Future Navy Pilot

The qualities of a Winged Foot Award candidate sound similar to those of a U.S. Military Academy candidate: pursuit of those characteristics exemplified by the highest standards in sportsmanship, the desire to excel, and to compete with a sense of fairness. Considering that, Marco Island Academy’s Aubrey Guidry is a strong candidate to become the school’s first Winged Foot Award winner. The Winged Foot Award recognizes the top senior scholar athletes in Collier County.

Guidry’s 1510 SAT score is an outstanding, elite result, putting her in the 99th percentile nationally. That score would qualify Guidry for prestigious institutions like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. It also caught the attention of the U.S. Military Academies, all of which accepted the MIA senior.

"I got into all the academies,” Guidry said humbly. "So I got to choose whichever one I wanted."

Guidry figures her high SAT scores were very attractive to the academies, along with her high school athletic resume, which includes tennis, cross country, track, soccer, and volleyball. She was a captain in tennis and cross country.

Guidry was inspired to go the military route because of her admiration for her father, Andrew Guidry, a physician on the island.

“My father was in the military for 22 years,” she said, "so I was inspired by him to go and apply to the academies. He definitely inspired me to apply to the Naval Academy because he’s very physically fit, he's very intelligent, he's a leader. So I definitely wanted to be more like him as I grow up."

Guidry chose the Naval Academy over West Point for one reason: flying. The Naval Academy has the lowest acceptance rate of all the academies at 10 percent.

"I was interested in doing aviation,” she said. "I didn't really want to do Air Force. I went to the campus and didn't really like it all that much. But I really like Annapolis and West Point. In order to do aviation, the US Navy is better for that.”

Guidry will graduate with a weighted GPA of 5.4 and an unweighted GPA of 4.0. She’s ranked third in her class of 80. In addition to her academics and sports, Guidry has been active in extra-curricular activities as president of the Key Club, vice president of the National Honor Society, treasurer of the Spanish Honor Society, and a member of the Science Honor Society.

Guidry lists MIA cross country coach Bruce Kretschmer as someone who made a difference in her high school career.

"Coach Bruce was always pushing us to run further, run faster,” she said. "I'd say if I didn't do cross country, I don't think I ever would have applied to the academies because I probably wouldn't have thought I would be able to actually do it."

Guidry leaves for the Naval Academy on June 24, where she will join a class that’s comprised of two thirds men. She’s confident of her success.

“It hasn't really been much of a concern to me,” she said confidently. "I mean, if they didn't want me, they wouldn’t have accepted me.”

The Winged Foot Award winner will be named Thursday, May 7, in a ceremony at the Registry resort in Naples. Former basketball coach and ESPN analyst Tom Crean will be the guest speaker.