DREXEL HILL – Ryan Alderman, a senior at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown, was awarded the Mini Maxwell Award from the prestigious Maxwell Football Club Jan. 16 at Drexelbrook Banquet Hall. The award grants Alderman a $500 scholarship to the university of his choice.

The award is presented to 50 seniors in the tri-state area based on academics, community service and athletics. With this honor, Alderman will be considered for the Jim Henry High School Player of the Year Award.

VILLANOVA MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM HOSTS DON GUANELLA SCHOOL

VILLANOVA – Coach Jay Wright and the Villanova University men’s basketball team hosted the young men from Don Guanella School in Broomall, Delaware County, at practice on Jan. 13.

The Don Guanella boys with special needs watched the end of Coach Wright’s practice and then joined the nationally ranked Wildcats on the court at the Pavilion for instruction and fun participation.

ADAM TALIAFERRO TO RECEIVE SPORTS WRITERS HUMANITARIAN AWARD

Philadelphia – Many remember the scene during the Penn State – Ohio State football game in 2000, when Penn State freshman defensive back Adam Taliaferro lay on the field without moving after making a tackle.

Taken off the field in an ambulance, his parents were told that he would never walk again. But three months later, he walked out of the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia. Taliaferro returned to Penn State to complete work toward his undergraduate degree, earned a law degree from Rutgers University and now works for a law firm in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Sports Writers Association will honor him with its Humanitarian Award for his work with his own Taliaferro Foundation, whose mission is to help athletes who, like him, have suffered spinal cord injuries.

The foundation provides emotional, financial and educational support to student-athletes who suffer head or spinal injuries in sanctioned team events in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. It also provides support toward research and prevention of those injuries.

Taliaferro will be honored at the Sports Writers Association’s 105th annual awards dinner on Monday, Jan. 26, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, N.J. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased online at www.pswadinner.com or by calling Robbie Kenney at 609-702-7473.