Best Sports Moments from the Class of 2019

(Pictured) Wethersfield's Craig Elliott, Newington's Julian Ortiz, Louis Egbuna, and Abygale Flores, and Rocky Hill's Kamari Grant

Graduating seniors were asked to recall their favorite sports memories from high school. Here are the responses from some of the area’s best athletes. Congratulations and best of luck to the entire Class of 2019!

“I would say my favorite memory in my sports career at Rocky Hill would be knocking off HK (#1 seed) as we were the #32 seed in last year’s first round of the state tournament. Going into the game we knew as a team that we had the skill and talent to knock off any team in the state. High school baseball in Connecticut, is like no other sport. You don’t really get these huge upsets like you see in baseball, in any other sport. It’s really just about who shows up that day and who is ready to work, and as you can see we were the team that day that wanted it the most,” -Rocky Hill’s Tyler Schiavone on beating top-seeded Haddam-Killingworth in first round of the 2018 Class M tournament (05/29/18)

“My first varsity start ever, sophomore year home against Farmington we were losing a majority of the game and I had a game-winning drive and threw a go-ahead touchdown with around a minute left to win the season opener at home. This felt special doing this so young. Ended up making Fab 15 that week too,” -Wethersfield’s Craig Elliott on a 20-14 come-from-behind win over Farmington (09/09/16)

“I chose this picture to represent my favorite memory because it’s from when I was freshman on the varsity team and this was the first game I got put in. We were playing Rocky Hill and I had a lot of fun playing with my teammates. I remember when there was a couple seconds left in the game and all I could hear is everyone saying shoot the ball. I threw it from half court and got fouled. Coach was worried but I was fine. But it was honestly the most memorable day because I showed I was worthy to play on the varsity team as a freshman,” -Newington’s Abygale Flores on playing Rocky Hill (01/26/2016)

“My favorite moment from this season was coming back from behind and beating Northwest Catholic 21-14. This was a big win in our season opener in front of our home crowd to get a win with a new team after such a big senior class left,” -Rocky Hill’s Kamari Grant recalling win from (09/07/2018)

“When me and Louis officially committed to Nichols for football and volleyball. Louis has been my brother since 5th grade and blood couldn’t make us any closer and it means a lot because we’re both doing what we love by playing our sport at a collegiate level and majoring in sports management,” Newington’s Julian Ortiz on his bond with classmate and teammate Louis Egbuna. Both will be attending and playing sports at Nichols College.
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“My favorite game was the championship game for volleyball. It was my last game and we got the 3peat. (Also) the game that I found out that I got all-state,” Newington’s Louis Egbuna on championship victory over Cheshire (06/06/2019).