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Chesterton's Andrew Ralph named NFF Chapter Scholar-Athlete of the Year

June 2014 graduate Andrew Ralph of Chesterton High School has been named National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the Joe Tiller Chapter of Northwest Indiana.

The announcement came in West Lafayette during the NFF Honors Dinner “Celebrating Our Legends X,” hosted by the Joe Tiller Chapter of Northwest Indiana June 25th at the Purdue Memorial Union before a crowd of 390 football enthusiasts.

Ralph was chosen from a group of eight high school football standouts who were  singled out in May by NFF judges as the finalists from an original group of 22 scholar-athletes nominated by their coaches from throughout Northwest Indiana.

The other finalists were Ryan Ball of North White, Nicholas Bokun of Hobart, Everett Gorup of West Lafayette, Garrett Johnson of Delphi, Fletcher Miller of Kokomo, Erick Vas of Northwestern and Avery Walker of Rensselaer.

Judging was based 40 percent on academics, 40 percent on athletics and 20 percent on citizenship, leadership and character.

Ralph, a two-year captain for the Chesterton football team, was named Class 6A all-state safety and academic all-state by the Indiana Football Coaches Association. He was also a starter in basketball and baseball, but will play football at Washington University of St. Louis, where he intends to study medicine with plans of eventually becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Andrew ranked fourth in his senior class of 485, posting a grade point average of 4.77 and scoring a 34 on the ACT test.

Ralph was given a large trophy and awarded a modest scholarship. He was also a candidate for the Midwest Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. 

Also receiving a large trophy was major league pitcher Clayton Richard, formerly of McCutcheon High School and the University of Michigan. Richard was named Honorary Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2003, which was one year prior to the start of the NFF chapter serving Northwest Indiana. The chapter’s advisory board chose to recognize Richard for his accomplishments in high school by giving him the trophy he almost-certainly would have won had the chapter been in existence.

Richard, a four-year starting quarterback and star pitcher for the Mavericks, was named Mr. Football and Mr. Baseball for the State of Indiana that year while posting a perfect 4.0 GPA to earn validictorian honors in his senior year.   After two years of football and baseball at Michigan, Richard signed a pro baseball contract in 2005 and has pitched in the majors for parts of six seasons. He is currently in rehab following surgery last fall while playing for the San Diego Padres.

Several other awards were presented at the 10th Annual NFF Honors Dinner. They were:

  • The Patrick Mackey Courage Award to Jack Folkers, football player at West Lafayette H.S.;
  • The Legends Award to Joe Rudolph, long-time executive director of the Purdue Alumni Association;
  • The Bernie Flowers Award for Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football to Linda Rohrman, the chapter’s top scholarship donor and well-known Lafayette philantropist;
  • The Citizenship Award to Robert Henry, former Purdue football player who was heavily involved with community service while a student;
  • The inaugural “He Played Football” Award to Froncie Gutman, former Purdue football player who went on to become an internationally-recognized ophthalmologist and director of the Cleveland Eye Clinic; and
  • The Drew Brees Mental Toughness Award to Cliff Avril, former Purdue defensive end who helped the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl this year.

Highlighting the event was the IFCA’s induction of three football icons into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. So honored were Tim Roth, the long-time high school football coach at Winamac; Leroy Keyes, known as the Greatest Football Player in the first 100 years of Purdue football; and Mike Alstott, who came along and broke most of Keyes’ records and went on to win a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

 Also, the dinner paid tribute to the IFCA Region 1 and Region 4 high school all-stars, who were under consideration for positions to play for the North Squad in the annual North-South All-Star Game in July. 

The NFF Scholar-Athletes (nominated by their head coaches and principals and selected by a panel of judges) were: Ryan Ball (North White), Nicholas Bokun (Hobart), Jacob Brown (Fountain Central), Kolbie Cox (Lewis Cass), Quentin Douglass (Caston), Ben Fields (Harrison), Rob Fox (Delta), Everett Gorup (West Lafayette), Nigel Hensley (Central Catholic), Nicklas Ingoglia (Munster), Jake Jatis (Crown Point), Garrett Johnson (Delphi), Michael Krutz (Valparaiso), Fletcher Miller (Kokomo), Matthew O’Brien (Andrean), Andrew Ralph (Chesterton), Levi Schultz (Winamac), Tyler Souligne (Benton Central), Mitchell Sterner (Lafayette Jeff), Khalil Upshaw (Gary West Side), Erick Vas (Northwestern), Avery Walker (Rensselaer) 

 The IFCA Region 1 All-Stars (nominated by their football coaches and selected by a committee of coaches) are: Kyle Bishop (Valparaiso), Blake Biesen (Valparaiso), Charles Butler (Gary West Side), Kyle Wilkinson (Munster), Christian Guerrero (East Chicago), Nick Bokun (Hobart), Logan Kaletha (Michigan City), Drey Devereaux (Hobart), Matt Desomer (Andrean), Miguel Barron (LaPorte), Martayveus Carter (East Chicago), Bryant Isabell (Merrillvile), Nathan Johnson (Portage), James Taylor (Bowman Academy), CJ Lessentine (Lake Central), Kenyota Rollins (Portage), Tyler Petkovich (Andrean), Raqib Cox (Merrillville), Connor Andras (Crown Point), Patrick Shaw (East Chicago), Brendyn McKinnon (Crown Point), Brian Rice (Lake Central), David Wall (Hammond Morton), Ryan Neal (Merrillville), Robert Miller (South Central), Mitch Oskam (Lake Central), Eric Stevenson (Michigan City), Andrew Ralph (Chesterton)


The IFCA Region 4 All-Stars (nominated by their football coaches and selected by a committee of coaches) are: Noah Ahler (Rensselaer), Matt Basham (Rochester), Beau Boswell (Rensselaer), Lazarus Conley (West Central), , Nate Deno (McCutcheon), Jade Doty (West Lafayette), Quentin Douglass (Caston), John Duvall (West Lafayette), Alexander Emmerd (Logansport), Evan Giebel (Frankfort), Michael Griffin (Twin Lakes), Caleb Harper (McCutcheon), Drezden Johnson (Harrison), Garrett Johnson (Delphi), Pat Kays (Rochester), Tyler Katschke (Winamac), Matt Kramer (Frontier), Trevor Loveall (Fountain Central), Irving Madden (Lafayette Jeff),  Ty Preston (Lafayette Central Catholic), Isaac Rudd (Frankfort), Tyler Schrader (Lafayette Central Catholic), Jake Shake (McCutcheon), Levi Schultz (Winamac),  Corbin Tirpak (Twin Lakes),  Gage Ulery (Lafayette Central Catholic), Kevin Winkle (Twin Lakes), Maurice Woodard (West Lafayette).