For the month of November, Olivia Cassidy, sophomore was nominated for student athlete of the month by Mike SanGiacomo, women’s lacrosse coach.
“I’ve worked a lot on my mentality and always try to stay positive and fight for everything; we work hard because you have that physical aspect but there’s also the mental aspect,” said Cassidy. “I’ve improved a lot in my sportsmanship and learned that you don’t always win and you have to be okay with that, and I think I’ve improved just trying to be a leader on the team.”
As an multisport athlete, Cassidy plays three varsity sports at Athens Drive High School, including tennis, swim and lacrosse. This past fall season, she was a co-captain of the varsity tennis team. Cassidy also plays for sports teams outside of Athens, one including Carolina Flight Lacrosse.
“Olivia has a great attitude; if she falls behind in tennis or if she is being pushed around in lacrosse, she steps up to the challenge. Coming in to lacrosse as a freshman last year, she was not intimidated, she never stands in the back she always jumps in to the front and is the first person to want to show an example of something, and that’s a great leadership quality she has,” said SanGiacomo.
She also is part of the band program and plays clarinet in the highest level band, Wind Ensemble. Having one of the highest grade point averages (GPA) in the sophomore class, Cassidy has proven herself to be a consistently hard worker.
“ I think her level of competition drives her to get better and improve in herself but it also drives everyone around her. Her never give up attitude makes her an amazing player and teammate for us,” said SanGiacomo.
