The Vermont Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association named Springfield High School’s Grant White as its 2008-09 Male Athlete of the Year last weekend during a banquet at Norwich University.
White led Springfield to championships in both football and basketball during his senior season. He completed 109 of 165 passes for 1,821 yards and 26 touchdowns last fall, when Springfield finished 11-0 and won the Division III title. He also carried the ball 103 times for 466 yards and 16 TDs. White holds the school record for career touchdown passes (52).
White, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, guided Springfield to the Division II title in basketball. He averaged 26.7 points and 12.4 rebounds as a senior, and completed his career with 1,609 points. He will attend Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H., next season before selecting a college.
Cornwall resident Sarah Dalton, who recently completed her career with the Boston University women’s lacrosse team, was selected as the VSSA’s Female Athlete of the Year. Dalton, who played soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse at Middlebury Union High School, led the nation in scoring with 91 goals in 19 games last season, and finished her collegiate career as BU’s all time leading scorer (284 points).
The VSSA selected White and Dalton from the 12 male and 12 female athletes of the month for 2008-09, plus two at-large athletes (one male and one female) who were nominated for the athlete-of-the month award two or more times during the year.
Tennis: Smith, Gay claim titles
Champlain Valley’s Cassie Smith and Stowe’s Coleman Gay prevailed in the Vermont high school individual tennis tournaments. Smith and Gay also won the individual tennis titles last year.
Smith, the top-seeded player in the girls tournament, posted a 6-2, 6-1 win over Rice’s Maddy Hartley, the tournament’s second seed, in the championship match. Smith, a senior, advanced by beating Rice’s Holly Thayer in the semifinals.
Stowe’s pairing of Sarah Kartluke and Zuzy Zvarova won the girls doubles title by defeating Rice’s Alex Beatty and Molly Conroy, 6-3, 6-3.
Gay, a junior, earned a 6-2, 6-2 win over CVU’s David Hilderbrand to become the first boys player to win back-to-back titles since Mount Mansfield’s Corey Keller in 2003. Middlebury’s Alex Davydov is the only player who won the tournament in three consecutive years (1996-1998).
Stowe also won the boys doubles title as Luke Grosvenor teamed up with Kevin Kohlmorgen to beat brothers Brad and Rob Cole from South Burlington, 6-1, 6-1. Grosvenor also won the doubles title last year, when his partner was Tyler Murphy.
Baseball: Carter named state’s best
Proctor’s Ryan Carter has been named the Gatorade Vermont high school baseball Player of the Year. The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field.
In addition, it makes Carter a candidate for the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year Award. Carter is 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA. He has recorded 51 strikeouts and surrendered nine hits in 25 innings.
Carter, a 6-foot-2 senior who also plays first base, has a .645 batting average with three homers and 20 RBIs in 14 games.
