Spirko, Hay win Via scholar-athlete awards; Brice and Kinek are players of the year

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FROM KEITH GROLLER

The Via All-Star Classic banquet was held tonight at Freedom and once again the Via people did an outstanding job of incorporating so many different honors.

There were the hall of fame inductions which included Jackie Adamshick, Mary Lisicky, Mike Polaha and yours truly.

A very humbling moment for me; one that I honestly never thought would happen. And one that I will always treasure, especially because I got to spolight my family and thank them for all they have done for me. I also could not have been inducted with three more outstanding young adults than the three great players and people that were also inducted tonight.

Special thanks to Allen coach Doug Snyder for doing such a wonderful job in presenting me.

However, there were many more accolades given out tonight, most notably the $2,000 scholar-athlete award winners which were Wilson's Ryan Spirko and Palmerton's Kelsey Hay.

The Via Teams of the Year were:

BOYS -- D.J. Brown (Allen), Lloyd Irons (Salisbury), Greg Bobal (Emmaus), Joe Lococo (Freedom), Justin Ringland (Bangor) and player of the year Quindell Brice (Pocono Mountain West).

GIRLS -- Bridgette Dougherty (Southern Lehigh), Aimee Oertner (Northern Lehigh), Kelecia Harris (Pocono Mt. East), Leah Horton (Emmaus) and Hay of Palmerton. And the player of the year was Central Catholic's Kerry Kinek. Strong showing for the Colonial League this year.

Former football star and longtime broadcaster Joe Theismann was one of the most energetic, lively and powerful speakers in the banquet's history. He went 18 minutes over the 25 minutes event organizers had allotted for his presentation, but very few in the crowd of over 600 seemed to mind.