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June Mitton's Memorial Award
To commemorate June's involvement with the club and its members, NHBFC created the June Mitton Memorial Award. The recipient of the annual award, in George Mitton's words, will be "a dependable person" boy or girl on the senior team, not necessarily the best player, but someone planning to go to college."
Need is not the determining factor in the process of choice, but, naturally, the award, with a value of $5000, is not for a graduating player who already has a full ride at college. The purpose is to ensure a college education for the recipient's). Grades and character are central criteria in making the decision.
The funding for the award comes from the annual NHB Tournament. Held over the two weekends (last weekend of August and Labor Day), this is an established event that was close to June Mitton's heart. It is appropriate that this should be the vehicle for the creation of the scholarship. As George puts it simply, "In making the award, we need to consider what June was about."
The first winner of the award is Jorge Torres, a player on the BU-18 team that Ramon Herrera coached, a graduate of Long Beach Polytechnic which won the CIF division I championship, headed for Cal State University, Los Angeles. His choice of college, in his words, was made because "it is close to home and interested in soccer."
A midfielder, one of a family of six, a good student with a solid GPA of 3.3, Jorge has a modest manner, enormous respect for his teammates and gratitude to the sport of soccer because "it has helped me help my family out."
After three years with NHB, he looks back at the friendships he has formed and how much they have meant to his development. When asked whose play do you admire most he responded "Ben Tocco", (Jorge replied without pausing a beat (Ben is his teammate at school and NHB) "I've seen him develop as a player - a role model who became a friend." When we straightened out what we meant by the question, he gave us the name of Maradona. A guy who thinks of his teammate before the Argentine national hero - that's an NHB kinda guy.
