The PCA Blog - SF Bay Area

Highlights Of The 9th Annual PCA-SF Bay Area Scholarship Awards

03.22.2017

On Friday, March 3, PCA-SF Bay Area held its 9th Annual Triple-Impact Competitor® Scholarship and Awards Dinner.  During the event, PCA recognized the 20 finalists for the scholarship award and announced the class of 2017 winners. The program also featured San Jose Sharks Head Coach Peter DeBoer receiving an award for Excellence in Leadership and Sharks Chief Operating Officer John Tortora recognized with the Triple-Impact Executive award. General Manager and PCA National Advisory Board Member Doug Wilson joined the two on stage for a keynote panel on how the lessons learned from sports translate into success in business.

Sharks Radio Play-by-Play announcer and Bay Area Radio Hall of Famer, Dan Rusanowsky served as the Master of Ceremonies. A crowd of 340 gathered inside Sharon Heights Country Club (Menlo Park, CA) for this uplifting and inspiring celebration of high school athletics.

Below is a complete list of all 2017 finalists (pictured above). Winners of the Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship are highlighted in bold. 

Kobi Allson, San Leandro High School (San Leandro, CA)
Audrey Berner, Presentation High School (San Jose, CA)
Ian Blair, San Lorenzo Valley High School (Aptos, CA)
Joshua Boone, Archbishop Riordan High School (San Francisco, CA)
Patrick Brown, Sir Francis Drake High School (San Anselmo, CA)
Angel Chesney, Newark Memorial High School (Newark, CA)
Maile Chung, The Harker School (San Jose, CA)
Ireland Clare Kennedy, Holy Names High School (Oakland, CA)
Moises Correa, Eastside College Prep (East Palo Alto, CA)
Cynthia Govea-Orozco, Eastside College Prep (East Palo Alto, CA)
Benjamin Grasty, Los Gatos High School (Los Gatos, CA)
Daniel Higman, Carmel High School (Carmel, CA)
Sagrika Jawadi, Aragon High School (San Mateo, CA)
Mariam Martinez, San Rafael High School (San Rafael, CA)
Jackson O’Neil, Rancho Cotate High School (Rohnert Park, CA)
Julissa Quintana-Martinez, Pajaro Valley High School (Watsonville, CA)
Thomas Resnick, Mountain View High School (Mountain View, CA)
Brittney Scardina, Rancho Cotate High School (Rohnert Park, CA)
Jeri Tan, Saint Ignatius College Prep (San Francisco, CA)
Jensen Yamane, Sir Francis Drake High School (San Anselmo, CA)

Perhaps the most impactful moment of the evening was the presentation of the 2017 PCA-SF Bay Area Humanitarian Award to the San Jose Jr. Sharks Youth Hockey Organization. Watch the full video presentation below.

Audience members watched an emotional documentary featuring the story of a single father, Be Nguyen, and his three boys – David (14 yrs old), Kevin (13), and Steve (12) – and the important role their passion for hockey plays in each of their lives.  Each of the Nguyen boys competes within the Jr. Sharks youth hockey program. Despite the investment of time, energy, and money – which can be prohibitive to some families - all three of these boys have a desire to play hockey, and are given the opportunity to play.  It’s a very special and intimate story of inclusion, diversity, and comradery.  We see this family become part of a larger community, the Jr. Sharks Youth Hockey organization.  This community of hockey staff, coaches, parents, and players rallies around this family and blankets them with support.

Following the documentary, the Nguyen Family – Be, David, Kevin, and Steve – was invited up to the stage. The sold out crowd of 340 guests welcomed the family with a standing ovation and thunderous applause.

The three boys were presented with hockey equipment grants. Curtis Brown, Director of the Jr. Sharks Youth Hockey organization, was also invited on stage to accept a plaque on behalf of the program. The plaques and gift cards were presented by Rick Herrero, Chairman of the PCA-SF Bay Area Chapter Board of Directors.



The keynote panel of Sharks Executives Peter DeBoer (Head Coach), John Tortora (Chief Operating Officer) and Doug Wilson (General Manager) brought tremendous wisdom to the evening.  Dan Rusanowsky did a masterful job extracting valuable insights from the panelists and involving everyone equally.  Attendees enjoyed hearing from the leaders of the 2016 NHL Western Conference Champion San Jose Sharks.



Also in attendance were ten of the twelve PCA-SF Bay Area Double-Goal Coach® award winners, pictured above (Chay Bardales, Robyn Berry, Michelle Chee, Jan Davis, Jeffrey Gardiner, Lynn Hall, Ray Kellam, John Miottel, Adhir Ravipati, and Joanna Wilk).

FULL PHOTO GALLERY