Dialog reporter
WILMINGTON — Four years ago, David Hazelton Jr. was a student at Conrad School of Sciences and playing Catholic Youth Ministry basketball for St. Elizabeth, trying to decide where he would go to high school. He could have stayed at Conrad for high school, or perhaps the Charter School of Wilmington.
His father suggested he look at St. Elizabeth High School, although the younger Hazelton was not really interested.
“So I came out and I saw that we were going to have iPads. I saw how the teachers knew every single student. I saw the family atmosphere, and I liked the small school kind of feel. I fell in love with it,” Hazelton said recently at the school.
One of the perks of attending St. Elizabeth was the chance to get involved in a lot of activities, including playing three sports right away. He has done well at all of them, and for his accomplishments on and off the football field this past season, he was named a co-winner of the Michael DeLucia Memorial Sportsmanship Award. He and his co-winner, Patrick Udovich Jr. of Archmere, were recognized for “performance, attitude and character on and off the field.” They faced each other in the final game of their respective high school careers, on Nov. 12 at Baynard Stadium.
Hazelton, who played wide receiver and fullback on offense and linebacker on defense, was not aware of the award before he found out he was getting it. He found out from a previous winner, St. Elizabeth athletic director Joe Papili, who was honored in 1978.
“He drove me to a nomination interview for West Point, and we were driving back, and he was talking to me about the award and what it meant,” Hazelton said.
“To know it’s not only about the play on the field, but to know that it encompasses the whole person, it takes into account all those things. It makes it that much more special that you have to be a well-rounded person to get it.”
Hazelton also plays basketball and baseball for the Vikings, but football is his favorite.
“I just think it’s the cohesiveness of the team. I don’t think any other sport that I’ve ever played has that feeling that it’s more like a family. You really do spend much more time with those people than just about anyone else,” he said.
Leader off the field, too
Hazelton is also a leader off the fields and court as well. He is the student body president and a member of the National Honor Society and Academic Bowl. He also volunteers a lot at the parish and school whenever he can. He lives literally across the street from the parish, so the commute is easy.
Kathleen Houghton, St. Elizabeth’s marketing and communications coordinator, said an alumna of the school established a scholarship for non-freshmen.
“David was one of the first recipients of that scholarship, and he’s had that for the last three years,” she said.
He received nominations for West Point from all three members of Delaware’s congressional delegation, and he is waiting to find out if he has been accepted into the academy. He already has an invitation to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a ROTC scholarship.
His interest in the military stems from his father, who joined the Naval Reserves after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“He’s pushed me that way for a long time, and I’ve adopted it,” he said.
As for the future, he would like to study something in the cognitive sciences because it incorporates both the sciences and social studies. He is not sure what he will be doing after he finishes his education. He could see himself as a lawyer; the idea of “constant competition,” a back and forth, appeals to him.
Before all that happens, however, he has a semester left at St. Elizabeth. Sometimes, he said, his mind drifts to the future.
“I’d almost say the nostalgia is already kicking in where you’re almost already looking back over the last three and a half years and think back to the memories that you’ve made,” he said.
Realizing he has a few months to go in school, he catches himself and lets out a hearty laugh.
“I don’t know how good that is. It’s not good.”
