West Hartford Scholar-Athlete Awarded Posthumous Honor

WEST HARTFORD, CT — West Hartford's top high school scholar-athletes for 2023 excelled in the classroom and in their respective sports, including one posthumous award to a brave athlete who succumbed to illness last month.

Every year, the Connecticut Association of Schools and the CIAC pick two senior "scholar athletes" for its annual awards, which took place Sunday.

West Hartford, with two public high schools and one Catholic high school within its borders, was well represented.

At Hall High School, boys track, cross country and baseball standout Lucas Pyrro was honored, along with Jacqueline Hamad, who was captain of the softball, girls volleyball and indoor track teams.

Sadly, Hamad's award was posthumous, as she passed away from brain cancer in early April at 17.

Her illness saddened the HHS community, but her battle against brain cancer galvanized it, and she died April 3 surrounded by her family and her beloved dog, Kobie, according to an April update on a GoFundMe page set up in January.

At Conard High School, football and boys basketball star Jackson Morhardt was chosen, along with Macy McPhee, who ran track and starred on the girls basketball team.

Finally, at Northwest Catholic High School, boys lacrosse, soccer and basketball player Toby Beaudin was honored, along with girls soccer standout Emily Nicholas.

For AHS, football, wrestling and track star Isaiah Adams and girls tennis and soccer standout Tanvi Raman were honored.

They are part of 350 statewide scholar-athletes and they will be feted Sunday at the 40th annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet, which was at the Aqua Turf Club 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," reads an announcement from the CIAC.

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.

For the 37th time in the event’s history, retired sports broadcaster Bob Picozzi was master of ceremonies. Emeka Okafor, a National Champion at UConn and 10-year NBA pro, delivered the keynote address.

For a complete list of all Connecticut scholar athletes, click on this link.