This year’s Lott IMPACT Trophy will be the first without Jeffrey John Bitetti, who diedSept. 24 at age 65.
Bitetti, a musician who was popular for writing and performing songs for those celebrating a wedding or grieving the loss of a loved one, was a longtime board member and director of the Lott Trophy.
The 22nd annual Lott IMPACT Trophy black-tie banquet will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday at ThePacific Club in Newport Beach and presented on a live television broadcast on CBS SportsNetwork.
The trophy, established by The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, is awarded annually tocollege football’s best in character and performance. IMPACT represents Integrity, Maturity,Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.
The trophy is named after Pro Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, who played 14 years in the NFL, earned All-Pro eight times and won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, following an All-American career at USC.
The four finalists for this year’s award, all of whom will be in attendance, are Georgialinebacker CJ Allen, Miami defensive end Rueben Bain, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs andTexas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.
“When you’re representing character, that in itself is something a lot of us take forgranted,” Lott said. “All of our finalists this year have great principles and character. All of thesekids handled it well outside of the football field, so (the trophy) gives many other people achance to see the other quarter of your life.”
The school of the player who wins the trophy receives a $25,000 award to the school’sgeneral scholarship fund, while $5,000 is donated to the school of each of the other three finalists for general scholarship funds.
Former UCLA head coach and current CBS college football analyst Rick Neuheisel willhost the event, along with CBS sideline reporter Jordan Giorgio.
Past Lott Trophy winners include Colorado’s Travis Hunter, Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Wisconsin’s J.J. Watt.
Bitetti, a former football standout and senior class president at Newport Harbor High,dedicated his life to serving others. He was proud of his contributions to the Lott Trophy, helping to steer The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation toward continued growth and success.
At Newport Harbor, Bitetti was an acclaimed defensive end and tight end, setting theschool’s single-season record for sacks with 18 during the 1977 campaign, in which the Sailors advanced to the CIF-Southern Section Big Five Conference (Division 1) semifinals.
His sack record stood for 16 years and the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Bitetti, a relentless force on the field, was extraordinarily pleased of the fact that his Sailor teams never lost to rival Corona del Mar in the Battle of the Bay.
In addition to football and student government, Bitetti was involved in music and drama,starring in musicals “West Side Story” and “Bye Bye Birdie.”
A USC graduate, Bitetti started his own musical group in college, the Jeffrey John Band,which performed at several iconic Southern California locations, including the House of Blues,The Cannery and the Coach House.
His music career helped fund his education at USC.
Bitetti built a successful career in commercial real estate. With Nexus Development, hehelped market nearly 1 million square feet of office space, including Nexus City Square inOrange. Later, he worked with Scher Voit and Lighting Management Systems.
In 1998, he rejoined Nexus to help develop the twin tower project at MacArthur Place in Santa Ana. When the company collaborated with Steven Bren in 2002, he helped form Bacchus, assembling a team that marketed and sold more than 200 small office buildings.
Bitetti represented a life of faith through charity, giving his time and energy to church music ministries, Rock for CHOC, Orangewood Children’s Home and Miracles for Kids.
Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.