Courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Retired Westfield State University football coach Steve Marino will receive the George C. Carens award for lifetime contributions to college football in New England at the 2015 New England Football Writers' Association Annual Awards and Captains Banquet on December 10.
 
Marino was the head coach for 24 years at Westfield State, compiling a 119-115-1 record before retiring after the 2013 season.
 
After a one-year hiatus from coaching, Marino rejoined the Owls staff this year to serve as offensive coordinator on Pete Kowalski's staff.
 
Marino, 66, had the third longest tenure among active coaches in New England Division III football at the time of his retirement, trailing only Springfield College's Mike DeLong (31 years) and Worcester State's Brien Cullen (28 years). The Owl mentor roamed the sidelines for 24 of the first 32 years that Westfield State fielded a varsity football team. He coached 235 games highlighted by three consecutive New England Football Conference championship game appearances in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
 
Marino guided the 2001 Westfield squad to its first and only perfect regular season, a 10-0 record. The Owls won the New England Football Conference championship and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

During the special 2001 season, Marino was selected as the American Football Coaches Association Northeast Region Coach of the Year, the New England Division II/III Coach of the Year, and the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Division II/III Coach of the Year.

Marino's coaching career spans a total of 42 years. The 1967 graduate of Springfield Classical High School coached football at Ludlow High School for 16 years, including an eight-year stint as the head coach from 1979-86. He served as defensive coordinator at Western New England University in 1987 before returning to Ludlow as an assistant in 1988.
 
Marino received his B.A. degree in 1971 and his master's degree in 1978 from Westfield State. He taught English at Ludlow High School for 29 years then moved into an administrative post as dean of students for six years. He retired from his full-time job in the Ludlow school system in June of 2006.

The Carens award is named after the sportswriter and editor for the 1930s -1950s Boston Transcript and Boston Traveler newspapers, and is considered the highest award presented by the New England Football Writers.
 
Past Carens recipients include coaches Jack Bicknell (Boston College), Joe Restic (Harvard), Carmen Cozza (Yale), Dick Farley (Williams); writers John Connolly of the Boston Herald, Bob Monahan of the Boston Globe; and longtime UMass athletic director, Warren McGuirk.

Retired Bridgewater State head coach Peter Mazzaferro was the last recipient with ties to the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference. Longtime Northeastern SID Jack Grinold and former Northeastern coach Barry Gallup were the winners last year.
 
The 2015 New England Football Writers' Association Annual Awards and Captains Banquet will be held on December 10^th at the Montvale Plaza in Stoneham, Mass.  The reception will be at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.
 
Tickets are $50.  Contact Dick Lipe at Bentley University at (781) 891-2334 to reserve a ticket.