Pop Warner Players Honored at Gillette Stadium

The following text was submitted by Woburn Pop Warner.

Woburn Pop Warner is proud to announce that several of the participants of its football and cheering program were recognized recently at the 2011 New England All-Scholastic banquet held at Gillette Stadium. The honorees had a chance to tour the stadium, Hall of Fame and were honored at the grand luncheon held by the New England Patriots and New England Pop Warner.

Participants were selected for the honor of 2011 National Academic All-Americans by National Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. Pop Warner is the only youth sport that requires all participants to have a minimum GPA of 73 or above to participate. Any of the National Academic All-American nominations are student/athletes that are in the top 2 percent of the 400,000 participants that are active in Pop Warner nationally.

Each year, the most academically accomplished Pop Warner kids compete for Academic All-American status. This process begins at the association level and up through each of the eight Pop Warner regions to the national level. In 2010, approximately 400,000 kids participated in Pop Warner. As the numbers once again reached record levels, 276 First Team members, over 5,000 Second Team members and 1,000-plus Honorable Mention scholars were named as Academic All-Americans at the National Level for 2009-2010.

The PWLS All-American Program requires a minimum 96 percent grade point average to apply for All-American status. After the applications have been processed, Pop Warner determines National First Team All-Americans (35 football, 25 cheer per grade), National Second Team All-Americans and National Honorable Mention Scholars.

The 2011 National First Team All-Americans from Woburn are: McKenzie Doherty, Dustin Ludwig and Dennis Nicolas.
Second Team All-American Football and Cheer participants from Woburn: Jessica DaSilva, Richard Eckberg, Thomas Ferullo, Matthew Flynn, Natalia Greenblatt, John Hayes, Kayla Knowles, David Lennon Jr., Eric McGrath, Jaye Morgan, Andrew Nicolas, Michael Pariseau, Luke Scaramozzino. 
National All-American Honorable Mentions from Woburn: Jonah Barnes-Guzman, Jordan Koester, Brian McLaughlin, Dennis Peary, Matthew Pollard, Zachary Sequin, Ronald Spencer, Julia Sullivan, Brandon Talalas.