Nichols, Townsend and Thompson among inductees to Media Hall
The Media Area Sports Hall of Fame recently honored three athletes, one team, two student-athletes, and a contributor to the success of local youth programs at its 54th awards dinner.
Joining the Hall of Fame were track and field athlete Steve Nichols, football player Cortez Townsend, and soccer player Scott Thompson. The 1978 Penncrest boys soccer team was recognized as the Team of the Year, and Sharon Pettit received the Warren Humes Memorial Sportsperson of the Year Award.
Tara Higgins and Chris Mills were the recipients of the Lewis “Jumbo” Johnson Memorial Award as the top student-athletes in Penncrest’s Class of 2018.
Nichols, the 2002 Daily Times Track Athlete of the Year, helped Penncrest to a 31-4-1 dual meet record as a varsity runner and was a state champion in the 110-meter hurdles. He credited his older brother, Ken, with helping him develop his interest in running.
“He always pushed me and was a big (inspiration) in making me want to run track,” Nichols said. “I had coaches who always stood behind me, and I’m honored to be in the Media Hall of Fame because Media will always be a part of me.”
Townsend, a talented running back who scored six touchdowns in one Penncrest football game, lives in Texas, and asked his niece, Ieshia Paige, to represent him at the dinner.
“He always talks about all the people he met when he played sports,” she said. “And he’s always talking about his days in Media.”
Thompson played soccer at Penncrest, the University of Delaware, and with a number of local club teams.
“If you’re able to play a sport, you develop a passion and learn how to compete to win,” he said. “There’s nothing like being a part of a team, developing life-long friends, and remembering all the good feelings you had playing.”
Mike Barbarick, who played at the University of Washington as well as with the Seattle Sounders, San Diego Sockers, Pennsylvania Stoners, and Houston Dynamos professional teams, represented the 1976 Penncrest soccer team.
“The catalyst and leader who brought it all together for us was our coach, Dick Threlfall,” Barbarick said. “He was intense, and had a fierce spirit to win.”
Pettit joined her husband Jeff (2001) as a winner of the Humes Award.
“I’ve spent a lot of time at the athletic fields in the Rose Tree-Media School District,” she said. “I never felt any other way except that I loved what I was doing.”
The Hall of Fame also saluted Phil Damiani, who is stepping down after 18 years as awards dinner master of ceremonies.
“It’s been my honor to spend all those years pinchhitting for Lou Scott,” Damiani said of the late Penncrest High principal, whom he succeeded as banquet toastmaster after Scott died in 2000.
The Sports Legends of Delaware County Museum, which is located at 301 Iven Avenue in Radnor, is featuring one of the cards from its newest collection of top county sports figures each week on the museum’s website at www.sportslegendsofdelawarecounty.com.
The featured card this week is that of Mares Stellfox, a Springfield High graduate who turned to auto racing at a young age, when she began driving go-karts. When she joined the TriState MicroSprint Outlaws, she was the only woman driver and earned the nickname “Lady Outlaw.”
She was points champion in one season during her racing career at Delaware’s Airport Speedway.
The Sports Legends Museum is continuing its drive to raise funds to have a statue erected of Radnor High graduate Emlen Tunnell, a World War II hero and the first African-American elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The statue fund-raising committee plans to have the dedication ceremony in June 2018.
Additional information about the statue project can be found by visiting www.sportslegendsofdelawarecounty.com or www. emlentunnell.com.
The Delmont CYO Football Officials Association honored former Cardinal O’Hara athlete Mark Concannon at its recent Old Timers and Awards Night.
Concannon was named winner of the Bob Smith Memorial Award, which is presented in memory of a former Delmont, high school and college official. The award goes to a Delmont member who has shown improvement as an official as well as dedication to the organization and the sport of football.
Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast faculty member Tom Cerone served as master of ceremonies, and several officials in attendance recalled the day at The Haverford School that Cerone was a member of a crew which gave one of the teams a fifth down in one first-half series.
Among those in attendance at Garnet Valley’s district football playoff victory over Pennridge Friday night were former St. James athletes Joe Carroll and Dr. James Talarico.
Carroll became head football coach at West Chester East after serving as head coach at Chester High. Talarico was Chester’s athletic director before becoming an administrator at Eastern High in New Jersey. While he was athletic director at Eastern, the school’s field hockey team set a national record by winning 153 consecutive games. He retired as the school’s principal five years ago.
Also taking in the Jaguars’ Class 6A district semifinal contest was Chris Root, a former Upper Darby assistant football coach who is teaching at Truman in Bristol and is an assistant coach at Council Rock South under head coach Matt McHugh, a former Garnet Valley quarterback.
Former Sun Valley football player Ernie Ellis was a member of the Chester Chapter of PIAA Football Officials for several seasons before putting aside his striped shirt to coach Sun Valley’s freshman football team this fall.
Ellis’ son, Anthony, is the Vanguards’ varsity quarterback, and his half-brother, Dominic, is the team’s center. Both are juniors.
In the game against West Chester East last month, Anthony Ellis threw a pass which was batted down by an East defensive lineman into the hands of Dominic Ellis.
“I wonder if that was the first nephew-to-uncle completion at Sun Valley or in Delaware County,” Ernie Ellis said.
All of the members of the Ellis family are looking forward to taking part in Sun Valley and Chichester’s Thanksgiving Day football game. It will be the 50th renewal of the neighborhood Turkey Bowl.
With fall sports seasons coming to an end, In the Community welcomes information and pictures about junior varsity, freshman, middle school, youth club, or CYO teams that have completed undefeated seasons or turned in special accomplishments, such as winning a championship or putting together a long winning streak.
Please make sure that anything submitted lists first and last names of all players and coaches. Also, be sure to provide first and last names of anyone as they appear in a picture.