The St. Pius football team had several student-athletes receive All-State, All-Region and All-Dekalb County honors last month. Four players were selected to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) AAA All-State team while seven were selected to the Region 6-AAA team and six were tabbed All-DeKalb County. In addition to the honors, head coach Paul Standard was selected DeKalb County Coach of the Year by the AJC.
Selected to the AJC AAA All-State team were offensive lineman Phineas Andrews (Atlanta), fullback Ryan Braswell (Atlanta), linebacker Daniel Crochet (Stone Mountain) and defensive back Nick Ruffin (Johns Creek). Braswell was also named the offensive player of the year for DeKalb County by the AJC.
Andrews, Braswell, Crochet and Ruffin were selected to the Region 6-AAA All-Region team. They were joined by offensive lineman David Marsau (Atlanta), defensive lineman Quincy Nieporte (Atlanta), placekicker Thomas O’Leary (Tucker), defensive back/receiver Michael Sikorski (Lawrenceville) and quarterback Jack Spear (Atlanta). Andrews, Braswell, Marsau, O’Leary, Ruffin and Spear were also selected to the All-DeKalb County Team by the DeKalb County Football Coaches Association.
The Golden Lions reached the AAA State Championship game in December, dropping a 10-3 decision to Buford. It was the second time the football program finished as state runners-up. The other was in 1965. St. Pius finished 12-3 and won the Region 6-AAA championship. It was the third region title in four years for the Golden Lions. In addition, the Class of 2013 set a school-record for career victories with 45.