Cassidy Stankowski won a second straight Gatorade State Player of the Year Award and again receives The Republican's nod as the top player in Western Massachusetts.
THE REPUBLICAN 2012 GIRLS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CASSIDY STANKOWSKI, Frontier
Class: Senior
Position: Outside hitter
Impact: To say Cassidy Stankowski had one of the greatest careers of any Western Massachusetts female volleyball player is an understatement. In terms of team success, hers measures up with any athlete – male or female – in any sport. Six years on varsity is rare. Six years of being a major contributor is close to unheard of.
Career Achievements
Significant stats: 1,483 kills; 1,151 digs; 364 aces
Overall team record: 137-6
Vs. WMass teams: 122-0
Western Mass. Division III finals: 6-0
State Division III finals: 3-1
Division III All-State selections: Four (2009-12)
The Republican All-Scholastic first team: Five (2008-12)
Major awards: Gatorade State Player of the Year (2011, 2012); Prepvolleyball.com All-America (2010, 2011); Under Armour All-America (honorable mention 2012); The Republican Player of the Year (2011, 2012)
What’s next?: On Nov. 14, Stankowski signed a National Letter of Intent to play Division I volleyball at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, where she hopes to start at outside hitter next season.
What she has to say
On her amazing journey: “It’s been a great career, and it’s finally come to an end, and I don’t want it to end any other way than it did. But it’s also kind of time to take another step in my life and push myself a little harder than I have been. I think it’s a really good end to a career that I wouldn’t want to change.”
On her bond with older sister, Alyssa: “Watching her develop into the player and the woman that she became really made me think about what I wanted to do with my life and how I wanted to make myself known and how I wanted to make myself the best player I could. Every time somebody asks me, ‘Oh, you played with your sister?,’ I tell them it’s the best thing that ever happened to me my whole entire life. I would do anything to go back to those two years (2007-08) and play with her again.”
On winning three state titles to Alyssa’s two: “We talk about that a lot, about how that year (2008, lost in state semis) we had two or three All-State players and we were predicted to win but it just didn’t happen. She won two without me, I won three without her, but we never won one together. It was just not what we expected at all.”