Bacon, Price named CDSWOY Grand Sports Women of the Year

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SCHENECTADY, NY — Kara Bacon, a senior from Warrensburg High School, and Hannah Price, a senior from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received Grand honors at the Capital District Sports Women of the Year Awards Event held at the GE Theatre at Proctors on Monday evening, August 7, 2023.

Kara was named the Grand Scholastic Woman of the Year and Hannah was named the Grand Collegiate Woman of the Year. The event also honored 11 other female student-athletes from the region, who made up the 2023 Class of the Capital District Sports Women of the Year. CDSWOY honors excellence in academics, athletics and community service.

The virtual guest speaker was ESPN personality Jessica Mendoza, an Olympic Gold Medalist. Entertainment was provided by members of the Empire State Youth Orchestra.

Academically, Kara is ranked #3 in her class with a 97.5 average. She has earned high honor roll recognition in all four years at Warrensburg. Kara was a HOBY Leadership Award recipient and also a President’s Award recipient in her junior year. She has received the George Eastman Young Leader Scholarship as well as the Innovation and Creation Scholarship. A member of the Nation Honor Society, Kara was a NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner in all four years. She is a member of the school’s French Club and Varsity Club.

Kara played soccer for five seasons, softball for four seasons and basketball for three seasons. She was a varsity captain for all three sports. She was named a First Team Adirondack League All Star three times in soccer, twice in softball and once in basketball. In soccer, she was a two-time Section 2 All-Star including 2022, the Offensive Player of the Year in her senior season. Her team was a Section 2 semi-finalist. On the court, Kara also was the Offensive Player of the Year this past season, and was a NYSSWA Class C Honorable Mention All Star. Her softball teams this season was a Section 2 Semifinalist, and she was the MVP of the Maple Hill Tournament this spring. Kara has signed a letter of intent to play softball at LeMoyne.

Kara’s community service includes volunteering for the Red Cross Blood Drive and the Honor Society Book Fair. She is a student ambassador for the Wounded Warrior Project and the Community Halloween Trail. She also volunteers as an official for youth basketball, soccer, and softball.

An Economics and Sustainability Studies dual major, Hannah is a multiple Dean’s List and ECAC Hockey All-Academic selection. When RPI’s 2020-21 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she received the team’s Bill Cahill Memorial Award, presented annually to a player who displays high character, ability, and dedication. In 2021, she received third prize in the McKinney Writing Contest for her entry in Undergraduate Essay/Creative Nonfiction. In both 2022 and 2023, Hannah was named a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, a national award recognizing the best and brightest in the classroom, in the community, and on the ice in men’s and women’s collegiate ice hockey. She was one of five national finalists for the award each season. In addition, she earned RPI’s Livingston W. Houston Citizenship Award awarded to a select few top students of the institute by RPI’s student life office.

Hannah, a defenseman, played in all 32 games for the Engineers in 2022-23, recording five goals and two assists for seven points. She had just two minor penalties for four minutes, while registering 29 shots on goal and 33 blocks at the defensive end. In 98 career games at RPI, she had seven goals and eight assists for 15 points. She was a staple & starter for the Engineers all four years she dressed in Red. In May, Hannah signed a professional contract with the Vienna Sabres of the EWHL in Austria.

Since her arrival in 2019, Hannah has been a leader on and off the ice. Serving as president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) in 2022-23 after serving as a team representative for previous three years, she helped expand the group’s efforts including co-sponsoring a blood drive with the American Red Cross, where she was responsible for recruiting and promoting the event. She also created such initiatives as Fresh Check Mental Health Days, Troy School 2 Reading Program and Special Olympics Basketball. She was the RPI Food Recovery Network President, helping to save thousands of pounds of food from RPI’s dining halls for donation to a local food pantry for redistribution to the needy. Hannah was her team’s Team Community Service Coordinator and as the team forged a partnership with Hope 7 Food Pantry & After School Program. The Pittsburgh native coordinated Skate with the Engineers and developed a new partnership with Clifton Park Youth Hockey. Hannah volunteers with Troy Street Soldiers and Catholic Charities Mass Food Distribution. She recently served an internship at the State Attorney’s Office in the Environmental Protection Bureau.

Here are the other members of the CDSWOY Class of 2023 who were honored at the Awards Gala: