ALAH Knights Football and Cheer Honored at Awards Night

Receiving the individual football awards at the ALAH Football and Cheer Awards Night on December 3 were, from left to right, Remington Gregory and Nicholas Rafferty, Most Improved;Donovan Vanausdoll, L.O.V.E. Award; Payton Warrior, Co-Defensive MVP; Easton Frederick, Team MVP; Marcus Otto, Offensive MVP; and Cruz Hale, G.R.I.T. Award (Guts, Responsibility, Integrity, Team).

By SALLY McCARTHY

The annual ALAH Fall Awards Night was held on November 12. Since the football team and cheerleader were continuing their season to the IHSA Semifinals, their awards night was held at the high school on Wednesday, December 3.

ALAH Athletic Director Nathan Seal opened the evening with his previous awards night topic, “There Are No Little Things.” Basically recognizing the importance of every little detail matters. About the football team, he said, “they captured another Lincoln Prairie Conference championship and advanced to the IHSA Semifinals, a testament to their discipline, toughness, and a commitment to details that separates good teams from great ones.”

Of the cheer team he had this to say, “they continued to be a strong, spirited group that supports every athlete and represent what school pride is all about – proving that energy, attitude, and positivity are never small things!”

Mr. Seal closed his remarks with the thank yous he had made at the earlier awards night but gave a special mention to the maintenance crew for the game conditions of the football field. Multiple coaches and administrators from Maroa-Forsyth were very complimentary about the field with Head Coach Josh Jostes saying, it’s the best grass field we’ve played on all year.”

Cheer Coach Misty Appleby was up first to discuss the cheer team. She spoke of “seeing so much growth in the squad and their seeing the payoff and getting the big picture in the end. We really enjoyed cheering for the football team who made it easy to celebrate. There were some struggles with new things but they came through with hard work and dedication.” The group cheered at 13 varsity and 5 JV games, helped with the Bonfire night (without a fire!), made over 200 signs, painted car windows, held a cheer camp, did a dance routine with the JFL, and helped with the jr. high cheerleaders. They were a very busy group!

Coach Appleby thanked the Boosters for including them in the team meals. She stated the team “learned other schools are not like ours, this is a special place. They became involved in the communities and promoted those and the school with commitment to hard work and working hard for something you love!”

For her Knight Award, this person was someone we could depend on, wanted the team to succeed, had incredible initiative, showed a lot of leadership and was kind. That person was senior Olivia Binion.

Football Head Coach Ryan Jefferson was up next and started by saying, “this was our goal” which was made at last year’s awards night. Proud of the success of all the fall groups but it is nice to have our own night.”

Some highlights of this season were this senior class was the winningest in ALAH history with 38 victories over their four years of high school, were the second most wins of all time, second LPC championship in 3 years and just 14 points away from a 4-peat! Coach thanked the cheerleaders for all their efforts saying “they made the season more fun!” He said he would go into more detail in the separate football portion of the evening.

For the football Knights Award, Coach Jefferson chose a player who showed Knight Pride, was the most coachable, volunteered time and effort outside of football activities, never complained or made excuses and exemplified the team’s motto of Heart, Faith, and Class. The award went to senior Tristan Keagle. Coach also mentioned Tristan going out on 5 mile runs after football practice as a workout for his role on the cross country team.

Before separating to further discuss their seasons, the Lincoln Prairie Conference All Conference certificates were presented to the football players. All State football players Easton Frederick and Elijah VanScyoc and All State Academic selections Frederick and Kaden Morfey were introduced.