The Long Beach Century Club hosted its 38th annual middle school sports awards banquet last Thursday at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid, honoring young athletes from across the Long Beach Unified School District. The club welcomed around 1,500 athletes, coaches, faculty and family members while presenting a variety of awards recognizing student-athletes, teams and programs from across the city.
Century Club President Mike Filipow, along with fellow event co-chair Rob Wigod, opened the event with acknowledgements and remarks before passing the mic to Long Beach State track & field coach and former Olympian LaTanya Sheffield, who shared a motivational message with the young athletes in attendance.
The562’s Eli Aquino and Tyler Hendrickson then took the floor to begin the awards ceremony portion of the event. The pair started by announcing the Keith Hansen Sportsmanship Award, named after the late former Century Club president who also helped transition the banquet to the Pyramid in recent years. The award was presented to Keller Middle School, which received a $1,000 check presented by Keith’s wife, Carol Hansen.
The championship teams from all three divisions across the eight middle school sports were then presented awards, with each student-athlete being recognized before receiving a plaque along with a larger plaque presented to the school’s coaches and principal.
The event concluded with the presentation of the All-Sports awards, where Stephens received the Boys’ All-Sports Award while Stanford took home the Girls’ All-Sports Award. Both Stephens’ boys programs and Stanford’s girls programs finished the school year with three All-City championships.
Stanford then remained on the floor after also earning the Overall All-Sports Award, marking the Hawks’ fourth Overall All-Sports title in the last five years. Carol Hansen returned to present the school with a $1,000 check donation on behalf of the Keith Hansen Fund.
The individual sport and division champions are as follows:
Coed Flag Football
Keller Dual Immersion Middle School (Division 1)
Stephens Middle School (Division 2)
Lindbergh Stem Academy (Division 3)
Girls’ Volleyball
Stanford Middle School (Division 1)
Franklin Middle School (Division 2)
Avalon K-12 School (Division 3)
Girls’ Track & Field
Stanford High School (Division 1)
Newcomb K-8 Academy (Division 2)
Stephens Middle School (Division 3)
Boys’ Basketball
Hoover Middle School (Division 1)
Lindsey Middle School (Division 2)
Intellectual Virtues Academy (Division 3)
Boys’ Track & Field
Marshall Middle School (Division 1)
Stephens Middle School (Division 2)
Lindbergh Stem Academy (Division 3)
Girls’ Basketball
Stanford Middle School (Division 1)
Washington Middle School (Division 2)
Intellectual Virtues Academy (Division 3)
Boys’ Soccer
Keller Dual Immersion Middle School (Division 1)
Stephens Middle School (Division 2)
Hamilton Middle School (Division 3)
Girls’ Soccer
Hughes Middle School (Division 1)
Cubberley K-8 School (Division 2)
Franklin Middle School (Division 3)
