Cassidy McClement is fast. As one of the fastest runners at Waterford-Halfmoon high school for the last six years, McClement has made a name for herself with her speed. Beginning in seventh grade, McClement found herself competitive against varsity runners at a high level.

“She immediately made a huge impact on our program,” Waterford-Halfmoon track coach Allie Hornung said “She placed in the top six at both league and sectionals that year against very tough upperclassmen competition.”

McClement was set up for an even better eighth grade season, but the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When she returned for her first season as a high schooler, she was second at League Championships in the 100 meters and became Sectional Champion in the 100 and 200. She also anchored the Fordians 4×100 team that took third place. The next year, McClement again anchored the team that improved to a second place finish. In her junior year, she would lead the team to their first league championship in the 4×100 with a school record time of 54.2.

But coach Hornung says McClement’s character is the most impressive thing about her. “Most importantly, Cassidy is a good person, through and through,” Hornung said. “She is one of the kindest athletes I have ever had the pleasure of coaching. I have never ever heard her boast about her talent, choosing instead to let her hard work and success do the talking.”

Even though track is often thought of as an individual sport, McClement says being on the relay team is her favorite part of track. “I love the long jump, but I also love my 4×100 meter team,” McClement said. “Winning leagues in the 4×100, our first hardware, was the highlight of my career. I just remember how hard we worked and how bad the four of us wanted to win.”

Her speed translated well to the soccer pitch as well. A lifelong soccer player, McClement made the varsity team as an eighth grader and spent time at different positions around the field. Her speed and versatility helped her lead the Fordains to Back-to-Back Class C Girls Soccer State Championships.

Even with all her speed, being a part of the Waterford-Halfmoon teams was even more meaningful to McClement because of the time she spent slowing down with the community she had on and off track or field. McClement said that most of her classmates had grown up going to the same elementary and middle schools, creating a long-lasting bond that made these championships that much sweeter.

“Our class grew up together, we’re all really close,” she said. “Our teachers have said we had the best proms because we get along together, everyone was included.”

Coach Hornung said McClement always made time for those around her. She is supportive of her teammates, always encouraging them to do their best and picking them up when they are struggling,” Hornung said. “She is also very involved in her community, somehow finding time to volunteer at Town of Waterford food drives and the annual Dragon Boat festival to benefit To Life! Breast Cancer Support, Resources, & Education.”

In addition to all these accolades, McClement was the valedictorian of Waterford-Halfmoon, the President of her school’s National Honor Society, and the class Treasurer. So how did she manage to make time for school, sports, clubs, and other things? “I had to prioritize what was important,” McClement said. “And set a lot of reminders on my phone.”

“I am honored to have had the opportunity to witness her success, Hornung said. “I cannot wait to see where her hard work takes her after high school.”

“It’s an honor to receive such a special recognition,” McClement said. “I’m proud of all the hard work I’ve put in over the years and I’m especially grateful for all the support I’ve had from my family, coaches, teachers and teammates over the years.”

Isabella Miller knows what it means to run down a dream. Ever since she was a little girl, she has been running with her family.

“My whole family runs, especially my dad,” she said.

Even though Miller has been running 5Ks with her family for along as she can remember, she also grew up using her endurance and speed on the soccer field. Finally, in seventh grade, Miller’s father suggested she give cross country a try.

“That’s when I fell in love with it,” Miller said.

She eventually became a year-round athlete at Fonda-Fultonville competing in cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the spring.

Coming into her senior season, Miller set a goal of reaching the New York State meet in cross country. It was an ambitious goal for any runner, but for Miller specifically, it would mean overcoming years of disappointment.

“Year after year, injuries and untimely illnesses crept up and derailed her efforts to qualify,” said Fonda-Fultonville Cross Country coach Joseph Geniti. “To Isabella’s credit, she consistently demonstrated resilience, determination, and an unyielding commitment to success. Most impressive, she always found a way to stay positive and celebrate her teammates’ successes, despite her own individual disappointment. “

Miller committed to this goal with Geniti. She said he was integral in the planning and execution of her cross country season.

 “Coach Geniti has been amazing,” she said. “I was coming off a hip injury, and he made sure to regulate my milage and work me into the right training.”

After fighting through the hip injury, Miller would suffer an ankle injury while warming up for the Western Athletic Conference meet. However, she persisted through the injuries to race in sectionals and finally claim her spot in the state meet.

“To accomplish this as a senior made the feat even more impressive, considering the meet is historically dominated by underclassmen,” Geniti said. “She finished 39th overall at the state meet, and impressively, was the sixth senior across the line in her race. It was the culminating moment to what had been an inspiring journey. “

As exhibited in her cross country career, Miller knows work hard towards a goal that matters to her. That’s why in school, Miller took some of the most challenging classes and excelled in them, earning the third-best GPA in her class and an internship at the Neural Stem Cell Institute in Rensselaer, New York.

“It was an amazing opportunity,” she said. “I got to create antibodies in the lab so that the lab techs could use them in their research.”

That research meant a lot to Miller, who said her family has had a lot of experience with cancer. It was that experience that got her interested in the field of oncology.

“My aunt passed away from cancer when I was eight years old,” Miller said. “That’s what made me want to go to medical school and eventually study oncology.”

While she made her way towards her goal of medical school, she spent time volunteering at her local Ronald McDonald House serving families of children that are in the hospital.

“I like to go in and cook meals for the families staying at the house or make baked goods,” she said.

Chasing down her goals is what Isabella Miller does best. Amongst all her achievements, she says earning the Capital District Sports Woman of the Year award is one of her most memorable achievements.

“I’m very honored to receive the prestigious Capital District Sports Women of the Year award,” Miller said. “It is such an accomplishment to be valued among these amazing young women. It was a defining moment in my high school career to receive this award and goes to show that all your hard work and dedication pays off.

Growing up in the small lakeside community of Northville, Brytney Moore has always understood the value of a close-knit group. It’s something she’s relied on throughout her life, both on and off the athletic field.

A three-sport standout at Northville in soccer, basketball and softball who is also projected to be the valedictorian of her class, Moore is one of 10 high school honorees for the inaugural Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards, which also sees three college athletes recognized.
Moore? She’s leaned on a supportive community to get where she is.

“It can be hard, at times, but most of the people around you are doing the same thing and they’re motivating you,” Moore said. “All of your teachers are checking in on you, and all of your coaches are interested in what you’re doing. It’s really just time-management and making sure you surround yourself with the people that are pushing you to succeed. I’ve had support from all of my coaches in everything that I do, and my athletic director is pushing for the best for me.”

Moore’s greatest athletic achievements came on the soccer field, where she spent five years establishing herself as one of Section II’s top small-school strikers. She finished her career with 111 goals, and was part of the Falcons’ Section II Class D championship teams in both 2017 and 2019.

As a senior this past fall, Moore was a first-team all-state selection after captaining Northville back to the state semifinals for the first time in nine years, scoring both the game-tying and go-ahead goals in the Falcons’ regional final win over Mount Academy.

It was a crowning achievement for a group that had grown immensely during its time together.
“We’d been building that for three or four years, starting really young,” Moore said. “I’d been on the team for five years, so I knew the capability of everyone on the team and I realized that we could really get it done.”

In addition to her athletic achievements and her academic exploits, Moore is deeply involved in the communities of Northville and neighboring Edinburg through various outlets, including the Adirondack Cycle Event, the Northville Youth Program Halloween Carnival, the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York and the American Red Cross.

“Our community is so behind us in everything,” she said. “Whether it be me helping with the booster club for fundraising money, or working with different programs in Edinburg and Northville with the younger kids, it’s really important to give back to the community because you realize how much they’re supporting you in everything you do.”
Though she plays three sports, Moore said “soccer’s definitely my No. 1,” and relished her team’s accomplishments this past season beyond anything else in her athletic career.

“This was the year, if we were going to do anything, because we had such an incredible team and an incredible bond,” she said. “We pushed ourselves as far as we could go.”

That spirit of community carried into Northville’s basketball season, where Moore helped the Falcons to their deepest run in many years, reaching the Section II Class D semifinals.

She’s also helped to revitalize softball as a varsity sport at Northville as part of a group that started together as a modified program and built for several seasons before bringing the sport back to the varsity level in 2019.

When practice opened this spring — before things were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic — participation was at a new high.

“We have that bond going from sport to sport,” she said, “which is a plus of being in such a small school.”
This article appeared in the 2020 CDSWOY Awards Program on August 18, 2020.

Balancing school work while playing three sports should be difficult.

However, Mayfield High School’s Kelsey Meca made it look very easy, and that’s part of why she is one of 10 high school honorees for the third-annual Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards.

In the classroom, Meca had a 99.6 average, and she was ranked third in her class. On the playing surfaces, Meca excelled playing soccer, basketball and softball.
Meca credited her parents with telling her the importance of doing well in the classroom.

“Honestly, ever since I was young, my parents instilled in me that school comes first.” Meca said. “Do good in school, and then sports. Sports comes next, and then working. I’ve always had this schedule, a routine that I’ve been able to manage my time really well.”
Being able to balance her time between school and sports came naturally to Meca.

“My practices were usually earlier in the day,” Meca said, “so then when those were over, I would come home, I would study if I had to or I would do any homework that I had, and then I would go to bed.”
Meca has been a standout in the three sports she played at Mayfield. In soccer, Meca was a first-team Western Athletic Conference all-star and the team captain. She was a first-team WAC all-star and the team captain for the basketball team. She was also the team’s most valuable player, the WAC Top Scholar-Athlete and a 10th-team all-state. She holds several team records and was an Exceptional Senior representative.

For softball, Meca was a second-team WAC all-star and the team captain.

The sport Meca said she loves the most is basketball.
“I have had the same coach since I was in fourth grade,” Meca said. “And I have played with the same girls since around that same age. So we just really have this awesome bond together, and we play so well together out on the court and it was just the most fun I’ve ever had in a sports season.”

She greatly enjoyed playing soccer and softball, too.
“For soccer, I really like how intense it is,” Meca said. “It’s a lot of running. You have to be super in shape in order to play the entire game. And it’s a physical game, so I like that aspect of it as well. You really have to work as a team. And as a captain, you have to have leadership as well. You have to be good with talking, communicating with your teammates in a positive and respectful way. So it’s really given me an outlet to stay in shape, and create new relationships.

“And, as for softball, I don’t want to say it’s an individual game because you’re still working as a team, but it’s not as much teamwork-like related in the fact that you can’t, like in basketball, pass it to somebody, they shoot, they score. But, for softball, you’re responsible for your own batting and making plays in the field.”

Meca will attend SUNY Poly in the fall, and she will play for the women’s basketball team. She wants to become a nurse practitioner. The reason Meca wants to become a nurse practitioner is because of her sister.
“When I was about 12 years old, my sister was diagnosed with narcolepsy and cataplexy, and my family went through a ton of obstacles and struggles because no doctors around here really had an idea of what that actually was,” Meca said. “We had to fly her out all the way to California just to get her diagnosed. And that inspired me as a young girl, because I saw what my family was going through. I said to myself, ‘I don’t want any other children to have to go through this.’ So my goal as a nurse practitioner is to not let that happen.”

Mayfield athletic director Jon Caraco said: “Kelsey is eager to volunteer for any and all community service projects done through the school. I have seen her volunteering to clean up local historical sites. . . . She leads activities to raise money for the Stanford Sleep Center and the Children’s Miracle Network.

“If there is something Kelsey cannot do well, we have not found it yet.”

Above all else, Izzy Mancini loved being on the team.

“My favorite part of my years at Galway High School was playing on the sports teams,” Mancini said. “I love the sport dynamic so much — being able to compete is the main thing, but all the sports I played were in a team setting.”

And the 17-year-old who competed in basketball, softball and soccer led those teams during a high school career filled with accomplishments in competition, the classroom and in the community.

“Izzy Mancini is the athlete that every coach wishes they had 20 clones of to form their team,” Galway athletic director Elise Britt said. “Izzy is the whole package and will continue to excel far past her high school career in athletics, academics and citizenship.”

The valedictorian this year at Galway, Mancini is one of 10 high school honorees for the second-annual Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards. The 17-year-old said she was “extremely shocked” to earn such an honor, and it was one that had special meaning to her since one of her best friends, Rachel Wnuk, was one of the student-athletes recognized during the inaugural CDSWOY awards.

“To be able to get the same award, the year after, was incredible because I look up to her,” Mancini said.

At Galway, her teammates often looked up to her. A four-year varsity athlete in basketball and soccer, and a three-year varsity competitor in softball, Mancini was a top player in the Western Athletic Conference. More than that, she was a leader on her sports teams.

“From Day 1, she has been a mentor for the younger players,” said Phillip Meashaw, who coached Mancini in basketball. “She will frequently take time to check in with them and is a role model for them by the way she conducts herself at practice and games.”

“Izzy is a positive role model with all of her teammates,” said Mike Smith, who coached Mancini in softball. “Izzy is a tough competitor who gives 110% in all that she does. It’s a pleasure to know Izzy, and even a bigger thrill to coach her and watch her play.”

During her years at Galway High School, Mancini earned a variety of academic, athletic and community honors. She also was active in clubs, such as the science club and Leo’s club, and served as class treasurer.

Mancini will attend Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and plans to pursue becoming a pharmacist.
As valedictorian, she addressed her senior class during graduation, and commended all her peers for how they handled a senior year amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Rather than focusing on “what COVID did to us,” Mancini said her Galway classmates became four-sport athletes, watched after younger siblings and took up part-time jobs while finishing up their high-school careers.

“You can push through it,” Mancini said, “and my class did that.”

So, too, did Mancini.

“Izzy is the type of athlete that brings positivity, confidence and unity to her teams and community at large,” Britt said. “Izzy has many academic accolades, even more athletic accomplishments, and creates a culture of unity and progress.”