Pike Liberal Arts School held its Fall Sports Banquet on Monday evening and the Class of 2012 was center stage. The football team’s twenty-one seniors were among the honorees.

Athletic director Steven Kilcrease handed out several awards. Nick McLaughlin was honored as Most Valuable Offensive Back, Most Valuable Defensive Back and Most Valuable Player and with good reason. McLaughlin, along with fellow seniors Tanner Free and Alex Pierce recently participated in the AISA East-West All-Star game in Prattville and McLaughlin was awarded Most Valuable Defensive Player from his squad.

McLaughlin’s season numbers were worthy of recognition. He rushed for 1646 yards and 20 touchdowns in his senior campaign while adding 119 tackles, 3 sacks and and an interception. He accumulated 1,880 total yards from scrimmage on the season.

For his career the numbers are simply outstanding. He rushed for 4,026 yards with a 7.8 average yards per carry while scoring 47 touchdowns. He also has 408 yards receiving, 15.1 yards per catch average and two scores along with 102 yards passing and two TDs. Defensively, he racked up 471 tackles career with 10 interceptions while returning one for a touchdown. He led PLAS in tackles for the last three years and finished second as a ninth grade varsity player.

He was hardly alone in receiving credit for his play however. Will

Sanford and Clay Smilie received Most Improved Player awards while Free was named Most Valuable Offensive Lineman and Pierce got Most Valuable Defensive Lineman. Coach’s Awards went out to Kyle Boswell and John Rotton while Most Valuable Special Teams went to Luke LaBrant.

Head volleyball coach Mendy Avant had awards for her team as well as the varsity cheerleaders. Most Valuable Defensive Player went to Ellie Barron while Jaylan Reynolds received Most Valuable Offensive Player and Carrley Barron won the award for Most Valuable Player. Avant also recognized Amy Fleming with the Lauren Austin Award for cheerleading as voted on by Fleming’s fellow cheerleaders. Seniors Fleming, Conleigh Gilmore and Samantha Shirley were AISA All-Star Cheerleaders while fellow senior

Reynolds was named to the AISA All-Star squad in volleyball.