The Winfield Awards Committee recently announced the 10 student-athlete finalists for its 40th annual banquet to be held next month. The award honors students who excelled in athletics, academics and community service.
The male finalists are Jamal Galato (St. Paul Central), Antonio Holloman (St. Paul Highland Park), William Olander (Cretin-Derham Hall), Abel Taye (St. Paul Washington), and Kenneth Udoibok (Cretin-Derham Hall).
The female finalists include basketball sensation Andrayah Adams (St. Paul Como Park), Kennedy Gay (St. Paul Central), Brieasha Hobbs (Cretin Derham Hall), Aye Be Ne Hsa (St. Paul Humboldt), and Mofekunolami Salu (St. Paul Harding).
The Winfield Awards were established in 1977 in honor of Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player David M. Winfield, a 1969 St. Paul Central graduate who went on to star at the University of Minnesota before playing professionally from 1973-1995.
The banquet is Sunday, June 5, at 5 pm at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront Hotel on Kellogg Blvd. in downtown St. Paul.
The keynote speaker will be NFL offensive tackle Ryan Harris.
Harris — a 2003 graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall who went on to star at Notre Dame (graduating in 2007) — was a Winfield Awards winner his senior year.
He started at OT for the 2016 Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.
Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader responses to mmcdonald@spokesman-recorder.com.
Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald is a contributing columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.