Skipper Hoke Athletic Leadership Awards

For over 30 years Roswell Rotary has honored a player on the Roswell High School football team who exemplified leadership throughout his football career. This award is voted on by his peers - his fellow football players. Originally called the Outstanding Leadership Award, for years we invited the entire football team, coaches, and cheerleaders to join us for lunch to honor the recipient of the award.

We expanded our awards to honor leaders from our two other high schools on Woodstock Road in 2022 - Fellowship Christian and Blessed Trinity Catholic High Schools. This year we welcomed the award winners, their families, and coaches to our lunch meeting to receive these honors.

Longtime member Skipper Hoke was a banker, community leader, and a huge booster of all things Roswell High School and its sports teams. For years he helped lead our Roswell Rotary Relays, often working the scoring table throughout the day. After his death in 2016, we renamed this award after him to honor the impact and dedication Skipper gave to our young people and athletics in our community.

This year our keynote message was given by noted sports journalist, TV sports analyst and radio commentator Tony Barnhart.  His message included life lessons described in his new book "The 19 of Greene" which chronicles the Greene County Tigers high school footbal team's surprisingly successful season, the enduring relationships he formed with teammates, the difficulties of school sports integration, and the positive impact this team had on the community.