The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table brought together the scholastic sports community for one last time in 2012 on Monday, with a pair of special awards preceding the usual coaches reports and student-athlete introductions.
Individual honorees Jessica Simon and Troy Skinner received high praise from award presenters Bob Huhn and Aaron Brown. With families in attendance, Simon and Skinner received their awards in front of a packed Ranchero Room at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.
Find more about Special Olympics Athlete of the Month Jessica Simon HERE
Find more about Troy Skinner, Bishop Diego’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, HERE
Then the Athletes of the Week were announced, with Providence Hall’s Sydney Hedges and Dos Pueblos’ Chad Lampe for their respective performances on the basketball court and wrestling mat. Find Athlete of the Week details HERE
Sixteen coaches or assistant coaches reported from the podium, touching on local high school and college teams competing in basketball, soccer and wrestling.
San Marcos Royals head girls soccer coach Macie Berlin announced her junior goalkeeper Hannah Harrah has verbally committed to play at Loyola Marymount, making her the first NCAA D1 player from San Marcos is several years.
Santa Barbara High’s girls soccer coach Jeff Johnson brought one player, Annie DeBruynkops, and highlighted her defensive effort against another future D1 player, Taylor Alvarado, from Santa Paula.
Santa Barbara High girls basketball coach Andrew Butcher and Dos Pueblos boys basketball assistant John Slavin brought three players each.
Butcher called his trio – Alejandra Mejia, Wendy Hernandez, Debbie Throop – his “wheel players.”
“Because you can have a car with a huge engine, or as I say now a car that gets great mileage, and if you don’t have wheels, or the wheels fall off, you’ve got nothing.
“We’ve had some success this year and these three are as responsible as anyone else.”
Other announcements included Westmont Sports Information Director Ron Smith promoting the Alex Moore Classic on Saturday, January 12.
On behalf of Laguna Blanca School, Blake Dorfman invited the student-athletes in the room to come to the Owls’ Hope Ranch campus next Monday to listen to a panel including Olympian Todd Rogers and National College Soccer Coach of the Year Tim Vom Steeg.
STUDENT-ATHLETES PRESENT
Troy Skinner, Bishop Diego Football/Soccer
Cameron Cox, Dos Pueblos Wrestling
Chad Lampe, Dos Pueblos Wrestling
Noah Burke, Santa Barbara Basketball
Jeff Paschke, Santa Barbara Basketball
Caleb Richey, Bishop Diego Basketball
Thomas Lash, Bishop Diego Basketball
Brooke Gignac, Bishop Diego Soccer
Amanda Garcia, Bishop Diego Soccer
Cristina Valdez, Carpinteria Soccer
Kylie Augerot, Carpinteria Soccer
Alejandra Mejia, Santa Barbara Basketball
Wendy Hernandez, Santa Barbara Basketball
Debbie Throop, Santa Barbara Basketball
Steve McCaffrey, Laguna Blanca Basketball
Annie DeBruynkops, Santa Barbara Soccer
Madison Ballard-Rozok, Bishop Diego Basketball
Josie McCoy, Bishop Diego Basketball
Bryce Ridenour, San Marcos Basketball
Jake Wheelock, San Marcos Basketball
Hope Morrison, San Marcos Basketball
Gina Ramirez, San Marcos Basketball
CJ Zajic, Dos Pueblos Basketball
Chris Williams, Dos Pueblos Basketball
Gerry Perez, Dos Pueblos Basketball
Sydney Hedges, Providence Hall Basketball
Lacey Gonzalez, Providence Hall Basketball
Nate Dutcher, Providence Hall Basketball
Hannah Harrah, San Marcos Soccer
Caroline Vance, San Marcos Soccer
