The San Francisco Italian Athletic Club Foundation (SFIAC) will be hosting its 8th Annual SFIAC High School Awards Dinner on Monday May 13 at its North Beach clubhouse at 1630 Stockton Street. The festivities begin at 6pm.
The dinner is a fundraiser for High School sports and the primary beneficiary is the Academic Athletic Association/CIF San Francisco Section. Every year the dinner sells out with 250 in attendance and the foundation typically raise $5,000 to $10,000 for high school sports. The AAA will again be the primary beneficiary but this year they are also looking to raise enough funds to also provide some college scholarships to some of the award recipients.
The event is always a lot of fun and typically receives great attention from local media. The awards dinner is a great opportunity to bring San Francisco high school sports community together over an Italian dinner with salad, anti-pasta, spaghetti, wine and desert.
The sponsors include: the San Francisco Giants, BSN Sports, Tri-Counties Bank, Advanced Wellness, Toast Eatery, Original Joe's, Jane Poppelreiter Real Estate, Capo Isetta Winery, Orbis, Pinotti & Associates, William Black and Aldo Congi Real Estate. The SFIAC Foundation welcomes additional sponsors and if interested contact SFIAC Foundation Vice-President Randal Bessolo at randy.bessolo@sfiacfoundation.org or coachrandal@yahoo.com
The event is modeled after the Heisman Trophy and the SFIAC Foundation will be awarding the following trophies listed below to the best high school athletes and coaches in the City of San Francisco.
Of note is the SFIAC Foundation is creating a new Trophy this year for the best Girls Basketball Player in the City and will be naming the award after Mary Hile-Nepfel. Hile-Nepfel is retiring from coaching at University High and is a University of San Francisco Hall of Famer as both a player and coach. There will also be some special guests including Phil Ginsburg who is the General Manager of San Francisco Park & Recreation Department.
Here are the 2024 Honorees:
The Tringali Football Trophy to the best football player in the City - Jamelle Newman, Lincoln Football
The Margi Beima Volleyball Trophy to the best volleyball player in the City - Suraya Newman of St. Ignatius
The Restani Basketball Trophy to the best male basketball players in the City - Zion Sensley of Riordan
The Mary Hile-Nepfel Basketball Trophy to the best female basketball player in the City - Gabriella Kelley of University
The Negoesco Trophy to the best male and female soccer players in the City - Jamie Harvey of Washington and Isabella Ong of University
The DiMaggio Trophy to the best baseball player in the City - Tate Medicoff of Sacred Heart Cathedral
The Athletica Leggera Trophy to the best Track and Field or Cross Country male and female athletes - Lex Lehnert and Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius
The Luisetti Trophy to the best male and female scholar athlete in the City - Cole Boake of University Basketball and Tennis and Ashanti Dias of Riordan Basketball and Track
The SFIAC Athlete of the Year - Reza Po of Sacred Heart Cathedral Basketball and Flag Football and Pierce St. Geme of St. Ignatius Football and Lacrosse
The Mariucci Trophy to the Coach of the Year - Dante Popalisky of Washington Boys Soccer and Cameron Hill of University Girls Soccer
The Benedetti Trophy for lifetime coaching achievement - Mary Hile-Nepfel of University and Rich Forslund of Riordan and Lowell Basketball
Uncle Abe Award - partnership with Marty Lurie of the Giants pre-game show to honor a youth baseball coach - James Nash of San Francisco Little League
The SFIAC Team of the Year - Riordan Basketball
Additional Athletes of the Year:
Miles Cook of Sacred Heart Cathedral Cross Country and Track
Sarah Caulder of Sacred Heart Cathedral Volleyball
Kinnari Atluru and Mila Chan of University Volleyball
Kelis Powell and Sommari Tanner of Lincoln Basketball
Will Perkins of University Basketball and Track
Finean Hunter-Kenny and Roman Fong of Lowell Baseball
Rocco Giometti of St. Ignatius Baseball
How to purchase tickets and further support the SFIAC Foundation
The award recipients come as guests of the SFIAC Foundation. For anyone else wishing to attend the cost of admission is $80 to the general public and $50 for high school families and covers the cost of the 4-course spaghetti dinner. Tickets can be purchased at the SFIAC Foundation website. Attached is a link below for purchasing tickets. Again this is fundraiser so we need your help spread the word about the event so we can sell-out again
https://sfiacfoundation.org/high-school-sports-awards
