POULSBO — Jamison Rogayan may have started on the sidelines, but for a few moments on Tuesday he took center stage.

Rogayan was just one North Kitsap Soccer Club member to be honored during the club’s annual awards ceremony Tuesday night. He was one of four students — himself, Adam Campagna, Gabrielle Hernandez, and Angela Stickle — to receive a $100 scholarship from the club.

“It was something I never thought I’d get,” a beaming Rogayan said after the ceremony.

He remembers watching his sister Liana play. Liana was a talented athlete, something Rogayan thought he wasn’t; but soccer looked like fun, and the North Kitsap Soccer Club gave him a place to play.

“I remember watching (Liana) and thinking, ‘I wish I could do something like that.’”

So he did. A relatively late bloomer, Rogayan played soccer from the ages of 15-18.

He wasn’t the best player on the field, he said, but the soccer club made him feel welcome anyway.

“They took me under their wing, they taught me; they gave me the confidence to go out each time,” Rogayan said.

While the four students, who were all soccer club players or referees, were the only recipients to receive money, they weren’t the only to get recognition.

Melanie Duckworth and Chris Rovik received the Susan Decker Memorial Sportsmanship Award. Young referee awards went to Craig Gracey, Zach Allen, Brittany Haberly, Zech Haynes, and Katie Swanlund, who said that refereeing is hardly a chore: “It’s fun,” she said.

She said it was also nice to receive recognition because “a couple of coaches yelled at me during the games.”

Marty Hernandez, the coach of GU-14’s NK2, won the girls coach of the year (“We loooooove you, Marty!” his team members crooned at one point in the ceremony); Andy Simonsen was volunteer of the year; and Vicki Whiteley was administrators of the year.

Recognition also went to several teams, including GU-11-NK4, who took second place in the green division; BU-12-NK2, which was a co-champion of the white division; BU-13-NK2, champions of the purple division; GU-14-NK2, second place in the purple division; BU-16-NK2, second place in the purple division; BU-18-NK2, second in the purple division; and GU-19 NK2, who were the champions of the purple division.

While those teams took honors in the recreational league, the GU11 NK Ambush took second place in their division in the District IV competitive league, and coach Joe Lax’s BU-11-NK 2 Jets were the state champions after winning their way through levels of competition at the President’s Cup.

“The boys kept getting stronger and stronger as the season went on,” Lax said.