Over the past four years, Brett Steele has become a key player on his school’s basketball and golf teams, but sports are only part of the picture for the West High senior.

Steele has also excelled in his Advanced Placement courses at West, which has boosted his grade-point average to 4.2 and put him in the National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation, and he makes time for the American Legion Boys State conference and has earned an Eagle Scout award.

On Tuesday, he added the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Dale Lackey Scholarship to his list of accolades.

“I felt really honored to accept that for our league and be a candidate for the section honor,” he said.

Steele has four varsity letters in golf, and in basketball he was his freshman team’s most valuable player, and has two varsity basketball letters. He also gained his senior class all-around award and the school’s Home Field Advantage Outstanding Athlete Award.

Next year, he plans to attend Brigham Young University, where he plans to be on the golf team and will study pre-med or business.

After his school chose Steele as a candidate for the scholar-athlete award, he followed up by sending in his high school resume, plus information on his other community service contributions.

By getting the award, he represents his school and the Tri-City Athletic League as the top athlete from the league to excel in sports while maintaining high academic marks. It’s the second year in a row that a West High senior is representing TCAL.

The Sac-Joaquin Section recognized 50 scholar-athletes Tuesday morning at Elkhorn Country Club in Stockton. Steele is one of 40 students in the section, including schools between Sacramento and Merced counties and the Foothills, to receive the $600 award, and 10 others receive a $1,000 scholarship. Money for the scholarships was raised at the teams’ California Interscholastic Federation Foundation games at the beginning and end of the basketball season.