Congratulations to all of the outstanding nominees for this year’s A. Landis Brackbill Scholar Athlete Award. Picking winners is a tall task for the award committee, and two athletes emerged as the winners.
Kelsea Dague of Hempfield is the daughter of Jim and Tracy Dague. She has earned 8 varsity letters across Field Hockey and Lacrosse. In Field Hockey she was named an LL League All-Star, and in Lacrosse she has earned All-American status. She will attend Eastern Michigan University in the fall.
Garrett Campagna of Manheim Township is the son of Scott and Shannon Campagna. He has earned 7 varsity letters spanning Soccer and Lacrosse. In the fall he will enroll at MIT.
A. Landis Brackbill was the first Executive Director of the Lancaster-Lebanon League.
Brackbill was born and raised in Gap. He attended Salisbury High School and graduated from the F&M Academy. Brackbill had a love for baseball and was a very talented left-handed pitcher.
After High School, he was recruited by Jack Coombs, baseball coach at Duke University. While at Duke, Brackbill injured his left arm ending his competitive pitching. Although he had an arm injury, he still was able to pitch some batting practice for the Philadelphia Athletics under manager Connie Mack. Over the years Brackbill had a close relationship with Mr. Mack.
He continued at Duke earning a degree to become a mathematics teacher and started his teaching career at Salisbury High School. Brackbill continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania obtaining a Master’s Degree with certification as a secondary principal. He became Principal at Terre Hill High School and later moved to Millersville as principal of Manor High School, which is now Penn Manor.
Thank you to the Brackbill family for sponsoring the awards in honor of their father.
The Brackbill Award qualifications include the words “exceptional student athletes within the greater community”. To be eligible the recipients must have a minimum of a 3.5 GPA and be participating in two or more varsity sports during their senior year. The Manheim Touchdown Club began awarding scholarships to each of the Brackbill recipients in 2006.
Because the Brackbill Award Committee already had in place a process to select the most outstanding female and male student athletes in the Lancaster Lebanon League, the decision was made to provide scholarship awards to the Brackbill winners instead of establishing a separate award. The Brackbill Committee is autonomous and has no relationship to the Manheim Touchdown Club.