MINERSVILLE – For the past 58 years, Schuylkill County has been honoring its student-athletes at the Schuylkill Chapter No. 25 Scholar-Athlete banquet.

Fourteen schools send their finest football players and academic students to be recognized and honored with the winner being named county’s Scholar-Athlete. On Sunday evening at the Hillcrest Hall with over 300 onlookers present, Williams Valley’s Spencer Dimon was named the 2019 recipient.

Dimon, who will continue his academic and athletic career at Shippensburg University next fall, beat back a field of quality student-athletes, including three from Times News area in Tamaqua’s Matt Amodea, Marian’s Zach Boyer and Panther Valley’s Chris Hoover.

Dimon was a three-year starter for the Vikings, selected first team All-State Class A and is ranked first in his class of 61 students. In addition, Dimon was a member of the Williams Valley marching band; captained the archery team, and this past season was named the Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association South Division Defensive Player of the Year.

“I quit football after eighth grade,” said the 6-4, 275-pound Dimon. “But coach (Ted) Savage came to me as a sophomore and asked me to come out. We had such a special bond. I was glad I decided to go back out and play.”

All three area players had strong resumes.

Amodea was a three-year starter for coach Sam Bonner at Tamaqua. He plans on being a robotic engineer and will enroll this coming year at high-profile Worcester Institute Poly-Tech.

Boyer was a two-way starter for Marian this season. He will attend Catholic University in Washington, DC, and will enter into the criminology and political science field.

Panther Valley’s Hoover was a two-way lineman who led his team in tackles this season. He plans on attending Penn State.

DINNER LEFTOVERS … According to the Chapter, the criteria to select the winner is weighted by what the student athletes accomplish athletically (45 percent), academically (45 percent) and extra-circularly (10 percent) ... Tamaqua has had four overall winners of the award, with the most recent being Travers Schmidt in 2008. Panther Valley has two winners, the last coming in 1995 when Nathan Sharbauch was named. Marian, with its rich football and academic traditions, has only one winner in Brian Rafferty in 1991 … The Tamaqua football team was honored by the Schuylkill County Commissioners as a tri-champion of the Schuylkill Football League Division I, with coach Bonner excepting the trophy.