2020 – San Bernardino’s Ernesto Martinez is Keith Hubbs Award winner
By JOHN MURPHY | Press-Enterprise
San Bernardino High’s Ernesto Martinez has been chosen to receive the Keith Hubbs Award for the 2019-2020 school year.
In addition, the school winners for the Ken Hubbs awards have been chosen for the 25 schools from the greater San Bernardino area that are involved in the program. Each school has one one boy and one girl winner.
The Keith Hubbs Award goes to one student-athlete from the 50 boys and girls selected as Ken Hubbs school honorees. The Keith Hubbs Award goes to a student-athlete who overcame adversity, served the community, was persistent and inspiring and excelled in the classroom.
Martinez starred in four sports, had a 3.8 grade point average (4.2 weighted), performed more than 100 hours of community service and was a team captain. He also overcame personal hardships.
“I’m excited,” Martinez said. “I feel honored. It motivates me to pursue my dreams, knowing that hard work pays off.”
Ken Hubbs was a four-sport star and student body president at Colton High in the late 1950s. He earned rookie of the year honors and set fielding records in 1962 for the Chicago Cubs before he died in a plane crash in Utah before spring training in 1964.
The late Keith Hubbs was Ken’s brother. Keith was a high school football All-America player at Colton and played at Brigham Young University. He also served as the Hubbs Foundation president for 38 years.
Outgoing Hubbs Foundation president Ron Doty, 82, said he and his wife Karen were teary-eyed reading some of the letters from athletic directors who nominated student-athletes for the Keith Hubbs Award.
“It’s amazing what some of these kids overcame to excel in school and sports,” Doty said. “It was unbelievable to us because we never lived through anything like that.”
There will not be Ken Hubbs Award winners this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic that wiped out most of the spring season.