Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast

The Ocean County Directors of Athletics held their 15th Annual Sportsmanship Awards Breakfast Sunday at the Quality Inn of Toms River, an event that saw 32 student-athletes saluted for the quality of their character every bit as much as their ability to perform on the field. As I have every year but one, I had the distinct pleasure of serving as Master of Ceremonies for the breakfast, which brought together 30 soon-to-be graduated seniors as well as a pair of juniors from Barnegat High School.

The honored athletes were selected by their schools and all 32 were on hand Sunday with their families and in some cases high school coaches. Sponsored in part by the Pine Belt Auto Group, the recipients posses the qualities of sportsmanship and fair play that make them ambassadors for their sport and school. Among those saluted was Lakewood’s Shavon Greaves, who had quite a weekend at the NJSIAA Group 3 Track championships. The senior sprinter won the 100, 200 and 400 and set a total of three records in the process. However like the others honored she is a shining example of what a student-athlete is all about. Shavon is ranked in the top 10% of her class, a member of the National Honor Society, a lieutenant in the Junior ROTC and captain of the track team. Headed to Penn State on a full scholarship, she hopes to become a physical therapist. Greaves said to her sportsmanship is “always doing the right thing, even when the chance to do the wrong thing is always open and staring you dead in the face.”

Will Sunderman of Pinelands Regional is the President of the County AD’s group and helped present awards to Nancy Sweeney of Lakewood and Jim Christiano of Toms River South as the Ocean County Athletic Directors of the Year. Both longtime educations are retiring after each served their districts for more than 30 years.

Four of this years honorees were randomly selected to receive $500 scholarships courtesy of the Athletic Directors group and they were Stephanie Kissam of Brick Township High School, Kelsey Bongiovanni of Manchester, James D’Aloia of Lakewood and John Gray of Southern Regional.

The Sportsmanship Awards program is one I enthusiastically support and I hope continues for many years.