John Valerino, former sports editor for The Ledger and winner of the Hal Waters Alumnus of the Year award.

LAKELAND, Fla. (April 21, 2009) — Florida Southern College's Communication Department held its annual awards banquet April 8, 2009. The banquet recognized students and alumni for their work in the field of communication.

This year's winner of the Hal Waters Alumnus of the Year award was John Valerino, former sports editor for The Ledger. During his 30-year tenure he covered a variety of events, notably the Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Salt Lake City. He edited and coordinated a 13-part series on former Florida football coach Steve Spurrier and another series on Florida State University coach Bobby Bowden. Both series won first-place honors in national and state writing contests for enterprise reporting. He recently completed a book on baseball, "Turing Two: Baseball's Classic Keystone Combinations." The book was so well received it was one of 14 books selected to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2008. Valerino recently completed another book, "Joe and Ted: The Way They Were," due out in June. This book focuses on two of the greatest players in the game, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees and Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox.

Other awards given were: Outstanding Freshman Majors, Justin Bivens and John Luti, Jr.; Outstanding Sophomore Major, Amanda Glickman; Outstanding Junior Major, Tony Rivera; Outstanding Senior Majors, Megan Albrecht and Alexandra Gauthier; Outstanding Communication Minor, Laura Howell.

Other awards were given to students for co-curricular and extracurricular work: Outstanding Broadcast Student, John Luti, Jr.; Outstanding Ad Fed Student Member, Kelly Brennan; Forensics "Doc" Dockery Founders Award, Jordan Stout; Forensics Team MVP Award, Krista Miller; The Southern Journalist of the Year, Ashley Islas; The Interlachen Outstanding Leadership, Tony Rivera and Amanda Triest; and The Interlachen Commitment and Devotion, Tony Rivera.

The Carroll and Lucy Teeter Journalism Scholarship was awarded to Christine Simone. The $300 scholarship is an annual scholarship for a print journalism major. Carroll Teeter is an alumnus of FSC, Class of 1939.