Gehlen Football squad presents awards

(Sentinel photo by Bethany Kroeze) Awards were presented Tuesday evening at the Gehlen Catholic football banquet at Mr. P's. Pictured above are winners of the team-voted awards (from left to right): Alex Westergard, Pride Award; Cody Campbell, Defensive MVP; and Chris Gabriel, Offensive MVP. [Click to enlarge]

On Tuesday evening, the Gehlen Catholic football team celebrated the end of their season with an awards banquet at Mr. P's in Le Mars. The team voted on three awards and they were presented to Alex Westergard, Cody Campbell and Chris Gabriel. Gabriel was named Offensive MVP while Campbell was voted Defensive MVP and Westergard received the Pride Award.

Coach Tony Gunter individually recognized all the varsity letter winners, denoting their various accomplishments this season. Earning all-district honors were Taylor Wurth, Cody Campbell, Chris Gabriel, Drew Kellen and Cole Heissel for first team. Second team all-district honors went to Chris Eral, Micah Neary and Trevor Bouma while Jordan Sitzmann was the second team punter. Sitzmann and Alex Westergard received all-district honorable mention.

Academic all-district honors are given to varsity letter winners in grades 10 through 12 recording a 3.20 or higher GPA. Those honors were awarded to Jordan Sitzmann, Adam Nemmers, Taylor Wurth, Eric Loutsch, Eric Berkenpas and Shaun Ryan. Assistant coach Bob Livermore was named District Assistant Coach of the Year.

Letter winners for the 2008 Gehlen Catholic Jays are as follows: Alex Westergard, Chris Gabriel, Shawne Reuter, Austin Sitzmann, Cole Heissel, Cody Campbell, Drew Kellen, Jordan Sitzmann, Adam Nemmers, Shaun Ryan, Chris Eral, Austin Juhl, Eric Berkenpas, Taylor Wurth, Eric Loutsch, Mitchel Christoffel, Devin Groenhagen, Micah Neary, Trevor Bouma and Zach Wurth.

The 'Chain Gang Hit Man Awards' were given to five players for big hits in the home games. Winners were selected by Gehlen's Chain Gang Crew. Cole Heissel won for the West Sioux game while Trevor Bouma had the big hit against K-P. Cody Campbell was the winner in the MMC game, Drew Kellen got a nod for the Woodbury Central game and Jordan Sitzmann got the big hit against Newell-Fonda.

Awards were also given out for hits, skills and pit boss for each game of the season.

The Jays ended their season with an 8-3 record and were second in their district with a 5-1 posting.