Senior running back Kevin Kijanski was named Most Valuable Player of the 2010 DeKalb County High School Football Team during the annual Awards Banquet held Saturday night at the Smithville First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center building. The awards were sponsored by Liberty State Bank
The award was presented to Kijanski by Coach Steve Trapp, who spoke with WJLE after the banquet. ” Kevin has been with us for four years. I’ve had the luxury of coaching him ever since he was a junior pro player. He’s always brought the passion and the fire to the game that you wish every player had and we’re just excited that he was a part of our football family for the last four years. He was our leading rusher. As a running back, he was our third leading receiver. He was our leading tackler on defense. He led the team in return yards, kick off returns, punt returns. He could have won almost every award tonight that you wanted to put him in and usually that’s the way the MVP is so he just had a tremendous season for us. He played a lot of football. He started as a sophomore and just had a great career for DeKalb County.”
Meanwhile, Quincie Winchester, a senior, was named Most Valuable Cheerleader. The presentation was made by Cheer Coach Sonya House, who also spoke with WJLE after the banquet. “Quincie is a wonderful girl and an outstanding cheerleader. She can cheer. She can dance. She can stunt. She can do just about everything and anything that we could ask for and she has one of the best personalities and attitudes of anyone I’ve ever met. She was really wanting to work on her tumbling and during her sophomore year we noticed that there was a problem. So she went and got checked and by her junior year she had been diagnosed with I believe a fractured back and she had several disks that were out of place. They told her that tumbling was out and it almost kept her out of cheerleading but she was able to really strive, struggle, and push forward. I’m going to miss her dearly. She is my angel. She will truly be missed on this squad. It’s going to be hard to replace these seniors.”
Other individual Football Player Awards are as follows:
Offensive Player- Shane Salley (absent)
Offensive Lineman- Randall Hansard
Offensive Back- Lucas Phillips
Receiver- Dillion Brown
Defensive Player- Devin Thomas
Defensive Lineman- Gage Brown
Linebacker- Sebastian Phillips
Defensive Back- Matt Giles
Special Teams Player- Rickey Spare
Most Improved- Sam Giles
MVP- Kevin Kijanski
Coach Clay Edwards Memorial Tiger Pride Award- Devin Thomas, presented by Edwards’ son, Abram Edwards.
Individual Cheer Awards are as follows:
Best Stunts-Heather Hughes
Most Spirited-Elizabeth Mason
Best Jumps- Johnna Roller
Best Dance-Taylor Cantrell
Most Improved-McKenzie Poteete
MVC- Quincie Winchester
DEAR (Dedication, Enthusiasm, Attitude, and Responsibility)- Taylor Cantrell
Although the Tigers finished the 2010 season at 3-7 overall and 2-3 in the district, Coach Trapp says his program will have a lot of experienced players returning next season. ” To all the seniors, I just appreciate everything they put into this program, helping us to build it and now we’re in that mode where we have to sustain it. We want to keep taking steps forward. This past season isn’t what anybody wanted but the majority of the guys that were on the field were sophomores and juniors so we’ve got a lot of experience coming back. Those sophomores are going to be more mature physically and mentally so we’re very excited about next season.”
Top picture: MVP Kevin Kijanski
Second picture from top: MVC Quincie Winchester
Third picture from top: (seated left to right) Devin Thomas, Randall Hansard, Kevin Kijanski, Matt Giles, Sam Giles; (standing left to right) Rickey Spare, Gage Brown, Dillion Brown, Sebastian Phillips, Lucas Phillips
Fourth picture from top: Left to right- Elizabeth Mason, McKenzie Poteete, and Taylor Cantrell
Bottom picture: Left to right- Quincie Winchester, Johnna Roller, and Heather Hughes
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