Brogan Byrne, Anthony Leo, Naomi Aldana, Jadyn Pilafas and Ally Stefani.
