Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award banquet back after two years off due to COVID-19

The Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete award has lost a bit of its luster the last two years.

Only because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scholarship winners from all Collier County high schools still received their $5,000, and a winner was chosen for a $10,000 scholarship -- $2,500 for four years.

But there was no banquet. And the award was presented in an insurance company parking lot.

This year, its 33rd, the banquet part of it is back, scheduled for Thursday, May 26 at Naples Grande Beach Resort at 7 p.m.

"I'm thrilled that we can once again recognize these scholar-athletes in person and give them the recognition that they deserve," Winged Foot chairman Bud Hornbeck said.

Former NFL quarterback and current college football analyst Gary Danielson, a Bonita Springs resident, will be the keynote speaker. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas had been in waiting the past two years, when the banquet was canceled, but couldn't do it this year due to scheduling conflicts.

"He's been very, very good the last two years, ready to come if we had the banquet," Hornbeck said of Bilas. "Gary, being on our board, he's as good of a speaker candidate as you can have. It just made sense. I can't thank Gary enough for stepping up to the plate.

"He's been on the board and he's helped us, and he's taken a role with the banquet and done that. He is an excellent speaker. He's extremely well-known for his job being a football analyst on CBS for the SEC."

More: Which Collier County athlete won the 2021 Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete award?

More: Meet the 13 Collier County 2021 Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award finalists

More: Meet the 2020 Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete award winner

With the banquet portion returning, Hornbeck and the organization are trying to get the word out to area businesses to get sponsorships to help add to the scholarship fund.

"This will be our 33rd year of having the Winged Foot winner," he said. "It's not like we just started this. We just haven't done a banquet in two years.

"We have a lot of sponsors that are there every year for us. We have a lot of new businesses in town and a lot of personnel changes. It's getting people back on board and letting them know what Winged Foot is all about."

For 33 years, it's been giving back to top scholar-athletes from Collier County schools.

From its beginnings at the Collier Athletic Club, the award and its banquet have grown in popularity to the point the banquet has been held at either the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort or Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, but mainly at Naples Grande over the past two decades-plus.

Table sponsors underwrite a substantial part of the banquet and scholarship costs for the Winged Foot Foundation. Table sponsors contribute $2,000, are prominently recognized in the banquet program and receive eight tickets to the event. School sponsors are $3,600, and event sponsorships are $5,000, the latter with two tables of eight and additional recognition.

Individual tickets are $275.

For more information on sponsorships or tickets, contact Brooke Hornbeck at (239-330-5521) or brooke_hornbeck@ajg.com.

"The big thing is from the banquet that we are able to have enough sponsors to make it all worthwhile," Hornbeck said. "The whole point of this is to honor and recognize these young scholar-athletes, to make this a recognition that they'll never forget.

"The scholarship money is certainly one thing, but the recognition is the other. I really felt bad the last two years we weren't able to do that. We totally missed out on recognizing these accomplishments of these young men and women."

Each Collier County school nominates its own scholar-athlete finalist. Those finalists are already winners of $5,000 scholarships, no matter what.

Then the Winged Foot selection committee meets and interviews all of the finalists and picks a winner that isn't revealed until the banquet. The past two years, the selection committee met virtually and conducted no interviews due to the pandemic.

First Baptist soccer player Malaya Melancon, now at FGCU, won the award, the first-ever for the school, in 2020, and Gulf Coast High School lacrosse player Trace Davidson, now at Maryland, was the winner last year.

Event sponsors are the Barron Collier Jr. Foundation, law firm Grant Fridkin Pearson, A.J. Gallagher Insurance, the Lutgert Companies/Premier Sotheby's International, and First Horizon Bank.

Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award banquet back in Naples after 2 years