Baldwin H.S. in Running for Football Player, Band of the Year

Click here to vote for the Player of the Year and here to vote for the Band of the Year. Voting starts on Friday, Nov. 11, at 4 p.m.

Thanks to winning weekly awards during the 2011 high school football season, has put itself in the running for WPXI's Player and Band of the Year awards.

WPXI's veteran sports reporter on Sept. 28 to honor Baldwin's junior running back Dorian Brown with its football Player of the Week award after Brown rushed for 278 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries, including a game-winning 80-yard TD with less than two minutes to play, to lead the Highlanders to a  over Thomas Jefferson High School on Sept. 23.

Brown emerged as one of the WPIAL's best players this season. He amassed exactly 1,200 rushing yards on 197 carries (a 6.1-yard average), including 10 touchdowns. He also caught 11 passes for 78 yards and one TD and returned eight kickoffs for 223 yards (a 27.9-yard average), including a 96-yard TD return in  over Fox Chapel Area High School on Sept. 2. He had 1,501 all-purpose yards this year for an average of 166.8 all-purpose yards per game.

The  as its male High School Athlete of the Week on Sept. 29.

The Highlanders marching band earned a Band of the Week award from WPXI this year, as well, which was .

While Baldwin's marchers put on impressive halftime and post-game shows throughout the football season, they also competed this year.

Baldwin captured a  at the Tournament of Bands Chapter 8 competition at Eisenhower Middle and High School in Warren County, PA, on Oct. 22. The Highlanders earned awards for High Music, High Visual, High Guard, High Percussion and High Drum Major at that competition, and overall, they finished with a score of 90.05, the fifth-highest chapter-championship score in the country.

The winner of the Player of the Year award will be announced on an upcoming episode of "The Jerome Bettis Show," and the Band of the Year will be recognized during WPXI's "My Macy's Holiday Parade" on Nov. 26.

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