Posted Friday May 23, 2008 in The Miami Herald
Raiders win big at All-Broward Athletic Awards
George Smith and Philip Pierre-Louis honored
BY BOB EMANUEL JR.
During The Miami Herald's annual All-Broward Athletic Awards breakfast presented by BankUnited and also sponsored by the Miami Museum of Science, St. Thomas Aquinas won 17 awards, including the prestigious All-Sports and Boys' and Girls' Major Sports Awards, in front of a crowd of nearly 1,200 at the Signature Grand in Davie.
''It's a great honor for us and for the school,'' said St. Thomas Aquinas football coach and athletic director George Smith, who was named Football Coach of the Year. ''I'm really happy about the athletes and their awards. We can't thank The Herald enough for what [it] does for high school sports, and our kids appreciate that. . . . Our kids like this. They understand the competitiveness of it. The competition is getting better and better, which means we have to step it up, too.''
The Raiders took two of the eight major individual awards when Smith was named The Miami Herald's overall Coach of the Year for Male Sports and Philip Pierre-Louis won the Male Athlete of the Year for Classes 6A-4A.
The two combined to lift the Aquinas football team to the Class 5A state championship after three consecutive seasons as runner-up.
Pierre-Louis, who will attend Auburn next season, also won the Track Athlete of the Year award after helping the Raiders win the Class 3A title. He won the 200-meter dash title (21.29) in the state meet, was second in the 100 at 10.76 and was part of the third-place mile relay squad.
`A GREAT HONOR'
Pierre-Louis led the Raiders in receiving with 30 catches for 586 yards and eight touchdowns and added four more touchdowns on punt returns.
''It's a great honor to be named Athlete of the Year, especially with all the great athletes in Broward County,'' he said.
''It's a great feeling that all the hard work and determination all paid off.''
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