Football award winners truly the best of the best

SAUGUS – The 2010 high school football season on the North Shore officially came to an end Monday night at the Hilltop Steak House as the 25 best players in the area were feted at the 65th Annual Item All-Star Football Dinner.Click here for a photo gallery.For one player, however, the night would have extra meaning.All season long, Tyler Coppola played with the emotion of having his two brothers, Jared and Brandon, sidelined after suffering spinal cord injuries two years ago. The senior running back channeled that emotion into a spectacular season that was capped with him receiving the Player of the Year trophy on Monday.The night’s emotional crescendo came when his two brothers received a two-minute standing ovation from those in attendance for persevering through their battles with injury.”It really is a big honor and it’s great to have my brothers here. They probably would have been at the head table too if they had stayed healthy,” Tyler Coppola said.The numbers don’t lie as Coppola rushed for 1,820 yards in the regular season and added 193 and 157 in two playoff games. He finished the year with 2,097 all purpose yards and the season’s high total for any back in the area when he went for over 300 yards against Mount St. Joseph’s (MD).”I really wasn’t expecting this,” Coppola said. “But when they started reading off some of my numbers, I couldn’t believe it. It’s definitely an honor to join a list of such great players.”It was a big night for Lynn’s high school teams as well as English and St. Mary’s cleaned up at the awards table. Bulldog senior quarterback Tyllor McDonald was named the Item/Agganis Foundation Offensive Player of the Year while St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin took home Coach of the Year and junior Todd Collier was the Defensive Player of the Year.McDonald was perhaps the most dynamic player in the Northeastern Conference this season, throwing for 1,343 yards and 16 touchdowns while adding 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground. He also returned a punt for a touchdown in a five-score effort against Peabody.”I wasn’t sure if I was going to get anything,” McDonald said. “It’s kind of hard to do 1,000 rushing and passing and as a quarterback, ours was a great system to play in.”The Spartans finished 10-1 this season and Collier led a defense that surrendered only 71 points in 11 games. He was the Co-MVP of the Catholic Central League/Large with Spellman’s Blaise Branch after finishing with 115 tackles, two sacks and two interceptions.”I am honored to win an award like this,” Collier said. “We had a great season and coach (Durgin) has done something pretty remarkable with us.”Durgin, in his third year at St. Mary’s, led the team to only its second 10 win season ever and becomes a two-time Coach of the Year after having previously won the award at Classical.”This is a credit to my team,” Durgin said. “I had a very talented team to coach and even more important, they were tremendously hard workers.”Swampscott senior Peter Yasi was named the recipient of the William F. Connell Scholar-Athlete Award for balance on the field and in the classroom.Yasi was a key for the Big Blue’s 8-3 campaign, making 59 tackles and posting seven sacks on defense while catching 36 passes and three touchdowns on offense. Even more important, he is a National Honor Society student who has applied for early acceptance at Bowdoin.”It’s not easy to keep both sides in balance but it’s not as hard as you’d think,” Yasi said. “My parents were always right there helping me and pushing me.”