Annabelle Goyette has earned everything she has. There was no other way. There are some sports where being naturally fast or athletically gifted will give you a leg up. But in weightlifting, there’s no substitute for hard work over a long period of time.

A friend convinced Goyette to start throwing on the track and field team when she decided to stop playing softball. That turned out to be a great decision. Goyette graduated as the proud owner of two school records in throwing. But before she ever threw a shot put or discus, she had to start in the weight room. Little did she know that training would lead her to break an even bigger, 29-year-old record.

The Top Form Lift-Off competition started in 1992 and continues to pit local high school lifting teams against each other. A few years into the competition, the women’s three-lift total record was set at 745 lbs. Between the squat, bench press, and deadlift, Goyette medaled in all three events and turned in a new record total of 750 lbs.

Goyette says she enjoys lifting the most because it’s different from most sports. “I’m only competing against myself in lifting,” she said. “I feel like people say that for every sport, but with lifting it really is true. In every practice, I’m just competing against myself and just getting a little better each time.”

She also says she felt like the lifting community welcomed her with open arms. “The people that are in the community make it easier to want to lift,” she said.

Lifting was fun for Goyette. So when she decided to go out for the football team, it was hardly a chore to attend football lifting sessions in the offseason. When the time came for her to strap on the pads, she said her teammates were excited to continue playing with such a dedicated athlete. “When I showed up to get my equipment, the coaches were like ‘Oh, Annabelle, you’re suiting up? You’re playing? Is this happening?'”

Her coaches noticed her hard work as well. “Annabelle was one of our most consistent scholar athletes,” said Jeffrey Pasinella, Head Varsity Football Coach at Lansingburgh High School. “She never missed a single workout or practice. She is a very disciplined individual with great work ethic, and most importantly is a team player.”

These days, it’s rare but not unheard of to see a female on a high school football team. But almost all of them are kickers or specialists. Goyette broke the mold when she lined up as both a defensive and offensive lineman. Her hard work took her all the way to the Capital District Chapter of the National Football Hall of Fame.

“Playing football was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. It was awesome and terrifying, but just really fun. Getting to know the linemen in practice was great and being a linebacker is so much fun.”

Goyette’s incredible work ethic extends into the classroom as well. She graduated third in the Lansingburgh class of 2025 and achieved High Honor Roll in every quarter of her high school career. She often felt like her schoolwork paled in comparison to the effort needed for all her lifting, throwing, and football.

“I would go to football practice, go to the weight room, all these places where I knew I was challenging myself. Then I would go home and do a lot at night, but I had that confidence that I built through the day. I already took on practice and the weight room, so going home and getting my homework done, that’s the easy part.”

Goyette wants to become a physical therapist in the future and will start that journey this fall at Binghamton. She wants to work with football players and other athletes, with a goal of eventually working with professional athletes. “I know how much I love my sports and how much it stings when you have an injury or something hurts,” she said. “I want to be the person to help athletes through those experiences.”

Dallas Foard, Goyette’s Track and Field coach, said he enjoyed the “unique opportunity to watch Annabelle grow as a student athlete, a leader and a strong, independent young woman.”

Most athletes receiving the Capital District Sports Women of the Year award come with a long list of other athletic awards. Many are all-conference, all-state, and even all-American. But Mira Ginsburg will be the first to tell you that she is not like those athletes. “I’m not an amazing athlete,” she said. “It’s just not who I am.” But even without the usual cabinet of medals and trophies, Ginsburg has made a dramatic impact on her school and state as a student-athlete.

Ginsburg said she’s always had an interest in sports. “I tried every single sport ever,” she said. “The only one that ever clicked with me was swimming, and that was for a very short period of time.” When presented with a different opportunity to be involved in sports, Ginsburg couldn’t wait to get involved. That opportunity was Unified Basketball, where she would be paired with a fellow student with intellectual disabilities on the court. Spending the season working with her teammate with Down syndrome became a life-changing experience for Ginsburg.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I had a kind of epiphany,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do something that helps people with special needs.”

Ginsburg has a unique understanding of those with special needs. She calls it a “very small disability,” but Ginsburg is deaf in her right ear and has been since birth. “I’ve learned how to adapt well to it,” she said. “But a lot of people with more severe disabilities need more support than me. That’s what got me interested in helping them.”

Part of Ginsburg’s effort to adapt to her disability was being her own best advocate. She said she’s had to learn how to speak up when she needs special accommodations. “If I couldn’t hear, I learned to move myself and tell my teacher that I can’t sit here,” she explained. “It’s really hard when I’m driving because, when you’re driving, your right ear is facing the rest of the car. I have to let my friends know that they need to be louder.”

That experience advocating for herself has helped Ginsburg advocate for others. “From the moment she joined our Unified Sports program, Mira made it her mission to ensure that students with intellectual and developmental disabilities felt supported, included, and celebrated,” said Kimberly Murray, Girls Faculty Athletic Manager at Shaker High School.

“Mira has been a driving force behind fostering authentic inclusion through sport, using her platform to champion equity and amplify the voices of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Sean Colfer, Shaker athletic director.

Not satisfied to limit the Unified program to just sports, Ginsburg said she started seeking ways to bring a similar program to other parts of her school. “I just had a love for Unified sports and I wanted it to be bigger at our school,” she said. “So I did proposals, connected with people who do this at Special Olympics New York, and worked with our athletics and academics and literally everybody at our school to make it happen.”

The result of these efforts was the Include the Blue club, a club devoted to promoting awareness and inclusion throughout the school. Just as there may be a Unified basketball or bowling team, Ginsburg’s club helped start Unified programs in other disciplines like art, robotics, and 3D printing. “In starting Include the Blue, she has cultivated a culture of empathy, cooperation, and respect—principles she consistently embodies in all that she does,” Colfer said.

After working all through her high school career to establish these inclusive programs, Ginsburg has her sights set on even bigger goals. She’ll first be participating in a gap year internship in Israel where she’ll work with the Special Olympics and Special in Uniform to help with their programs. After that, she plans to attend the University of Connecticut and eventually law school to become a disability advocate. “I really like to see a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “And I like that if something needs to be changed, or somebody needs an extra push, that I could be that person.”

Ginsburg says she’s thankful to be honored among this group of local athletes. “It’s so meaningful to see that someone from unified sports is being recognized in this way,” she said. “It really shows how it has become this program that is looked very highly upon. Yes, it’s a program about inclusion, but it’s also about sports.”

“What sets Mira apart, beyond her leadership and service, is her character,” said Murray. “She approaches every task with empathy, drive, and an unshakable sense of responsibility to others. Her presence on any team brings not only talent and organization, but a profound sense of belonging for all participants. She doesn’t just advocate for inclusion—she lives it, every day.”