Our high school football season officially ends this weekend with our annual offense and defense Sweet 16 selections.

The lone official football award we give is the Butler Eagle Scoring Trophy, a statistical honor received by the Butler County player who scored the most points that season.

While Mars senior running back Teddy Ruffner ran away with that trophy, here are a few of my choices — solely my opinion — for other top performances in 2019:

Offensive Player of the Year — Zack Rocco, quarterback, North Catholic. All this guy did was account for 32 touchdowns — 25 passing and seven rushing. The Cranberry Township resident threw for 1,814 yards.

Rocco was a standout linebacker for the Trojans as well.

Defensive Player of the Year — Nathan Waltman, linebacker, Karns City. Only a junior, he forced offenses to alter what they were doing. Waltman compiled 93 tackles and created or recovered five fumbles.

A solid tight end offensively, he will undoubtedly be one of the top players in the county on both sides of the ball next season.

All-Purpose Player of the Year — Ricky Hunter, senior, Freeport. Who else? He led the Yellowjackets with more than 1,500 all-purpose yards. He had huge punt and kickoff returns. He served as the team's place-kicker and led Freeport in tackles from his linebacker position.

Newcomer of the Year — Cooper Baxter, quarterback, Butler. Only a sophomore, he started behind center for the Golden Tornado from the first game and was joined by a team comprised largely of underclassmen.

Baxter produced 1,438 yards running and throwing the football, accounting for 11 touchdowns in the brutal Quad County Conference. Look for that productivity to steadily increase over the next two years as Butler gains more experience.

Coach of the Year — Brad Dittman, Union/A-C Valley. The Falcon Knights doubled their win total in 2019, going from 4-7 a year ago to 8-4 this season.

Following a 30-8 seaaon-opening loss to Coudersport, this team won seven of its next eight games. Union/A-C Valley's running game was almost non-existent early in the year before developing into one of the team's strengths.

A close second here would be Karns City's Joe Sherwin. He took over for the ultra-successful Ed Conto in 2018 and the Gremlins struggled in a losing season that resulted in no playoffs.

This year, KC won eight games, returned to the playoffs and knocked off a strong Keystone team on the road in the first round.

That victory was the lone postseason triumph by our area football teams this fall.

Expect that to change when next year rolls around.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle