51st Student-Athlete Award Nominees

Select a nominee to read bio and personality profile
Emilio
Beato
Salem
Matthew
Brady
St. John's Prep
Duncan
d'Hemecourt
Danvers
Julianna DeGenova
N.S. Tech/AggieTech/Aggie
Brendan
Flaherty
Beverly
Peter
Hale
Swampscott
Hossam
Hamdan
Pingree

Carolyn
Heslop
Manchester-Essex
Sarah
Keiran
Ipswich
Andrew
Klobucher
Hamilton-Wenham
Ian
Maag
Marblehead
Dylan
Mann
Masconomet
Bryan
Mendes
Bishop Fenwick
Catarina
Rocha
Peabody

How nominees, winner are chosen

Each year, the 14 high schools within The Salem News readership area (Beverly, Salem, Danvers, Peabody, Marblehead, Swampscott, Ipswich, Hamilton-Wenham, Masconomet, Pingree, North Shore Tech/Essex Aggie, Manchester Essex, Bishop Fenwick and St. John's Prep) select a student to represent their school for a particular year. Transcripts, resumes and letters of recommendation for each student-athlete are then sent to The Salem News.

Each candidate must combine academic excellence, outstanding athletic prowess and the ability to multi-task in areas such as volunteering, working part-time and/or giving back to their community.

Each student-athlete candidate is then interviewed by a panel of five judges at The Salem News offices in Beverly on the day that the Student-Athlete Award will be presented. After all the interviews, the judges discuss the candidates until they reach a consensus on who the for that year will be.

That evening, each of the nominees and their families meet with the judges and members of The Salem News for a dinner and awards ceremony. Each of the student-athletes are recognized individually during the dinner, and a guest speaker delivers a short speech to the assembled audience after dinner.

After the speech, the 51st annual Salem News Student-Athlete winner will be announced. The winner receives a $1,000 Nelson Benton Scholarship, named in honor of long-time Salem News reporter and editor. They will also receive a commemorative bowl signifying the win, along with their name engraved on the Student-Athlete Trophy. In addition, the winner's school will get to showcase the actual trophy, a Paul Revere-style bowl made of sterling silver, with the names of all the previous winners engraved on it.

Judges this year are Lorin Buksa, a career counselor at North Shore Community College; Julie Livingston, president of Marblehead Bank; Michael Dellisola, claims examiner for Energi Insurance Services in Peabody; Bob Hanson, assistant vice president for commercial banking at Salem Five Bank; and Phil Stacey, sports editor at The Salem News.

Profiles written by Salem News Sports Editor Phil Stacey and Sports Writers Matt Williams and Matt Jenkins.
Photos by David Le
Web design by Dan Ryan

The Award Ceremony

Congratulations to winner Dylan Mann of Masconomet. Mann was named the 51st winner of the Salem News Student-Athlete Award at the annual banquet at Finz in Salem on April 4. See story and photos

Peter
Frates

Guest speaker was Peter Frates of Beverly, a former St. John's Prep and Boston College baseball captain who is now battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). Frates told student-athletes to be passionate, genuine and hard working. See story and photos


Nelson
Benton

The $1,000 scholarship given to the yearly winner of The Salem News Student-Athlete Award has been renamed the Nelson Benton Scholarship. Benton was a longtime writer, editor and editorial page editor of the Salem News. For many years, he spearheaded our Student-Athlete Award planning, coverage and presentation. He retired in 2012.