SLSSA president Vern Rodgers (left) presents the 2026 Steve Hilby Spirit award to Doug Warwick.
Larry Wolfe
At our recent annual Social Event, held at the Palo Verde restaurant, Doug Warwick was presented with the prestigious Steve Hilby Spirit Award. The Spirit of Sun Lakes Softball Award was established in 2010 and renamed the Steve Hilby Spirit Award in 2024 in honor of the late Steve Hilby. Its objective is to recognize those members who go “above and beyond” in supporting our program. Award winners are selected based upon their outstanding dedication, initiative, and service to our organization. The initial award winner was Dr. Roger Spark. One or more award winners have been selected every year since then except for the COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021. Doug has served our organization as a member of our board of directors, and as president for several years. He also leads a weekly bible study group and provides “behind the scenes” support for our members in many aspects. Plus, he’s an all–around great guy and a most-deserving recipient of this award!
President Rodgers also announced the winners of our other annual awards:
Rookies of the Year: John Vesey (Lakes Division) and Gino Fiasche, (Sun Division).
Sportsman of the Year: Jeff Jay (Lakes) and George Siegele (Sun.)
Most Improved: Don Scoggins (Lakes) and Brad Wendt (Sun).
Additionally, Gino Fiasche was presented with a special award for breaking our all–time home run record.
Rodgers announced that George Siegele and Dave Swann had been elected to three-year terms on our board and he thanked outgoing board members Cyndy Hilby and Randy Neumann for their service. Vern also recognized all the people who contributed to the success of our organization, including team managers, team sponsors, advertising sponsors, umpires, scorers, scoreboard operators, the grounds crew and our statistician.
Special thanks to our social event coordinator, Pat Wolfe, Palo Verde managers David Wright and Linda Schug and their entire banquet staff for contributing to a very fun event. The food and service were top rate!
With a week to go in our regular Spring Session, manager Vern Rodgers’ First Response Roofing team had clinched the Lakes division title with an incredible 13–1 record, while manager Marty Hobby’s Wolfe & Associate pack had clinched the Sun Division pennant with a 9–3 mark. Final season standings and statistical leaders will be in next month’s Splash.