History Made at 2024-2025 Student Awards Banquet

Lemont Furnace, PA- History was made at the 2024-2025 Student Awards Banquet.

This year four historical things took place during the athletics portion of the Student Awards Banquet. Honoring all of the student athletes and their hardwork this season was important, however special recognition took place this year with Dasilas Jones, Andrew Despot, Dylan Pawlak, and Sophia Zalar for their individual accomplishments. 

The athletic portion was opened with finalizations on the year from the impressive student athletes academic performances. Interim Athletic Director Samantha Swetz stated that fifty percent of the student athletes this year had a 3.0 GPA or higher cumulatively and 29% of the student athletes this year recieved the USCAA All Academic Award due to an impressive 3.5 GPA cucmulative or higher. Swetz also stated that the student athletes collectively completed 164 community service hours and that history was made an impessive 5 times this year. 

Next on the agenda was to honor the record breakers this past year, first starting with fifth year player, Dasilas Jones. Jones was honored first for becoming the  "All Time Leading Scorer" for Penn State Fayette Men's Basketball this past season. Dasilas finished his career with an impressive 1,846 points. The second, was Andrew Despot, a fifth year baseball player that finished with 140 hits and became the hits leader for Penn State Fayette Baseball this past season.

For the first time in Penn State Fayette Athletics history, it was then time to honor the "Fayette Student Athlete of the Year" for female and male sports. The Fayette Student Athlete of the Year award is for a student that has distinguished themselves throughout their Penn State Fayette careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic prowess, community service and leadership. Student athletes deserving of this award should also exemplify "Fayette" qualities of caring, competitiveness and a cumulative GPA of a 3.0 or higher. Noah Matthews, Dylan Pawlak, Jazmin Parill and Sophia Zalar were those nominated for this prestigous award.  Sophia Zalar, second year tri-athlete, was named the first ever female recipient. Zalar works as an EMT for Brownsville and accomplished 400 hours of job shadowing at Point Marion Veterinarian Clinic. On campus Zalar is a Lion Ambassador and a tutor in the Student Success Center. Zalar has also won multiple PSUAC and USCAA Awards over her time at Fayette within her three sports she participates in. The male recipient was fourth year golfer, Dylan Pawlak. Pawlak was named the USCAA Student Athlete of the year in 2023 and was the founder of REC Pickup Sports Club. Pawlak has three jobs at UPS, Idlewild Soak Zone, and McDonalds. In his spare time he coaches an ESports team "Overwatch Blue" and volunteers at Salvation Army.

"I am so proud to have a front row seat to our student athletes accomplishments. I am also very excited to see what the future holds for our first ever Fayette Student Athletes of the Year," Samantha Swetz, Interim Athletic Director stated.

To see all of the pictures go to: 2025-05-02 Fayette's Student Awards Ceremony | Flickr