{"id":117996,"date":"2026-01-31T00:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117996\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:46:08","slug":"st-joseph-by-the-sea-flag-football-player-headed-to-san-francisco-gets-royal-send-off-by-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117996\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Joseph by-the-Sea flag football player headed to San Francisco gets royal send-off by school"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — St. Joseph by-the-Sea gave Vikings\u2019 flag football player Eva Rotondi a celebratory send-off Thursday evening at the Huguenot school.<\/p>\n

Rotondi is set to head out to San Francisco for the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 5, where she will be honored as a 2026 NFL Flag Player of the Year presented by Toyota<\/a>. NFL Honors is a prelude to Super Bowl 60 to be held Sunday, Feb. 8, also in Frisco.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s in-school celebration was attended by her teammates and coaches, some fellow students and school officials as well as her family and friends. <\/p>\n

\"NFLAva Rotondi, center, is joined by family and friends at Thursday’s in-school celebration for the 2026 NFL Player of the Year, who will pick up her award at the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 5, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Sea Athletics)Sea Athletics<\/p>\n

\u201cI really can\u2019t put into words the meaning of winning this award; it\u2019s so special and to be recognized for my play like this is probably the biggest type of award I will ever get,\u201d the New Dorp resident recently told the Advance\/SILive.com. \u201cEver since I\u2019ve seen it being given out when I was in high school I knew I would love to just be in position to be considered for it. Winning it is crazy to me that I am recognized with all the girls that play flag. It\u2019s a huge honor and I am very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Staten Island has been a hot bed for girls\u2019 flag in recent years, the borough has also made a name for itself nationally. Rotondi, a talented two-way player, has been a huge part of that as a member of several THT flag championship teams all over the country. Other Island flag travel teams — like the Staten Island Giants — have also garned many national crowns.<\/p>\n

In addition, Rotondi helped Sea win the annual Borough President\u2019s Cup last season and the CHSAA city crown, which the Vikings will try to defend this spring. <\/p>\n

She joins 2023 Player of the Year and Staten Island Tech grad Allison Gandlin as Islanders who have garnered the coveted award.<\/p>\n

\"CHSAACHSAA Championship Girls Flag Football Match between Moore Catholic and St. Joseph By-The-Sea, at Moore, in Graniteville, on Wed. May 15, 2024. Ava Rotundi (24). Sea captures the win with a score of 19-7. (Kara Buzga for Staten Island Advance).What is the NFL HonorsThe NFL Honors is an annual awards ceremony that recognizesoutstanding players, coaches, and moments from the past NFL season as well as standout youth performers.Event DetailsDate\u00a0and\u00a0Time:\u00a0Feb.\u00a05, 2026,\u00a0at\u00a09 p.m.\u00a0ET.Location:\u00a0Palace\u00a0of\u00a0Fine\u00a0Arts\u00a0in\u00a0San\u00a0Francisco,\u00a0Calif.Broadcast:\u00a0The\u00a0event\u00a0will\u00a0be\u00a0aired\u00a0live\u00a0on\u00a0NBC\u00a0and\u00a0the NFL\u00a0Network,\u00a0with\u00a0streaming\u00a0available\u00a0on\u00a0Peacock,\u00a0and\u00a0also NFL+.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — St. Joseph by-the-Sea gave Vikings\u2019 flag football player Eva Rotondi a celebratory send-off Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-117996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}