Honce is Suffolk's top Scholar-Athlete

Come homework time, Justin Honce's room isn't all that different from the field. Well, save for the expanse of grass and all the football players, of course. But Honce makes the reads, despite all that surrounds him during a choreographed tempest -- and delivers accurately.

The laptop, iPod and TV he'll have going simultaneously are about as effective as defenses at stopping his, umm, forward progress.

"My on-field experiences definitely help me," the Bellport quarterback said. "At my position, there's a lot going on and I need to know what everyone is doing, so that's kind of carried over. I've learned to multitask at home."

His mother, Cheryln, said Justin has "never given us reason to break him out of that habit."

Can't mess with success. Honce received the National Football Foundation's Suffolk Top Scholar-Athlete award yesterday at Crest Hollow Country Club.

Patrick McHugh of St. Anthony's was named the Catholic League's top scholar-athlete. The Yale-bound lineman has a 98 GPA and is a member of the National Honor Society. And among the Golden 11 was Bay Shore linebacker Griffin Rock, winner of the James LaBue Award as the county's Outstanding Scholar-Athlete, as voted on by the Suffolk County Football Coaches Association.

Honce, who is headed to Brown, holds a 96 GPA, was an academic All-Division selection, and is a member of the National Honor Society. That's in addition to holding most of the Clippers' significant passing records.

"I don't like to lose in anything," said Honce, whose team won the Class II Long Island Championship in 2010. "If I don't get a good grade, I'm aggravated because I know someone else did better; they beat me."

That didn't happen too often as the senior became the first Bellport player to win this award.

His mother said she knew from early on that Justin would be an exceptional student "because he'd get bored in grammar school and wind up helping the other kids or helping the teacher grade papers."