Several players from this year’s football team were honored for their performance on the field. Sophomore wide receiver Noelly Miller and senior cornerback Michael Amobi were selected first team all county. Miller had a remarkable season finishing with 75 receptions, 1,035 yards and 11 touchdowns all in just eight games. Junior quarterback Grant Saylor and junior wide receiver Elijah Trent were given honorable mentions as well.
Saylor capped off his junior campaign with 2,924 yards, just 76 shy of the coveted 3,000 yard mark, and threw for 27 touchdowns in 10 games. After making his return from Avalon, Trent caught 62 balls, nine touchdowns and 865 yards in nine games. “This is extremely exciting for our program. Most of our guys are young, really young but they all have talent. I mean we aren’t talking about just the best kids at Wootton, these kids have proven to be some of the best talent in the entire county, I’m excited,” first year offensive coordinator Christopher Papadopoulos said.
Junior stand out and West Point commit Jillian Gonzales was awarded honorable mention for her performance for the girls’ soccer team. As a junior, Gonzalez was able to lead this team and dominate when necessary. “The Northwest playoff game is probably the best way to describe Jillian as a player. “I mean she just played with guts the whole game and at the end, she took it upon herself to win the game for us. She is going to be such a threat next year,” senior attack Isabella Oliva said. As a defender, Gonzales was able to net five goals this season and assist on another 13. “I am really proud to have received this award but I really wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without the help of my teammates,” Gonzales said.
Senior striker Benson Child was the workhorse for this year’s boys’ soccer team. Child was relied on heavily this season, rarely taking any minutes off. “Benson is crazy man. He would go slide for a ball, get up with blood gushing from his thigh from a turf burn and just keep going,” mid fielder senior Sean Ainloo said.
Child was awarded honorable mention for his 15 goal and four assist campaign this season and while at times it could have been easy for Child to rest considering his ankle and hip flexer were not up to par, that just wasn’t in his blood. “That’s not me man, I am not going to rest if I can go at least 75 percent because my 75 percent is better than any other man’s 100 percent,” Child said.
The cross country team experienced tons of success this season. The girls’ team finished second in the state and the boys finished ninth, the first time since 2013 that both the boys’ and girls’ teams made it to states as a team. While both teams found success as a whole, sophomores John Riker and Jessica Trzeciak showed exceptional skill this season, both being named to the Maryland 2016 Postseason Team. “ This season everything came together well at the end and we had a great success at the state meet,” Riker said.

Dean Spitz

Sports Editor