NOFA youth league honors Wertman

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 November 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – NOFA Commissioner Harold Suhr, right, presents Mike Wertman with two plaques after he was nominated by both the Albion and Medina football teams for the Jim Ellegate Memorial Award.Also in the picture, from left: Sherry Bensley, Medina Commissioner; and Julie Ellegate (Ellegate’s wife) and her children Nicky and Jimmy.

Veteran local sportswriter Mike Wertman was honored by the Niagara Orleans Football Association on Saturday for his devoted and thorough coverage of the local teams for many years.

Wertman will cover those youth football games on Saturdays, typically after a busy week of high school sports, including late nights with Friday varsity games. He hasn’t skipped the younger kids. He has been a mainstay covering the sport for players who are a decade away from joining the varsity teams.

Wertman was honored by both the Albion and Medina football teams on Saturday with the Jim Ellegate Memorial Award.

Wertman was honored by the league during halftime of the Medina Colts vs. Akron Mini Tigers game, the finals for the league.

He received the Jim Ellegate Memorial Award, which is given in memory of Ellegate, who lost his life in a car accident five years ago coming home from coaching a game. Wertman was nominated for the award by the Albion and Medina teams.

Wertman worked 35 years for The Journal-Register in Medina before joining Orleans Hub in late August.

The Roy-Hart team honored atheltic director John Jablonski, right, with an Ellegate award.

NOFA Commissioner Harold Suhr presents a plaque to Jim Ellegate’s wife Julie in remembrance of the five year anniversary of his death.