By Michael Letendre

The CAS-CIAC will honor and celebrate 350 statewide scholar-athletes this Sunday at the 39th annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet. 

The ceremony takes place from the Aqua Turf in Southington.

The Scholar-Athlete Program annually recognizes two high school seniors from each member high school whose academic and athletic careers have been exemplary, whose personal standards and achievements are a model to others, and who possess high levels of integrity, self-discipline and courage. 

The event is the largest of the many honors programs CAS-CIAC hosts each year. 

The honorees are chosen by the member schools and are submitted to the CIAC.

Six student athletes from Bristol schools will be honored at the event.

From Bristol Central, Ella Watson and Beckett Hennessey will be honored that day along with Bristol Eastern’s Fiona Gallagher and Logan Crowley.

And the honorees from St. Paul Catholic will be Gillian Smith and Nathan Stellmach.

For a remarkable 36th time in the event’s history, retired sports broadcaster Bob Picozzi will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Morgan Tuck, a four-time National Champion at UConn, five-year WNBA pro, and currently Director of Franchise Development for the Connecticut Sun, will deliver the keynote address.

The First Year

The CAS-CIAC first handed out this award back in 1984 with half-a-dozen Bristol student athletes getting the nod for the first time.

Bristol Central’s honorees that year were Lisa Eschner and Tim Steele while Kristen Peterson and James MacNeill took home the award for Bristol Eastern.

And St. Paul’s chosen two were Sharon Cornish and David Glendon.