Ariana Dingley started playing soccer because she liked doing whatever her older sister was doing. But as she progressed in her career, soccer became something she enjoyed in her own right. Dingley began playing soccer at just five years old and never stopped working on her craft. She would go on to star for Lansingburgh and was twice named Section 2 Class B Colonial Council All-Stars First Team and was honorable mention two more times in four years with the Knights.

Dingley was also recognized for her defense in 2022 when she was named Colonial Council Girls Soccer Co-Defensive Player of the Year. She remembers that as her most meaningful award she received in her career. “That award was when I was coming off an injury,” Dingley said. “I felt down, unsure if I was able to get back into it. And we didn’t have the best record that year, but it felt really good to be recognized for my hard work that year.”

Dingley started her high school career spending her spring running track to prepare for soccer season. But after suffering an injury that kept her off the track, a friend asked her to come out for the softball team the next year.

“Playing other sports helped, but it was all so new,” Dingley said of her early softball career. “I definitely wasn’t the best, but I put a lot of work into it.”

Her work paid off and Dingley was named captain in her second year on the team. “I’m not the most outgoing person, but when it came down to it in the huddles, I was able to channel something with everyone,” Dingley said. “I had my own connection with each players and find the right words. Make sure we were focused.”

Michael Robbins, Dingley’s athletic director at Lansingburg, said she truly earned such a position. “Her competitiveness, work ethic and passion for sports have allowed her to not only be a successful athlete, but to also be seen as a leader in the eyes of her teammates,” he said. “Ariana is a kind hearted young woman who will always do the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

Lansingburg head coach James Swab agrees. “She is an excellent role model for younger members of the team,” he said. “She is a leader on and off the field.”

In addition to her athletic prowess, Dingley excelled in the classroom. She was named her school’s valedictorian after achieving high honor roll in each marking period. Dingley was also involved in her community, including with the Lansingburgh Veteran’s Club.

The Veteran’s club was a cause close to her heart since both of her parents are veterans. Being able to support the other veterans in the community offered her a rewarding way to give back. “It was rewarding because people would be excited to see young faces at the veterans club,” Dingley said.

With all that time spent in school, sports, and volunteering, it’s natural to wonder how Ariana Dingley made time for all these things.

“I didn’t’ have much of a social life,” Dingley said only half joking. “But at the same time, I made so many connections through all the sports and clubs. I was around my friends all the time.

A native of San Diego, Dingley is set to return home for college. She’s headed to study at the University of San Deigo in the fall in a bit of a homecoming. “I have some family still out there,” she said. “And of course, the weather makes for a nice environment.

“I’m very honored to be recognized for this achievement,” she said. “I’m appreciative of those who supported me in my journey and that my hard work and dedication is being noticed.”

Rylee Dunbar made the most of her time at Corinth High School.

On top of being a four-sport athlete, between varsity cross country, soccer, basketball and track and field, Dunbar managed to be ranked eighth in her class academically. She’s one of 10 Capital District Sports Women of the Year scholastic honorees for 2023.

“I think it is commendable that CDSWOY recognizes the hard work and dedication of female athletes in the capital District,” said Dungar. “I am extremely grateful and excited to be selected as one of the top female athletes of the year for 2023.”
“Rylee is an exemplary individual in every aspect,” Corinth athletic director Hilary Haskell wrote in her recommendation letter. “She is responsible, dedicated and an asset to any program she participates in.”

In addition to many academic and athletic accolades, the recent Corinth graduate has been extremely involved in her community.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she formed the “Kindness Krew” as part of an honor society project, which delivered essential items to veterans who were quarantined. She also was known for delivering ice cream, flowers and cookies to veterans and the elderly, as well as helping coach and officiate youth soccer games.

“Rylee is very responsive to the needs of others and is definitely a positive role model for the young adolescents she works with,” Haskell wrote. “As a four-sport athlete she is self-motivated, responds well to criticism and strives continuously to better herself.

“She is very kind, patient, and treats others with respect,” Corinth girls’ basketball coach Kelly Hoertkorn wrote in her letter. “Rylee is the definition of a coachable athlete. She is the type of player who you need to tell something to once, and you watch her perform exactly what you have asked of her, and at a high level because she wants to learn and improve.”
To put it simply, Dunbar has been pretty busy the past several years.

“The importance of community service is something that has always been instilled in me by my family,” Riley said. “Corinth is a small but very tight knit community where everyone supports each other. I feel it’s important to give back, especially to the veterans and senior members of my community.”

“Rylee is not afraid to challenge herself and set high goals that are not always the easy path to success,” Hoertkron said. “Her hard work and intelligence set her apart from others, but she never settles for anything but her best.”
Dunbar plans on continuing her academic and athletic career at SUNY Adirondack.

“Rylee has worked diligently towards her goal of attending [SUNY Adirondack] in the fall and continuing her athletic career playing soccer,” Haskell wrote.

Kevin Bruno, who coached Dunbar on the Corinth girls’ soccer team, also wrote a recommendation letter on her behalf to the CDSWOY organization.

“This year she was also a major contributor to the basketball team even though she hadn’t played before,” Bruno wrote. “Rylee Dunbar loves to hear criticism in order to do better for herself and responds well to it. She is reliable, a leader by example, and one of the hardest workers I have had the privilege to work with.”

“I appreciate all that I have learned from both my teachers and coaches throughout my years at Corinth Central School,” said Dunbar. “Their dedication and encouragement were a big part of my success in both the classroom and athletics.”

When it comes to Queensbury senior Brigid Duffy, there seems to be no such thing as too busy.

Duffy committed to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point in the beginning of her junior year. The idea was to play women’s lacrosse while she served the country. At the beginning of this past fall season, however, she asked the Army coaches if it would be OK to add women’s soccer. They gave their blessings.

Just being a plebe at West Point is more than most freshmen could think of handling. But add two sports to that and you have something that sounds like it fits in Duffy’s wheelhouse.

One of 10 high school honorees for the third-annual Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards, Duffy was a five-year varsity girls’ lacrosse starter, a five-year varsity girls’ soccer player and a three-year varsity girls’ basketball player. And that’s just for Queensbury. She participated in ice hockey outside of school and was selected to participate in a selective USA National Camp.

“I played four sports my entire high school career. It’ll definitely be a challenge for me, but I’m willing to take it on,” Duffy said.

Academically, Duffy has a 95 grade-point average, ranks in the top 25 of her class and is a member of the school’s National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America.

Athletically, she is one of the most decorated athletes in school and Section II history. In lacrosse, she has been an All-American the past two seasons and is a USA Lacrosse U18 National Team member, as well as a numerous-time Foothills Council All-Star.

In soccer, she’s a five-year player, an East Region All-American, an All-State second-team player, Section II Class A Player of the Year, Foothills Council MVP and the school’s all-time assists leader and second in career scoring. She is a Foothills Council All-Star in basketball.

Duffy also has served the community by volunteering at Queensbury Parks and Rec. youth soccer and basketball programs, as well as at Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church.

Queensbury athletic director Richard Keys said Duffy is his prime example of what it means to be a student-athlete.

“She is often the first person to practice and the last to leave,” Keys said. “Her participation in our zero block physical education class requires her to train multiple days a week prior to the start of school. Her work ethic is unmatched by any other student-athlete I have been around in my 28 years of education.”

As decorated as she already was entering her senior year, Duffy achieved an important goal: to be a captain in all three varsity sports.

“I’ve always been very focused and determined,” Duffy said. “It’s definitely a lot of responsibility. I feel like I’m a leader by example. I’m very vocal as a teammate, but I like to lead by example. I think that’s something the younger girls can see for themselves and relate to.”

Keys said Duffy’s leadership shined through at the school’s weekly Captain’s Club meetings.

“Brigid has not only participated and contributed to the group discussions, but she has also been a leader of leaders,” Keys said. “She has worked to evolve her skill set to not only be a leader by example, but to also be a vocal leader who brings out the best in everyone around her.”

When she looks back on her now-concluded high school career, Duffy said that senior-year accomplishments top the list, primarily because she and her teammates were able to achieve major goals.

“Definitely our sectional championship soccer team,” Duffy said. “We had never done that before and we did it this year. And, of course, this year for lacrosse was amazing. We’ve never been regional champions, and we did that — or made it to the final, and we did that.”

Duffy credits her parents, Tim and Gretchen Duffy, for setting the bar high.

“Our parents were very hard on us academically and athletically,” Brigid said, “but I’m glad because that will set me up well for the future.”

There will be many in Queensbury and the Capital Region who eagerly await to see what Duffy’s future will entail. As for her past, Keys said that will be awfully hard to top.

“It comes as no surprise to me that Brigid will be attending the United States Military Academy at West Point,” he said. “She exemplifies the values of that institution. I am extremely proud of the standard she has set for our programs. She is a generational student-athlete.”

Whenever Naseyah Dix is feeling troubled, it’s on the basketball court where she can find her center.

“Basketball is my outlet. Basketball is my safety,” Dix said. “When I play basketball, I feel safe and I feel comfortable. I’m good at it, so I just ran with it. I want to take care of my family, and I believe basketball is my way of doing it.”

A point guard on the women’s basketball team at Bryant & Stratton College in Albany, Dix found her love of basketball while growing up in Schenectady, passed onto her and her siblings from her mother Tashana.

“She just poured the sport onto us,” Naseyah Dix said. “Me and my siblings just gravitated toward it and ran with it.”

Naseyah Dix, who starred for the Bobcats on the court this winter while also making the honor roll academically and volunteering in Albany, is one of the two collegiate honorees for the 2021 Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards.

“She has been a joy to our program and school community,” Bryant & Stratton women’s basketball coach Jahmel Samuels said.

The road to success has been a long, difficult one for Dix. Her life was thrown into chaos in May 2019 when her cousin, Ayanna Hunter, was shot and killed outside an apartment complex in Niskayuna. The loss of Hunter “made everything harder,” Dix said, and played a large role in why she didn’t complete her studies at Schenectady High School, instead working to get her GED.

Even that process included obstacles, as Dix said her college enrollment process was initially halted when she was told she hadn’t gotten her GED, only for it to arrive in the mail one day before she signed to attend Bryant & Stratton.

“It just made me more hungry,” Dix said. “To go through all that and come out of it, it’s amazing. It gives me hope. I just want to be able to be the outlet for the kids that are still in Schenectady.”

In her freshman season with the Bobcats, Dix put in a starring effort in a season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, averaging 18 points, five rebounds and five assists per game while playing with what Samuels called “a passion of positivity.” She was twice a nominee for the USCAA Player of the Week award, made the all-tournament team when the Bobcats played at the Vaden Cup and was named the team’s most improved player.

She also maintained a 3.2 grade point average in the classroom, making the honor roll in both the fall and spring semesters. Along with her academic work, Dix was also dedicated to community service, turning her love of animals into work at the Mohawk Humane Society and her passion for engaging with young people into serving as a mentor at Albany’s South End Cafe Healthy Kids Project.

“Naseyah certainly persevered both on and off the court,” said John Quattrocchi, who served as Bryant & Stratton’s interim athletic director this past school year. “As a tenacious and hardworking player, she matched this intensity in the classroom.”

Through all her hard work, it’s basketball that remains Dix’s primary outlet. She hopes to turn her time at Bryant & Stratton into an eventual opportunity to play at a Division I school, with the ultimate goal of playing professional basketball in Europe.

“That’s the end goal,” she said. “That’s the main goal. Hopefully, I can push on to a high-major, Division I school, then go overseas.”