Centreville Freshmen Win 'Champions of Character' Award

On Tuesday evening, October 18th, CVHS freshman Paul Baumgartner was honored with the Sully District Champions of Character Male Athlete of the Year award in a ceremony presented by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at the . Grace Hinton, also a freshman, was recognized as the Sully District Champions of Character Female Athlete of the Year. 

Designed to coincide with National Character Counts Month, and sponsored by the Fairfax County Athletic Council (FCAC), the awards program is dedicated to honoring youth, coaches, and parents who have shown extraordinary service in working to achieve athletic victory with integrity and class. Awardees have been nominated as outstanding examples of community sports participants who have modeled the basic traits of good character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. 

The soccer program nominated Paul for this award after he was previously one of the “Character Counts” award recipients for SYA travel soccer. Paul was noted for “his unwavering sportsmanship and positive influence on teammates and parents alike...equally  recognized by the players and the parents, as the player who encourages all teammates and even the players from opposing teams. His natural abilities at goaltending are quickly noticed while on the field, yet he has always kept an open ear to direction from his coaches, parents and former coaches. He is an example and role model to teammates, parents, coaches and spectators alike.” 

Although being a soccer goalie has historically been Paul’s passion, he elected to give up soccer after getting a concussion in March 2011 and missing a substantial period of time from school. According to Paul and his parents, Lou and Robert Baumgartner, the highlight of the night’s ceremony was having all of Paul's past coaches there to support him. Currently Paul is working out with the Centreville baseball team during their off-season in hopes of playing on the team in the spring, and is also planning to join the swim/dive team during the winter sports season. 

Grace was honored for being “respectful, polite and incredibly hard working as a player, but also due to her proactively volunteering her services in setting up and taking down equipment as needed.”

She was lauded as the prototypical ‘first to arrive and last to leave’ player who is always ready to lend a hand, help a teammate or opposing player up from the ground during a match, or play out of position if needed.” 

Congratulations to Paul and to Grace, freshmen, for their outstanding achievements!

—Karen Fulkerson is publicity chair of the Centreville High PTSA.