Sultan High School Turk football players Matt Baller and Deion Bonilla were honored last week after being recognized by the Snohomish County Football Officials Association for being exemplary students and athletes.
Every year, the Snohomish County Football Officials Association Hall of Fame Committee honors a lineman and a back from each Snohomish County high school.
Nominated for the award by Turk football coach Ben Murphy, Baller and Bonilla were able to attend the 33rd annual Scholar Athlete Awards Banquet, which took place on Wednesday, Dec. 10 at the Rosehill Community Center in Mukilteo. To commemorate the event, the boys were both given an engraved plaque, proclaiming them as 2014 Scholar Athlete Award winners.
The event gives students and their families the opportunity to dress up and spend an evening celebrating their accomplishments. The Snohomish County Football Officials Association initiated the scholar athlete awards as a way of recognizing students for their achievements.
"It's their way of giving back to the players,GÇ¥ said Coach Murphy. "It's just an amazing time. You get to see the kids on Friday nights in the fall, and they're all padded up and they're warriors. But this really shows that every school has a couple of kids that just excel in all areas.GÇ¥
Each year the event features a guest speaker, typically an influential football player or someone with a close tie to the sport. This year's speaker was former University of Washington linebacker Mike Rohrbach.
"Rohrback was amazing,GÇ¥ said Murphy, "He gave a great speech; really intriguing and thought-provoking.GÇ¥
Not only awarding athletic achievements, the Snohomish County Football Officials Hall of Fame Committee also seeks to honor academic achievement and community service. An accomplished wrestler, Baller has spent time volunteering as a coach with the local youth wrestling program. Bonilla has spent time volunteering with Sultan's youth basketball camp.
Both Baller and Bonilla are extremely athletically-minded, participating in multiple sports. In addition to wrestling and football, Baller also plays baseball. Bonilla plays football, basketball and soccer.
Both faced disappointment during this year's football season when they became seriously injured during the same game; Baller with a shattered bone in his thumb, and Bonilla with a broken collarbone.
After high school, 17-year-old Baller, who lives in Gold Bar, plans on attending Central Washington University and enrolling in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. His goal is to serve for at least four years in the United States Army. He hopes to be able to play baseball while he's at Central and considers baseball to be one of his favorite sports.
He's also partial to wrestling.
"Baseball is my favorite sport,GÇ¥ said Baller. "This year I wasn't going to do wrestling, but now that I'm doing wrestling it's rising up to the top. I'm having a successful season this year.GÇ¥
Bonilla, also 17, lives in Sultan. He hasn't made any firm decision yet on which college he wants to attend, but he's considering attending school in California. No matter where he ends up, he definitely wants to continue his involvement in sports. Out of all the sports he participates in, Bonilla is most partial to football.
"I've been playing it longer and I enjoy it a lot,GÇ¥ said Bonilla. "I really like basketball too, but I think football's my favorite.GÇ¥
When it comes to academics, both Baller and Bonilla enjoy math classes the most. Both are currently taking calculus.
Coach Murphy is hopeful that Baller and Bonilla will help to encourage younger students to want to push themselves to become established as candidates for next year's awards banquet.
The dinner provides opportunities for scholarships as well; during last week's event approximately $8,000 in scholarships were awarded to students from around Snohomish County.
Murphy is proud of both Baller and Bonilla.
"The reason I nominated them was because they have given so much to the program,GÇ¥ said Murphy. "They maintained leadership even when they were hurt, and they're both great students.GÇ¥
"Sultan students have the ability to compete with anybody,GÇ¥ he continued. "Whether it's on the field, on the court, or in the classroom, our kids can do this.GÇ¥
For more information on the Snohomish County Football Officials Association, please visit their website at: http://www.scfoa.org/?getpage=Hall%20of%20Fame.
Monroe Football players Andrew Zimmerman and Alex Vidican were also honored at the event, and will be highlighted in a future story.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment