This past week Bellport High School celebrated their seniors Ella Masem and Michael Frankie. Both student-athletes were honored as nominees for the prestigious 23rd annual Butch Dellecave Awards.
The award goes above and beyond what the young athletes do only on the field. The top Suffolk County female and male awards are presented to student-athletes who demonstrate impressive academic as well as athletic achievements. The awards are named for Butch Dellecave, who served as an educator at Connetquot for 30 years, was a sports official in Suffolk County for nearly 20 years and founded the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Masem was a standout as a track and field star but also was nominated because of her impressive GPA. She holds All-League, All-State, All-County and All-Federation titles and will continue her career running at Syracuse University in the fall.
Frankie is a three-sport star for basketball, baseball and football, and like Masem he earned the nomination for what he did in the classroom as much as his athletic skill with his high GPA. He holds an All-State title for football, as well as Academic All-County and All-Division titles for basketball, and is a starting pitcher and All-County title holder for baseball. He will be playing Division 1 football at Wagner College in the fall.