Praise champion keeping company with youth (8)
I believe the answer is:
accolade
'praise' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'champion keeping company with youth' is the wordplay.
'champion' becomes 'ace' (both can mean a person excelling at something).
'keeping' is an insertion indicator (some letters kept inside).
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'youth' becomes 'lad' (lad means a young man).
'co'+'lad'='colad'
'ace' going around 'colad' is 'ACCOLADE'.
(Other definitions for accolade that I've seen before include "Praise or approval - or elevation to knighthood" , "Special honour as an acknowledgment of merit" , "Public praise or award" , "Award, originally of knighthood" , "Acclaim; mark of honour" .)