On Monday night, June 3, Alvirne High School celebrated their student-athletes who participated in the spring sports offered at at the school. All told, 26 athletes were recognized with awards and an additional seven were awarded scholarships that will allow the selected student-athletes to help cut into the cost of furthering their educations, totaling 33 awards for the night.
Track and Field was the first team to give out their awards, and they began with their Girls’ Rookie of the Year Award, which was given to a young woman who nearly helped break a school record in the 4×100 relay as a freshman, Abby Labonte. Labonte ran in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay while also participating in the long jump event this season. On the boys’ side, Jeremiah Caraballo-Sophos took home Rookie of the Year honors after being thrust into the 400m race as a freshman and managing to qualify for the state meet. They then moved to the True Grit Award, which was given to a young lady who ran the 4x400m, as well as the 800m races. She also placed fifth in NH in the 800m race and was just four seconds away from breaking Alvirne’s school record in this race. Ava Martin took home the True Grit Award for the Broncos. The next awards given were the Coaches’ Award, one of which was given to team captain Colin Fay who was injured much of the season, but did just about anything he could to help his team succeed. The other Coaches’ Award was given to Shawn “Coach’s Kid” Boudreau who participated in the discus this season and has set a goal to break the discus record next season of which he is about 18.5 feet away. They then followed with the Most Improved Female Athlete, which was presented to Addison Tobin. The final awards were the Most Valuable Athletes. On the boys’ side, it was an underclassman who won this award, which is highly unusual. Sophomore Joey Marcotte took home the honors. On the girls’ side, Petrina Ofori took home the honors, which should be a surprise to nobody, as she participated in the 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, high jump, and 4x100m relay as the third leg. She broke the school record in the 300m hurdles twice this season alone. She also participated in New Englands in the 100m hurdles.
Alvirne’s baseball team was the next to honor their student-athletes coming off a season in which they narrowly missed the playoffs, which would have been their first time back in the dance since 2021. The team started 1-10 and Farmball nearly made the dance. Coach Houle, in his first year at the helm, nearly did the unthinkable, and he discussed it in great length. The first award given was the Comeback Player of the Year, which was given to Mikey Bebris who was the unrivaled winner of this award coming off Tommy John Surgery a year ago, Mikey took the bull by the horns and nearly carried his team to the playoffs on the mound while also hitting .362 and swiping nine bags. He put up a 2.03 ERA throughout the season including a couple massive saves at the end of the season. He was also a Second-Team All-State Member this season. The Coaches’ Awards were given to Logan Casey and Chase Mitchell. Casey was solid on the bump for the Broncos and a solid defender at third, always working to better his craft on and off the field. As for Chase Mitchell, he was always behind someone as an underclassman, be it Nick Jacques, Alex Blais, or even Dylan Page. Mitchell was a solid player for the Broncos when in the lineup, and a leader off the field for the near-Cinderella Broncos.
Softball was the next team to honor their award winners, and they started with their Comeback Player of the Year Award, which was given to another player recovering from an arm injury, Ashleigh Ducharme who came back to the Broncos after missing her sophomore and junior year to a shoulder injury. They then moved to their Coaches’ Award, which was given to senior captain Jenna Kulick. Jenna helped lead the team both on and off the field this season through her positive attitude and strong will for her team to succeed. The final award for the Broncos was the team MVP, which went to none other than Alyssa Abbott, who hit .443 this season and was a leader on and off the field. She only committed three errors in 82 chances at her secondary position. Abbott is naturally a centerfielder and only committed three errors at a position that, when she began her high school career, she had no familiarity with.
Boys’ Tennis was next on the docket, and they began with their Most Improved Award, which was given to a player who struggled to find a rhythm at the beginning of the season, and he turned rhythm into his strength, Dylan Burke. The Coaches’ Award was given to Sam Hergenhan who “won with class and lost with grace” throughout the season. The final award was the MVP, which went to Caleb Lambert who scored 25% of Alvirne’s points this season. He also instituted 5:45 am “sunrise practices” on days that the team had home matches.
For Girls’ Tennis, they had a Most Improved Award and two Coaches’ Awards. First, the Most Improved Award went to Samantha Schiller, who won more matches for the Broncos than anyone on the team as part of the “Fab Four Freshmen”. The Coaches’ Awards went to Zailyn O’Leary and Emma Coppi who served as de facto assistant coaches to Coach Moe LeClerc throughout the season.
Boys’ Lacrosse was the penultimate team to present their awards, and Coach DeBrusk’s staff presented three awards this year. The first of their awards was the Scholar-Athlete Award which was given to Ryan Hurrell who is enrolled in a number of CTE and AP programs while also being a fierce competitor on the field for the Broncos. The Most Improved Award was given to Mikey Landmesser, who before joining the Broncos, he had never played lacrosse, and he pushed himself so hard to improve that he found himself starting in a playoff game. The final award given was the Coaches’ Award. Aiden Mills took home the award as his third time this year taking home a Coaches’ Award as he won for football and basketball already in the 2023-24 academic year.
The final team to honor their athletes was girls’ lacrosse, who gave out a Leadership Award, Defensive Player of the Year Award, and an MVP Award. The Leadership Award was given to Audriena Chipperini. Rachael Stevens won Defensive Player of the Year. MVP was awarded to Cadence Bice.
Alvirne then presented the Boosters Club Scholarships to seven different student-athletes. The first scholarship being the Barbara Hamilton Award which was presented by 2023 Barbara Hamilton Award winner, Bella Coppi, to Alyssa Abbott. The other six athletes awarded scholarships were Matt Branco, Logan Casey, Aiden, Flaherty, Jace Martin, Zach Proulx, and Sadie Rodgers.
The Broncos also recognized the four state championships won this school year, as well as members of several different scholar-athlete groups including the newly resurrected Student-Athlete Leadership Council, as well as others.
