May 31st, 2022 – A trio of GOJHL players have been selected as recipients of the 2022 Frank Santarossa Scholarship.
The fund provides financial assistance to players of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) to assist them in furthering their education.
The scholarship fund was created in 1988 in the memory of the late Frank Santarossa, a promising young player who played for the Kitchener Dutchmen and the Cambridge Winter Hawks in the mid-’80s. Santarossa lost his life in a tragic car accident in the winter of 1987.
Each player receives $1,000.
Frank’s father Lino, along with a small group of friends, started the scholarship fund in Frank’s memory and in 26 years the Scholarship Fund has awarded over $80,000.
This year we have three recipients.
First, Josh DiFrancesco of the Fort Erie Meteors.
The St Catharines native just completed his third season in the GOJHL and attends Brock University. In addition to his academic pursuit in medical science and hockey commitments, he also volunteers his time with Big Brothers/Big Sisters & Community Senior Services of Niagara.
The next recipient is Ryan Barwitzki of the Lasalle Vipers.
A human kinetics student at the University of Windsor, Ryan just completed his 4th season in the GOJHL split between Sarnia for his first 3 seasons and Lasalle this year.
He has volunteered his time with the Lasalle Minor Hockey over the past year while playing in Lasalle and during the summer months gets involved in his hometown of Sarnia as a volunteer coach for numerous skill sessions.
The third recipient is Jett Morningstar of the Sarnia Legionnaires.
Morningstar just completed his 3rd season in the league and is graduating from high school this summer and plans to study criminology at university in the fall.
After losing his little brother to cancer a few years ago, Jett has been involved with skate Sarnia where kids learn how to skate and several childhood cancer charities. His family raised over fifteen thousand dollars for the Terry Fox Ride. They have also started the Jesse14 Foundation in his brother’s memory to help local families affected by cancer.
Congratulations to all recipients of the 2022 Frank Santarossa Scholarship.
