Brian Piccolo awards honor 40 Broward seniors

CORAL SPRINGS — The finest high school senior football scholar-athletes from Broward County were honored Wednesday night at the Brian Piccolo Chapter’s 43rd Annual ScholarAthlete Banquet at the Heron Bay Marriott.

The awards banquet recognized 40 senior scholarathletes from Broward County schools who excelled both academically and on the football field.

The chapter handed out four Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards, which included a $1,000 scholarship to Ryan Taylor of Coral Springs, Tai Lehtio Sr. of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Logan Shooster of North Broward Preparatory and Duane Johnson of Plantation.

“It was very important to me,” said Taylor of his selection. “It shows a great deal of character and being compared to Brian Piccolo is such an honor.”

Lehito, who will be heading to Florida Tech to study engineering and play football, has great memories of the gridiron. “High school football is going to be something I look back at, and it’s probably going to be the best time of my life,” said Lehito.

“It’s a privilege, and I’ve been dreaming about this since my sophomore year,” said Johnson, who will pursue aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama.

Meanwhile, American Heritage’s Zackary Zambrano was selected as the Neal Bidwell Family Offensive Player of the Year, Davon Strickland of South Broward earned the Chuck Puleri & Associates Defensive Player of the Year and Cooper City’s Mark Brent was picked as the Dr. Edward “Doc” Storey Special Teams Player of the Year.

Jonathan Vilma, the former University of Miami linebacker and Super Bowl XLIV champion, was the guest speaker.

The awards banquet honors the late Brian Piccolo, who was a standout football player at St. Thomas Aquinas, Wake Forest and later in the NFL with the Chicago Bears.