Salesianum’s Colby Reeder (center) receives the first Maxwell Football Club Delaware Player of the Year award from Ed Aiken (left), the club’s Delaware committee chairman, and Maxwell Football Club executive director Mark Wolpert.
Colby Reeder always keeps up with his weightlifting, and that came in handy on Monday night.
The Salesianum football star received two plaques as a first-team All-State running back and defensive back at the 12th annual Delaware Interscholastic Football Coaches Association awards banquet at Dover Downs. He also received a trophy for being named Delaware’s Defensive Player of the Year.
And Reeder also picked up a new, prestigious award. The Maxwell Football Club, a Philadelphia-based organization founded in 1935, expanded its reach to the First State for the first time this football season. Reeder was among 32 players nominated statewide, and he took home the trophy as Maxwell Football Club Delaware Player of the Year.
Maxwell is the only football club that recognizes excellence in the sport all the way from high school to the NFL. As part of his award, Reeder will be recognized at the club’s annual awards gala on March 11 at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Reeder will join Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and coach Ron Rivera, Alabama running back Derrick Henry and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney in being honored. Wesley College quarterback Joe Callahan will also attend as the winner of the Brian Westbrook Tri-State Player of the Year Award, given to the top college player in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
“I’m extremely honored,” Reeder said. “I didn’t know I had won until they announced my name, and to be the first is just incredible. To be going up there to Atlantic City with Cam Newton and those guys should be an amazing experience.”
The Maxwell honor caps a season in which Reeder rushed for 2,010 yards and 32 touchdowns and had 56 tackles and six blocked kicks on defense. He recently announced his commitment to continue his football career at the University of Delaware, where he will join his brother, Troy, who is transferring from Penn State.
Reeder said the only thing that kept it from being a perfect senior season was a 32-26, overtime loss to Smyrna in the DIAA Division I championship game.
“It was a storybook year, really, except for the ending,” Reeder said. “I achieved all of the goals I wanted. It was great to win the awards, and my teammates won a ton of awards here, too.”
Maxwell Football Club executive director Mark Wolpert and Ed Aiken, chairman of Maxwell’s Delaware football committee, presented the award to Reeder. After attending banquets involving hundreds of high school teams in Pennsylvania and New Jersey the last two weeks, Wolpert said the club was happy to expand its programs to Delaware.
“You can bring everyone together in one place, which is impossible to do in the other states,” Wolpert said. “There’s a uniqueness to that that I hope you can appreciate. The touch that you have with your competitors, the other schools, the other coaches in a tight-knit state that plays great football is really special.”
Honoring coaches
Smyrna’s Mike Judy (Division I) and Howard’s Dan Ritter (Division II) each received a DIFCA Coach of the Year award after guiding their teams to each school’s first state football titles.
Mike Brogan, an assistant coach at Newark since 1986, received the Ed Brown Award as the state’s assistant coach of the year.
Butch Simpson, who retired at the end of the season to cap 39 years as head coach at Newark, received a DIFCA award and also received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Salesianum’s Bill DiNardo received a plaque from DIFCA to recognize his 250th career coaching victory.
All third-, second- and first-team All-State players were honored at the DIFCA banquet, and sportsmanship awards were given to a player from each team in the state.
Rounding it up
— Heart in the Game’s seventh health event will be held Saturday at P.S. du Pont Middle School, 701 West 34th Street in Wilmington. Free EKG and blood pressure screenings will be offered for all Delaware students ages 10-19, along with CPR/AED training for students and parents and other health-related stations. Walk-ins are welcome, but you can ensure a spot by registering in advance at www.heartinthegame.org.
— Caravel Academy is hosting its own Wing Bowl – minus all of the debauchery of the annual event in Philadelphia – from 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the Caravel gym. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students, and proceeds will go to the Caravel Blue-Gold Club.
— Charter of Wilmington’s Kevin Murray has been named the Gatorade Delaware Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.
— Appoquinimink is seeking head coaches for freshman baseball, junior varsity softball, girls tennis and boys tennis and an assistant coach for track and field. Submit a letter of interest and resume to brian.bell@appo.k12.de.us or jordan.legath@appo.k12.de.us by 3 p.m. Feb. 3.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ