Full list of winners at the 2024 NJ High School Game Changers Sports Awards (PHOTOS)

The winners were announced at NJ.com’s second annual High School Game Changers Sports Awards show on Monday, June 17, at Union County Arts Center.

Master of Ceremonies, Chuck Lott, entertained the crowd of more than 650 at the historic theater in downtown Rahway, as the winners in all 20 of the categories — 14 nominated and voted on by the public — and six Editor’s Choice Awards, chosen by the NJ.com high school sports staff, were honored on stage.

All finalists received awards, swag bags and had the opportunity to pose for photos taken by NJ.com’s photographer in a red carpet experience prior to the show. Photos from the day’s festivities can be found in the photo gallery below.

NOTE: Subscribers to NJ.com can download full-resolution photos from our galleries for free – and can also order prints for half-price.

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The Game Changers Sports Awards event was created to not only honor the top athletes and teams in the Garden State — but to celebrate those whose contributions are not tabulated in the scorebooks. Awards were handed out in categories honoring academics, entrepreneurship, activism, service, leadership and more.

A true statewide event — finalists hailed from all corners of New Jersey.

The event, by any metric, was a massive success.

The winners are listed below – and to learn more about them, as well as all of the finalists, go HERE to read about the NJ.com Editor’s Choice categories and HERE to read about the publicly nominated and voted categories.

NJ.com

Editor’s Choice Awards:

Overall Team of the Year – Male

Overall Team of the Year – Female

Overall Player of the Year – Male

• Micah Ford, Toms River North – Football, basketball, track and field

Overall Player of the Year – Female

• Layla Giordano, Old Tappan – Track and field, basketball and volleyball

Breakthrough Player of the Year – Male

• Ryan Burton, St. Joseph (Mont.) – Wrestling

Breakthrough Player of the Year – Female

• Sophia Stazi, Camden Catholic – Field Hockey

Public Nominated Awards:

Entrepreneur Award

• Nayalise Fleites, Jose Marti Stem Academy/Union City 

Advocacy Award

• Alison Stein, West Milford

Best Athlete with a Disability

• Matthew DiCarlo, Lower Cape May

Team Manager of the Year Award

Coaching Leadership Award

• Nicholas Tucker, Red Bank Regional

Best Game Day Supporter Award

Cheer Team of the Year

Dance Team of the Year

• Colonia High School Dance Team

Band of the Year

• Morris Knolls Marching Band

Unsung Hero Award

Comeback of the Year Award

• Lorelei Lorentzen, Iselin Kennedy

Teammate of the Year Award

Service Award

• Travis Park, Palisades Park

Academic Award

• Johanna Escalante, Kearny