Independence’s Judah Price, left< picked up the Kennedy Award as the top football player in the state and James Monroe’s Eli Allen the Evans Award as the top basketball player at the VAD on Sunday in Charleston.The 76th annual Victory Awards Dinner was held Sunday at the Embassy Suites in Charleston and four athletes and aa coach from the Coalfield Conference were honored.
Independence running back Judah Price picked up his Kennedy Award (top football player) and Warner Award (top running back) after a record-setting season for the Class AA state Patriots.
Price broke the 100-year scoring record and regular season scoring record with 396 points, rushed for over 2,500 yards and set the record for yards in the Super Six in the championship victory against Herbert Hoover.
“The buildup to get here was so fun,” Price said. “Having the whole process, to just be able to hold (the Kennedy) it my hands feels phenomenal. It’s hard to explain to be honest. I can’t put it in words. It’s been a long-time coming.”
Price is the second straight Independence winner of the award that goes annually to the best player in the state, joining former teammate and running back Atticus Goodson, the 2021 winner.
He said seeing Goodson winning the award gave confidence that he could follow suit, especially with the offensive line returning intact.
“For sure,” Price said. “I knew what I had, and I knew I could do what I needed to do especially with the linemen we had coming back. It wasn’t my full intention. My full intention was to win a state championship and we did that. It was the icing on the cake.”
Known as the “Donut Man”, that seems fitting.
Price said he intends to play football at the next level (he was also a state champion wrestler) and will likely make his decision within the next two weeks.
James Monroe’s Eli Allen was named the Evans Award winner as the state’s top basketball player.
Allen, a three-time first-team all-stater was a key cog on the Mavericks back-to-back Class A state championship teams.
He was also an all-tournament selection both of those championship seasons.
Allen averaged 21.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 8.8 rebounds per game for the Mavericks and is second on the James Monroe all-time scoring list with 1,653 points.
“It’s a great award,” Allen said. “It kind of (shows) that all the work I’ve put in has paid off. I never thought I would be the player of the year. But when I grew (from 5-11 to 6-3) I thought I be something on day.”
Allen was third in the Evans Award as a junior and will soon announce his college intentions. the 6-5 shooting guard was also an all-state football player and helped the Mavericks get to the state championship game last fall at Wheeling Island.
Meg Williams of Shady Spring was named the state volleyball player of the year after helping the Tigers reach the state championship game in Class AA for the third straight year.
The Tigers and Williams won the state championship in 2020.
“It means a lot to me,” Williams said. “All the hard work me and my team have put in that helped me get this award means a lot.”
Williams will play volleyball at Concord University and will major in education.
Ethan Osborne, a state championship wrestler from Woodrow Wilson, was named the Dutton Award as the state’s top wrestler.
Osborne lost just two matches all season and was the Class AAA state champion at 157 pounds and joins Jeremy Hart (1996) and Noah Adams (2017) as the only wrestlers from Raleigh County to win the prestigious award.
“It means a lot, it was really unexpected but it’s a really big honor,” Osborne said. “I didn’t really get good (at wrestling) until middle school so I wouldn’t have expected anything like this. Not even this year.”
Independence football coach John H. Lilly was the winner of the Van Meter Award as the coach of the year, regardless of sport.
The Patriots won the first title in school history after a 13-0 season.
“It means a lot,” Lilly said. “I’ve been around a lot of great coaches. I’m kind of humbled by it. Like I said after the state championship, I think it means more now than I would have won it younger in my career. I think I appreciate it more. Some of the guys n the int, to be mentioned in the same breath with those guys is humbling.”
Former WVU women’s basketball coach Mike Carey and WVU and Super Bowl QV Jeff Hostltler were inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
