UNIVERSITY PARK — Five Centre County athletes were among 46 high school players, 10 college student-athletes and three men honored Sunday at the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame at its 16th annual Student-Athlete Scholarship Banquet.

One senior from each of the region's high schools and 10 college programs was honored at the event at the Penn Stater Conference Center. The athletes also were addressed by Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien and new Temple head coach and State College graduate Matt Rhule.

The group of honorees included Bald Eagle Area's Cole Long, Bellefonte's Jordan Fye, Penns Valley's David Leedy, Philipsburg-Osceola's Chris Godissart and State College's Evan Galimberti.

Also honored at the event for their contributions to high school and college football were three men, including former CDT sports editor Doug McDonald, who spent close to four decades covering football and wrestling, among other sports, before his retirement in 1995. McDonald was given the Fran Fisher Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.

Also honored were Stanley Bem, former president of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and a longtime official in the PIAA, who received the chapter’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mark Keppler, the associate athletic director in charge of athletic training at Bucknell and the university’s head trainer for 26 years, who picked up the Athletic Trainer of the Year Award.

The banquet has been held annually since 1998, with the local chapter having awarded $157,000 in scholarship money. This year, 16 athletes earned scholarships from the chapter.