Tickets on sale for the inaugural News Sentinel Sports Awards
The News Sentinel invites you to join us as we honor high school athletes from around the PrepXtra area.
Tickets for the inaugural News Sentinel Sports Awards presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans have gone on sale and can be purchased online at sportsawards.knoxnews.com.
The event will bring together the best athletes in the Knoxville area with a red carpet celebration on June 7. Former University of Tennessee All-American defensive back and current Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro Eric Berry will be the guest speaker for the 8 p.m. event at the Tennessee Theatre, in which players of the year for each high school sport will be announced.
Along with naming players of the year, one athlete will also be awarded the I Am Sport Award presented by Nike, which recognizes high school athletes who are committed to getting kids active in their community. Nominations for the award are going on until March 7 and can be done at http://knoxnews.secondstreetapp.com/i-am-sport-award/. After the deadline for nominations has passed, the winner will be decided via an online vote, which begins on March 8.
As for players of the year, six finalists will be selected in football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, golf, swimming, cross country, track and field, tennis, wrestling and bowling. All finalists will be invited to the awards show with the winners announced that evening. For sports with boys and girls participation, six boys finalists and six girls finalists will be chosen. Finalists for football, girls soccer, volleyball, boys and girls golf and boys and girls cross country have already been selected.
Other categories include Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year and Leadership Award.
Finalists will be chosen based on votes from a three-person panel that includes high school sports editor Troy Provost-Heron and two coaches or officials from the sport in question. Finalists will be announced throughout the year in accordance with the All-PrepXtra teams, which are selected solely by the News Sentinel.