Congratulations to Hassan Thompson for winning the Troy Barboza Courage Award! Former Pioneer Troy Barboza was enjoying a succesful career in law enforcement when he was involved in a major drug bust as an undercover detective. Days before he was scheduled to testify for the case, Barboza was murdered inside of his home. Because of the great display of courage Troy showed during his time at Grinnell, as well as during his time in law enforcement, we have honored his memory with this award each year since 1993. Notable past winners include Troy Dougherty (All American), Zack Fletcher, Nick Merklin, Tom Brinkman (who were all recognized as all-conference and all pursued a career in coaching and teaching) and Carson Dunn (last year’s winner).
In 2017 Hassan enjoyed his best season yet, recording 61 total tackles, 33 of them solo, 6 tackles for a loss, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries and a blocked punt. In week 2 against Trinity, Hassan's blocked punt traveled out of the back of the end zone for our first points of the game, giving us the momentum we needed to eventually come away with the 15-6 win.
Hassan was part of a start-up football program in high school, and was the heart and soul of that team. He came to Grinnell all the way from New Orleans, relying on his coaches and teammates to help ease the transition, while leaving family behind. He's grown as a person and as a leader each year, he's since moved his family here to Grinnell, and he's now one of the guys welcoming younger guys and mentoring them through their first weeks and months on campus. We're incredibly proud of all Hassan has accomplished at Grinnell, and we're anxious to see what he does next year in his senior season. Congratulations Hassan!
