Xavier Football Team to be Honored Saturday (Watch Live)

The football team has one more award to collect after winning its second straight state title this season - the Joseph W. Kelly Award, given to Connecticut's top high school team.

As part of its 45th annual Weekend festivities, the Walter Camp Football Foundation will host a High School “Breakfast of Champions” on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven.

The fifth annual event will begin at 9 a.m. and be broadcast live at www.sportingnewsct.com.

Xavier, the Class LL champion and state’s top-ranked team, will be honored along with the three other state champions – of Madison (Class L), Ansonia (Class M) and Holy Cross of Waterbury (Class S).

In addition, the announcement of the Walter Camp All-Connecticut Team will be made as will the presentations of three awards.

The state Coach of the Year award will be presented by Stadium System. The three finalists include: Tom Brockett (Ansonia), Steve Filippone (Daniel Hand) and Sean Marinan (Xavier).

The three finalists for the state Player of the Year, presented by Town Fair Tire, include: Masuk senior quarterback Casey Cochran, Ansonia sophomore running back Arkeel Newsome and Hand senior wide receiver Nick Vitale.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented by NFP Sports, will be presented to Larry McHugh, former head coach at Xavier High School who won nearly 80 percent of his games during his 21 seasons (152-36-6 record).

Later that evening, the Foundation will host its national awards banquet at the Yale University Commons in New Haven. The 2011 Walter Camp All-America Team, Player of the Year Andrew Luck (Stanford), Coach of the Year Les Miles (LSU), and Connecticut Player of the Year Silas Redd (Penn State/King Low Heywood) will be recognized. In addition, three individuals – NFL Hall-of-Famers Floyd Little (Syracuse) and Harry Carson (South Carolina State) and former NFL All-Pro Chris Spielman (Ohio State) – will be presented with major awards.