Colton Roberts was recently named Tabiona High School's all-around Most Valuable Player, but not every thing he did the past school year was athletic. Roberts also made a fiber-glass Varieze plane in shop class as his Sterling Scholar project.

“It took him three years to build it. He worked on the plane during teacher, Darrin Jenkins' two-hour shop class at Tabiona High and after school,” said his father, Calvin Roberts.

The toughest part of building the plane was trying to get it perfectly smooth so that the paint job would stand out. Layers of fiberglass and flex were formed together by Colton and then he sanded the plane, which took up most of his time.

“Sanding was the main thing that I had to do. Closer to the end of the year I had to push to get it done,” Colton said. He finished the plane just before school ended.

Colton has put in flying hours and all he has left to do is take the written test to get his pilot license. Before Colton can fly the two-seat plane he has to get in 40 hours of taxi time.

“I can't jump in and go flying. I have to go by the rules and get familiar with the plane,” stated Colton.

Roberts will be attending Utah State University this fall where he will study aerospace engineering. He received scholarships from UBTA, USU Engineering Department, Jed Park (J&P Steel), Sterling Scholar and received his Associates Degree from USU. Roberts finished as a Sterling Scholar runner-up in Trade and Technical Education.

“I became interested in aerospace engineering (building and designing of jets and rockets) when I started building my plane. Now I'm going to use the plane to travel back and forth from Logan,” Colton stated.

USU's Engineering Department checked out the plane and were so impressed that they gave Colton a full-tuition scholarship.

“He has been working on planes since he was 12-years-old,” Calvin stated.

The plane was built from scratch by Colton.

“I had to cut it out and glue the plane together. It is so light that I can almost pick it up by myself,” he said. The plane can get up to 200 miles per hour.

Colton was also student body president and valedictorian at Tabiona with a 4.0 grade point average.

He lettered four years in cross country and competed at state meets where he finished 31st, 8th, 4th, and 5th. His best time was 17:01 and he made first team all state three times. Roberts lettered three years in baseball and the team made three trips to the state tournament. He made Academic All-State and second team Deseret News.

In basketball he lettered three years and went to the state tournament in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He made all star teams, first team Salt Lake Tribune all-state, second team Deseret News, Academic All-State. He shot 60% from the three-point line with 41 made and was 79% from the free throw line. He averaged 14 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.

In track he lettered four years and went to state meets from 2006 to 2009. He made Academic All-State in track. His times at the state meet were: 3200 meter 10:10, 1600 meter 4:43, 800 meter 2:07 and placed fifth in all three events.