Nice Guy Finishes First: Brick's Faccone Earns Top Honor

Nice guys do finish first.

Phil Faccone, the Brick Memorial graduate and Wagner College football player who was honored last fall for his volunteer work by being selected to the 2014 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team®, has been named the Northeast Conference’s 2014-15 Male Student-Athlete of the Year.

“We had a tremendous slate of talented male student-athletes in the pool of finalists,” Northeast Conference Commissioner Noreen Morris wrote in her announcement letter to Faccone. “You should you be incredibly proud of your academic, athletic and community service accomplishments!”

The award will be presented at the annual NEC Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 11 at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank.

Faccone, a long snapper for the Seahawks football team, graduated from Wagner in May with a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, majoring in sociology with a minor in government and politics and a concentration in criminal justice.

The Allstate Good Works Team award recognizes and pays tribute to 22 student-athletes from around the nation each year who have worked to positively impact the lives of others. He was selected from among 182 nominated for the award. They not only dedicated their time to succeeding on the field, but have made a commitment to enriching the lives of others while contributing to the greater good of their communities, according to information on the award released last fall.

Faccone was a three-year starter and all-America selection and had a 3.74 GPA . His community service resume is lengthy, according to a news release from Wagner: He has directed and-or participated in a host of several community service initiatives, including Wagner’s Annual Bone Marrow Registry Drive and the Crescent Beach Restoration Project, which aids one of the many Staten Island communities devastated by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, to name just a few. In June, Faccone took part in Lauren’s First and Goal Camp (LFG) at Lafayette College, a non-profit organization started in 2004 by John and Marianne Loose in honor of their daughter, Lauren, a 17-year-old pediatric brain tumor survivor. Since its inception, LFG has raised more than $1 million toward its mission to provide financial support for brain tumor research and cancer services.

Faccone was vice president of Community Service for Wagner College’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a committee comprised of student- athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience. He also served as president of Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society that recognizes achievement in a myriad of areas (scholarship, athletics, campus or community service, social or religious activities and campus government, journalism, speech and the mass media, and creative and performing arts). In addition, Faccone was secretary of the Wagner College chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“There’s something about helping people I’ve always liked,” Faccone said in a news release from Wagner. “I get enjoyment out of it.”