Hempfield’s Tapper, Norwin’s Bilinsky win Scholar Athlete Excellence Awards

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | 9:51 PM

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During Judge Michael J. Stewart II’s first year as sponsor of the Westmoreland County Scholar Athlete banquet, 2023 winners of the Excellence Award were picked from an outstanding group of finalists.

This year’s group consisted of PIAA and WPIAL individual champions and individuals who were on championship teams. They also are excellent students, many being No. 1 in their class.

After two votes by the county athletic directors, Hempfield Area’s Elizabeth Tapper and Norwin’s Adam Bilinsky emerged as the winners.

The group was honored Tuesday at Ferrante’s Lakeview Lounge. This was the 67th annual banquet honoring student athletes from the county.

Tapper was the female winner. She ranks 70th out of 406 in her class and has a GPA of 97.77.

She was the 2022 national discus champion and was the 2022 WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A shot put and discus champion. She also qualified for states in the pole vault.

“Winning this means a lot,” Tapper said. “It’s nice to get the recognition that all of us scholar athletes deserve both athletically and academically. It just shows that it’s nice to know that all your hard work pays off.

“It was an impressive group. All were great candidates.”

Bilinsky was the male winner. He ranks No. 103 of in his class of 356 and has a GPA of 93.318.

He also was a tremendous basketball player, earning Tribune-Review Westmoreland Player of the Year. He scored more than 1,000 points in his career and will attend Mercyhurst to play basketball.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Bilinsky said. “I really didn’t think I had a chance. I was surprised. All the hard work in the classroom pays off. It was a great group (family support) and a great group of candidates. I made a lot of new friends.”

The committee, which includes Westmoreland County athletics directors and others, met last month to pick the top female and male winners. Only the athletic directors voted on the winners.

The 18 high schools in the county had two candidates that the athletic directors voted on.

Because of a tie, the group then voted on the 13 finalists — seven girls and six boys — to pick the top female and male winner.

The other finalists were Penn-Trafford’s Daniel Tarabrella and Kate Schall, Greensburg Salem’s Cody Rubrecht, Latrobe’s Lily Fenton, Belle Vernon’s Maren Metikosh, Greensburg Central Catholic’s Sara Felder and Carlos Denis, Southmoreland’s Olivia Cernuto, Mt. Pleasant’s Tiffany Zelmore, Derry Area’s Hunter Jurica and Franklin Regional’s Aiden Bunker.

LaRoyal Wilson was named the 2023 Mike and John Ferrante Memorial Award for his contributions to promoting high school athletics.

Wilson has been coaching track since 1971 when he began at John F. Kennedy High School in Willingboro, N.J.

The 1966 graduate of Mt. Pleasant Area High School, who was recently named to the school’s Wall of Fame and was a WPIAL long jump champion, has been coaching track and field at Hempfield for 50 years.

He taught at Hempfield for 35 years and was an assistant football coach for 40 years.

Wilson was senior class president at Mt. Pleasant. He went to attend Westminster College, where he was a seven-time varsity letterwinner in football and track. He is enshrined into the Westminster Sports Hall of Fame.

The guest speaker was Craig Wolfley, former Steelers offensive lineman and current color analyst on the Steelers broadcast team.

Wolfley and Wilson both shared inspiring and entertaining speeches to student/athletes.

Wolfley told the group to not be afraid and be who you are. Wilson said follow what his parents told him when he was growing up: “Do the right thing.”

The sponsors are Excela Health, Drs. Geoff and Greg Bisignani and Ferrante’s Lakeview Lounge.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield, Norwin