Heinsohn, Bicknell garner Falcon Club’s top honors

The Falcon Club met for the 54th time on Sunday to award area high school football players from Albemarle, Monticello, Charlottesville, William Monroe, Western Albemarle, St. Anne’s Belfield and Covenant.
For the second straight year Brud Bicknell took home the Harry Martin Memorial Trophy awarded to the top coach in the area as he led the Mustangs to Group AA Division 3 state semifinals. Last year, Bicknell split the award with St. Anne’s coach John Blake.
“I’m honored that I was chosen,” said a humble Bicknell. “There are guys here that were equally or more deserving of this award than I may have been. Sometimes I think that people think just by winning you’re doing your job, but a lot of times it’s the other years where you do your best.
“I know the talents of these guys in the community so to be even mentioned was a great honor.”
Covenant running back Luke Heinsohn took home the Falcon Club MVP for his performance this past fall.
“It’s crazy,” Heinsohn said. “I did not expect this. There are a ton of great players in this room who are going on to play Division I football, so it was really an
honor.”
With many teams transitioning to the spread offense, Heinsohn stood out this past years as an old school smash-mouth tailback.
“It was much more of a surprise to him than it was to me,” said Covenant coach Mark Sanford.  “There’s a lot of flash in the pan players, but Luke’s one who’s been the same guy day in and day out for four years so this didn’t surprise me one bit.”
The 5-foot-11 inch back 200-pound senior piled up 5,000 yards over his career with the Eagles, and finished this season with 219 carries for 1,406 and 19
touchdowns. He also had six interceptions on the other side of the ball, and plans to play for Washington and Lee this fall.
Heinsohn wasn’t the only Covenant player to take home some hardware.
Andy Colberg was recognized for his civic service with the Darden and Jim Towe Memorial Citizenship award.
Other notable winners included William Monroe’s Deonne Kenney who was given the Gene Brown Memorial Sportsmanship.
The awards were given out after UVa receiver Jared Green, son of Hall of Fame Redskin cornerback Darryl Green, spoke about high school athletics and the
importance of giving back to the community.
Each team handed out
individual awards as well. All seven schools awarded their team MVPs as well as their top student athletes.