Kevin Sabo, the most recent winner of the Enners Award, is a soft-spoken leader, who was the face of Westhampton Beach High School athletics the past two years.

An All-Division football player and All-County athlete on the lacrosse field, Sabo began playing lacrosse in sixth grade because all of his friends were picking up sticks instead of tossing a baseball around.

"I always wanted to be with my friends and lacrosse was more of a contact sport," he says.

Westhampton Beach has never been a lacrosse power on Long Island, and aside from a handful of track and basketball achievements in the past 20 years, they have not been overly dominant on the athletic scene since legendary head coach Carl Hansen roamed the sidelines and courts at the eastern Long Island school.

Sabo played under Ralph Pepe, who has coached at numerous institutions on Long Island - both high school and college - and played at Sachem High School in the 1960s. Sabo learned a great deal from Pepe.

"We weren't always the best, but we would always try hard," Sabo says. "We all loved to play and all worked hard. Coach was a big impact in my lacrosse life. He taught me everything and how to grow. He was kind of like a father figure sometimes and is a big part of my life."

Sabo had 52 goals and 27 assists from his attack position in 2009. He was shocked when he won the Enners Award as Suffolk's top player.

"We had plenty of great players," he says. "I was ecstatic."

Sabo is a freshman at Dowling College and will play his first year of college lacrosse in 2010. In September 2009, Sabo and another student athlete from Dowling attended the Division II Leadership Academy in Boston, which is a weekend-long opportunity to develop leadership skills, become more familiar with the Division II experience and plan for action.

According to Dowling, in a forum intended to foster partnerships, participants are equipped to be active leaders and change agents within their campus, conference and community spheres of influence.

It looks like Sabo began his college athletic career right were he left off at Westhampton Beach - leading as always.