Walter Camp Football Foundation Will Host High School “Breakfast of Champions” on January 17
New Haven, CT – As part of its 48th annual Weekend festivities, the Walter Camp Football Foundation will host a High School “Breakfast of Champions” on Saturday, January 17 at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven. The event will start at 9 a.m.
Walter Camp Breakfast of Champions
The Southington Blue Knights, the No. 1 team in the state’s high school football season-ending polls, will be recognized along with the seven other state champons – Xavier (Class LL small), New Canaan (Class L large), Windsor (Class L small), Brookfield (Class M large), St. Joseph (Class M small), Valley Regional/Old Lyme (Class S large) and Capital Prep/Achievement (Class S small).
In addition, members of the 2014 Walter Camp All-Connecticut Team, presented by Achieve Athletics, will be recognized. Here is the team:
OFFENSE
QB: Mark Piccirillo (Shelton), Jasen Rose (Southington)
RB: Mufasha Adbdul-Basir (St. Joseph), JoJo Schumaker (Ledyard)
WR: Alex Jamele (Southington), Alex LaPolice (New Canaan)
TE: Julian Dunn (Newtown)
OL: Jack Griffiths (Darien), Noah MacDonald (Southington), Anthony Palazzolo (Fairfield Prep), Ryan Rogers (Avon)
C: Tanner Kern (Xavier)
DEFENSE
LB: Tim Krapf (Newtown), Ben Mason (Newtown), Owen Tyler (Northwest Catholic)
DB: Dario Highsmith (Middletown), Matt Maxwell (Southington), Jarvis Miller (Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby), Lars Pedersen (St. Joseph)
DL: Zach Allen (New Canaan), Kevaughn Bennett (Windsor), Mark Evanchick (Darien), Sidney Jones (Capital Prep/Achievement)
SPECIAL TEAMS
PK: Andrew Verre (Xavier)
P: Christopher Jean-Pierre (Valley Regional/Old Lyme)
KR: Enyce Walker (East Hartford)
The state Coach of the Year award will be presented by Stadium System. The three finalists include: Mike Drury (Southington), Tim King (Valley Regional/Old Lyme) and Jeff Roy (Shelton).
The three finalists for state Player of the Year include: TE/DE Zach Allen (New Canaan), QB Mark Piccirillo (Shelton) and QB Jasen Rose (Southington).
The Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented by NFP Sports, will be presented to current New Britain athletic director Len Corto. Corto, who coached football at South Catholic (1974-87) and New Britain (1988-2000), had a career record of 144-122-7.
Coach Drury and the Southington team will be recognized with the “Kelly Award” later that evening at the organization’s national awards banquet, presented by First Niagara Bank, at the Yale University Commons in New Haven. The members of the 2014 Walter Camp All-America team and Player of the Year Marcus Mariota (Oregon), will be honored at the national awards banquet. In addition, the Foundation will recognize three individuals – broadcasting legend Verne Lundquist (Distinguished American), former Notre Dame and Pittsburgh Steeler standout running back Jerome Bettis (Man of the Year) and former Air Force All-American and Dallas Cowboy Chad Hennings (Alumnus of the Year) – with major awards.
Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.