Community Corner
Awards All Around at Sixth Annual Lacrosse Banquet in St. Charles
State champions SLUH, John Burroughs, Rockwood Summit teams take a bow at annual get-together.
On June 12, a couple hundred fervent fans and participants of local lacrosse met at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles to break bread and to honor their best and brightest. This was the sixth annual confab, and an unqualified success.
Master of Ceremonies and long time lacrosse leader Michael O’Brien framed it best when he said lacrosse was the ultimate team sport, and no one individual could win a game on his or her own.
Awards were aplenty. Curiously, the girls honored some 50 academic achievers while the boys side featured just one Academic All American, that being Sean Roskamp of Parkway West, headed to Iowa Wesleyan University.
On the boys agenda, All-Americans were recognized: Stephen Lordo, Thomas Place and John Jedlicka, St. Louis U. High; Chris Hiemenz and Foster Bundy; and Phil McFarland, of CBC.
Coaching awards were bestowed upon Pete Stirling, Chris Benton, Michael Morrell and Jason Fauss.
The John Burroughs girls state championship team took a bow, and the girls of the all state team were represented on stage and presented with plaques.
The All Academic girls team was honored and named All Americans were: Charlotte Martin, John Burroughs, Stephanie Kelly John Burroughs and Annie Spewak, Parkway West.
The “people awards” went to Ladue Coach Neil Theriault, official Lea Lamantia and Person of the Year, Andrew Shipp, assistant coach at Villa Duchesne.
The US lacrosse award recipients were: Hall of Fame-Judith L. Anderson, Ph.D, Ursuline Academy; Hall of Fame: Donna Phelan, organizer of women’s lacrosse officials; the Michael P. Sennett Award to James Guffey, instrumental to the development of the girls rules and the Men’s Commitment Award to Chris Brescia, a certified U.S. Lacrosse official’s trainer.
The Youth ConCommitment Award went to Tamara Boots, who founded the Styx Lacrosse youth program in 2006, and to Brian Smith, coach at Lindenwood University who won the Women’s Commitment Award.
Sponsors of the dinner were US Lacrosse Chapter; MSLA, Johnny Mac’s, Nordmann Sports Photography, law offices of Michael O’Brien, Stickstop, Total Lacrosse, Steve Hurster, St. Louis LAX and Gait/DeBeer.
O’Brien, Jennifer Vogel and Boots were recognized for organizing this year’s banquet.
These are the photos from the dinner.
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