ORLANDO – The Patrick Mannelly Award, which honors the best Football Bowl Subdivision senior long snapper, announced its finalists for 2021's third annual award Monday night, and UCF's Alex Ward was among the three honored.
The other two finalists are Pittsburgh's Cal Adomitis and USC's Damon Johnson. The winner of this year's award, which is presented by Zebra Technologies benefitting Bernie's Book Bank, will be announced at an award ceremony in Chicago, Dec. 11, 2021.
Ward has been UCF's long snapper the last three seasons and earned American Athletic Conference All-Academic honors each of his first four years in school at UCF.
This season, Ward has continued to excel as a snapper and has recorded one tackle and a fumble recovery.
Past winners of the Mannelly Award are Thomas Fletcher of Alabama in 2020 and John Shannon of Notre Dame in 2019.
About the Award
We live in the age of the superstar. The big gun. The first pick. The franchise player. But the more we come to understand the game of football, the more we learn to revere the guy who sets every field goal, extra point and punt in motion – including nail-biting field goals that make or break games, seasons and sometimes even careers. It's time to show some love for the Long Snapper.
Long Snappers don't make the cover of the program. They're rarely asked to sign autographs. You don't typically see them being interviewed before the game. But Long Snappers aren't driven by these things. Quiet, selfless, focused and courageous, the Long Snapper is content to trade conventional superstardom for the opportunity to do one job very well.
The spirit of the Long Snapper lives, not just on the football field, but out in the real world as well. The nurse who hands the right instrument to the surgeon is a Long Snapper. The legal professional who works late into the night doing the research that uncovers the precedent that wins the case is a Long Snapper. Anyone who toils in quiet dedication to the greater good is a Long Snapper. No matter what you do, when you do it with excellence in the face of great pressure, you are a Long Snapper.
The Patrick Mannelly Award presented by Zebra Technologies is a new vehicle through which football's unsung workhorses can finally bask in the warm glow of appreciation. Now we celebrate the best Long Snappers in college football. And in doing so, we honor the Long Snapper in all of us.
About Bernie's Book Bank
Bernie's Book Bank sources, processes and distributes quality new and gently used children's books to significantly increase book ownership among under-served infants, toddlers and school-age children throughout Chicagoland.
Bernie's Book Bank is the leading provider of quality books to under-served children in the Chicagoland area.
Bernie's Book Bank is named for Dr. Bernard P. Floriani, the father of Founder and Chief Advancement Officer, Brian Floriani, Bernie Floriani, Jr. and Lindsey Floriani Arterburn. Bernie was a self-made man – the son of a coal miner who grew up in a house without running water until he went to college on a basketball scholarship. He may not have had much, but he did have access to books and the opportunity for a good education.
Big Bernie achieved a bachelor's, a master's and a doctorate degree in reading education. He spent his entire professional life promoting literacy. In 2005, Brian was a lead instructor for Golf Digest Schools in Lake Tahoe and West Palm Beach. The sudden death of his father, Bernie, inspired him to do something different with his life.
Brian began working as a reading paraprofessional for Shiloh Park Elementary in Zion, Illinois. He spent every day tutoring struggling readers. It wasn't long before Brian realized that, while he could help each child individually at the elementary school level, his efforts and those of thousands of other reading paraprofessionals across America wouldn't do anything to stop the influx of new struggling readers from entering the school system every year.
He now understood the importance of what his father knew — that reading is the single most important skill a child needs in order to contribute and function competently within our society. Furthermore, he realized that all of these children probably could have been "reading ready" if they had been provided access to books at home before entering Kindergarten.
In December 2009, Bernie's Book Bank was founded in Brian's garage as this was where he began sourcing and redistributing books to under-served children. In its first 12 months, Bernie's Book Bank sourced, processed and distributed 140,000 children's books. In its second year, Bernie's Book Bank expanded its operation and reach, and distributed 350,000 books to more than 35,000 children.
By the end of 2012, the number of children's books Bernie's Book Bank had sourced, processed and distributed reached 1 MILLION. In 2019, we reached 15 MILLION! In 2021 we are on target to reach 20 MILLION books distributed since 2009!
We do this by sourcing millions of new and gently used books from our generous donors. We level them into age-appropriate groups, place an identifying sticker on them and then select a variety of 6 new and gently used titles to be placed into a bag for distribution. We then deliver each bag of books directly to the children we serve via the school districts and 'Under 6' (U6) programs in the Chicagoland area. In one year each child we serve will receive a total of 12 quality children's books to take home and call their own.
As a non-profit organization funded entirely by generous individuals, foundations and caring companies, Bernie's Book Bank cannot succeed without the support of many book donors, volunteers, and investors. Working together, we are transforming the educational journey of thousands of under-served children by providing them the tools they need to become successful readers.
