Athletes, coaches, family and friends gathered on the campus of Escalon High School on Wednesday night, Nov. 17 for the Fall Sports Awards.

It was an evening that was missed last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Welcoming the crowd in to the main gym at EHS, Athletic Director Nate Bartelink thanked all the coaches and their assistants for the hard work during the season as well as offering thanks to the school administration for its support.

The fall sports season featured cross country, girls golf, volleyball and football. Among those sports, the football season is the only one still in progress, as the varsity Cougars won the TVL title outright and will play for the Section title on Saturday, Nov. 27. The varsity volleyball girls won the TVL title with a 10-0 league record and also earned their second straight Section title in early November.

High School Principal Eric Simoni also took a turn at the podium on Wednesday night.

“Last year we missed out on a lot of different things,” he said, adding that he enjoyed watching the students have an opportunity to get back into sports for a full, regular season of competition. He announced the school’s Scholar-Athletes for the fall; seniors with at least a 3.5 GPA that participated in a varsity sport. Those honorees were: Preston Ball, Jacob Dugo, Grace Ferreira, Grady Fugett, Alfonzo Gonzalez, Valeria Gonzalez, Richard Kilgore, Emily Middleton, Benjamin Millard, Amanda Murphy, Pietro Orlando, Chris Soto, Casey Vassallo and Leah Wheeler.

Coaches for the individual sports then handed out honors in categories including MVP, most inspirational, most improved, coaches award and more.