Bay Shore's Leonard wins Dellecave Award
Bay Shore High School senior Alyssa Leonard , varsity girls lacrosse. Credit: Photo by James A. Escher
Alyssa Leonard walked off the warm, turf lacrosse field at Dowling Sunday afternoon with an ice pack on her left leg and a bouquet of flowers in her right arm, each item representing vastly different story lines.
The ice was to help recover from a hit she took during a four-goal, two-assist day in Bay Shore's 13-9 loss to Farmingdale in the Long Island Class A championship game. The flowers were for an award she learned she had won postgame, the Dellecave Award, presented annually to the best female and male athletes in Suffolk County.
Leonard, a senior at Bay Shore who will play lacrosse at national women's power Northwestern, was announced as the winner Sunday morning during a breakfast banquet at West Lake Inn in Patchogue. But she couldn't be there because of the game, scheduled to start not long after the ceremony ended.
Her parents, Brian and Michele, accepted the award on her behalf with Bay Shore athletic director Claude Kasman. It is sponsored by the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in conjunction with Newsday.
"It's a great feeling to know that you're recognized for all the hard work you put in," Leonard said after learning she had won. "After seeing who I was up against, it feels really good. I'm excited."
The other finalists from a group of 60 were Georgia Holland (Ward Melville), Kristen Doherty (Sachem East), Jennifer Kellner (Hauppauge) and Bria Hartley (North Babylon).
Leonard is probably most known for her lacrosse skills now, but she has been playing for only two seasons. In previous spring seasons, she was part of Bay Shore's dominant softball team since the seventh grade and was All-American as a freshman and sophomore. But she gave up softball and decided to try lacrosse, "just for fun," she said.
This year, she also played volleyball in the fall and was named All-Long Island for the second straight season and All-Suffolk for the fourth straight season. She returned to play basketball, too, and was captain, after taking two seasons off to concentrate more on volleyball in the winter.
Her favorite sport? All of them. "It really doesn't matter," Leonard said. "I enjoy all the sports I play, otherwise I probably wouldn't play them. I really enjoy lacrosse - it's fresh for me - but I like all sports, any sport."
In accepting the award, Leonard's mother said: "This is a great honor," and told the other nominees at the banquet hall, "Keep going, follow your dreams. I know my daughter did."
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Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
