Elmont Cardinals honor players and coaches

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The Elmont Cardinals hosted their annual awards ceremony banquet, which honors both players and coaches, on Feb. 2. During the ceremony, Cardinal Coaches Dexter McRae and Jon Johnson announced the surprise recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award, Dan McRae.

Dan began coaching for the Cardinals in 1988, and in 2002, he and Johnson led the club, serving as the organization’s vice president and president, respectively. Dan retired from coaching in 2010 and now serves a deacon at the Emanuel Baptist Church. Johnson described Dan as a pillar of the community, who has helped shaped the lives of the kids he coaches and the people he’s worked with. Johnson and the coaches also announced to Dan that a new coaching award has been created in his name.

“We named an award after him so that his name would still be remembered for years to come,” Johnson said. “This award is long overdue… and it lets him smell the roses that he’s nurtured here in Elmont.”

Football coach Deval Barrow received the Coach of the Year award, and coaches Dexter, Steven Dechallus and Gene Patterson also received awards.