BRIDGEPORT–Masuk High softball coach Leigh Barone was named the GametimeCT High School Sports Award Show’s Girls Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 school year, it was announced on Friday.
Barone, who led the Panthers to their seventh straight state championship, was selected from a field of five nominees, including Sheehan girls basketball coach Mike Busillo, Trumbull gymnastics coach Cathy McMahon, Shepaug field hockey coach Owen Moore, and Bethel girls basketball coach Danielle Scolpino.
Barone, whose team lost just one game all season, was the only softball person to win an award, though others were nominated.
The Foran softball team, which went undefeated (28-0) and won the 2025 Class M championship, knocking off three-time defending champ Woodland Regional in the process, was up for “Team of the Year – Girls Sports.” The award went to the Bloomfield indoor track team, which won its 15th straight Class S title.
Ellington pitcher Camryn Fisher was a finalist for Female Athlete of the Year after leading the Knights to the Class L semifinals, and establishing a new state strikeout record when she fanned 36 batters during a 14-inning win over Hale-Ray. Brooke Straus, a track and cross country runner at Glastonbury, was selected as the winner.
Olivia Kelley of Old Lyme, a three-sport athlete who also plays softball, was nominated as the “Comeback Player of the Year-Girls Sports.” According to her bio, Kelley “Suffered three ACL injuries since 2021, two on her left knee. Two occurred during soccer season, one during basketball season. Missed all but four games of three basketball seasons, two full softball seasons and parts of two seasons in soccer.”
This was the first time GametimeCT has hosted this show.
For a complete list of winners, click here. (A lot of Hearst Media CT’s material is behind a pay wall).
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