Repeat performance for St. Mary's

Duden follows teammate as football scholarship winner

By MIKE PETERS, Staff Writer
Published 03/11/10

BALTIMORE - Thanks to Jason Gonos, Henry Duden thought his chances were just about nonexistent. He couldn't have been more wrong.

After a 45-year absence from the list, Duden joined Gonos as St. Mary's back-to-back winners at the Greater Baltimore Chapter's 47th annual National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete dinner yesterday at Martin's West.

"I wasn't really expecting to win," said Duden, a two-way lineman, who's No. 3 in his class and just St. Mary's second winner since the banquet was established in 1964. "My mom said that in the car ride the way over here: The law of averages said they had to give it to someone else."

A secretary of the National Honor Society, a Maryland Distinguished Scholar and a National Merit Commended Scholar, Duden earned the South Region award - one of five $4,000 scholarships given among the 88 high school football players across Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Frederick counties and Baltimore City.

Gonos, who's playing lacrosse at Harvard this season, won the major award last year to become St. Mary's first recipient. Duden, a first-team pick in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference, is the seventh Anne Arundel County player to come back a winner in the last eight years.

Havre de Grace's Zachary Tabor (East), River Hill's Max Coale (West), Reynard Parks (Central) and Hereford's David Wood (North) scored the other scholarships, while Catoctin's Matt Nesbitt earned the inaugural Courage Award.

Old Mill (12-2), which won its first title with a 17-16 victory over Henry A. Wise in the Class 4A final, won the A. Paul Menton Award, given to the Baltimore area's best football team.
The Patriots beat two previously undefeated teams - North Point and Arundel - and defending champion Sherwood en route to a flawless postseason to collect Anne Arundel County's first state title since 1994.

"With all the great football players and coaches and programs in the Baltimore area, to be selected for this is truly an honor," said Patriots coach Damian Ferragamo, who came back to the podium to accept the Ben Eaton Sr. championship award.

Each of the players were announced prior to the awards presentation, and the Greater Baltimore Chapter National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame chairperson Paul Glagola made special mention of North County's nominee, Pat Carey, for the Class 4A/3A state wrestling championship he won Saturday.

But Duden came away with the top prize.
"Just playing football is great," Duden said, "and to be recognized just for playing football, but for what I do in the classroom is awesome."