Meet the 2023 RI High School Athletes of the Year, and other award winners
PROVIDENCE — The top student-athletes in Rhode Island were honored last week as part of the 2023 All-State Rhode Island High School Sports Awards, presented by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. The event — held at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium and featuring former Patriots safety Devin McCourty — drew hundreds of Providence Journal All-State athletes from the fall, winter and spring seasons.
Players of the year were named in 29 sports, and several premier awards were handed out as well.
Here's a look at the honorees:
Girls Athlete of the Year
Sophia Gorriaran of the Moses Brown School won Girls Athlete of the Year. A reluctant superstar, Gorriaran leaves Rhode Island as one of the most accomplished track athletes the state has ever seen. She saved her best season for her last, winning a state cross country title to go along with a bevy of gold medals in the indoor and outdoor track seasons after winning races she didn’t have to run.
Gorriaran is a unique athlete, one the state may never see again at this level, but we will see plenty of her going forward. She’ll start at Harvard in the fall and, if her progress continues, there are plenty of reasons to think the Olympics won’t be far behind.
Boys Athlete of the Year
Devan Kipyego of St. Raphael Academy was named Boys Athlete of the Year. After Kipyego's incredible junior year, there was no denying his immense talent. In his senior year, Kipyego won gold in cross country, outdoor track and indoor track but winning wasn’t what made him special — it was how he won.
Kipyego had an understanding of the moment and put on a show for people who came out to watch him. He dominated cross country. He made history in indoor track. He kept family tradition alive in outdoor track. Kipyego is headed to Iowa State to compete but left an incredible legacy behind that will be tough to match.
Courage Award
Reese Fahys of East Greenwich High School is this year's Courage Award winner. Fahys, a senior, arrived from New Jersey surrounded by plenty of hype. In her first state championship cross country meet, she showed the praise was more than deserved. In her sophomore year, Fahys was one of the state’s best distance runners.
But in her junior season, a leg injury changed everything and had Fahys wondering if she even wanted to run anymore. Her battle back to full strength wasn’t easy, but it helped to teach her an important lesson about who she was as an athlete and a person.
Coach of the Year — Girls sport
Winning the state title in 2021 was terrific for Mark D’Arezzo and the Skippers, but how North Kingstown won the title this year was downright magical. The Skippers lost their first match of the year, which turned out to be the wake-up call they needed. D’Arezzo refocused the group and North Kingstown lost one match after Sept. 8.
The Skippers didn’t just win in the playoffs, they dominated, winning three matches by a combined 10-2 score, beating La Salle, 3-1, to become the first public school to win back-to-back state titles since South Kingstown won their third straight in 1999.
Coach of the Year — Boys sport
While outsiders would say Sandy Gorham coaches his swimmers like a football coach, the truth of the matter is he coaches football players like a swim coach. Gorham believes in accountability and expressed as much to his team when they came up with a tie in their dual meet against Hendricken this winter.
He wanted his swimmers to be focused so they’d be ready in the big moment, and at the state meet, Barrington was just that. The Eagles’ stars shined, the back half of the lineup scored crucial points and their 383 points beat Hendricken by 12 points, making Barrington the first public school to go back-to-back since Cumberland won its third in 1988.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield Team of the Year
The Unified Swim Relay team, comprised of students from three Rhode Island high schools, is the 2023 Team of the Year. The team includes 12 student-athletes from Cumberland, East Greenwich and North Kingstown who made an incredibly powerful statement at this year’s state championship swim meet. The student athletes are (from Cumberland) Sage Beauregard, Edward Cook, Anthony Johnson and Zachary Slesinger; (from East Greenwich) Matthew Carosotto, Anna Huang, Charlie Kolb and Adeleine Slingsby; (from North Kingstown) Henry Fleury, Sawyer O’Brien, Sam Rudman and Josie Wagner. These 12 athletes made history when they became the first unified swimmers ever to compete at a Rhode Island state championship meet in March.
Unified Athlete of the Year
Cameron Vanstone is the kind of player a team wants to have on its roster. Coach Mike Bedrosian said Vanstone joined the Johnston High School boys varsity basketball team last season as a manager. But this season, he pulled double duty, as a member of the boys varsity, as well as the unified basketball team. Besides taking part in the unified games, Vanstone, a member of the class of 2023, also got into a few varsity contests for the division two champion panthers, "Hitting a couple of threes" along the way, his coach said.
School Spirit Award
East Greenwich took top honors in this special contest that was voted on online over the past few months. The school spirit contest honors a school whose community goes above and beyond in supporting their athletic endeavors. The winning school received a $1,000 donation to its athletic program from Gannett and The Providence Journal.
Players of the Year
Baseball — Alex Clemmey, Hendricken
Girls basketball — Genesis McNeil, Juanita Sanchez High School
Boys basketball — Kelvin Odih, La Salle
Girls cross country — Sophia Gorriaran, Moses Brown
Boys cross country — Devan Kipyego, St. Raphael
Field hockey — Alex Mega, East Greenwich
Defensive football — Moses Meus, St. Raphael
Offensive football — Myles Craddock, Moses Brown
Girls golf — Adriana Eaton, Moses Brown
Boys golf — Sebastian Carlsson, Narragansett
Gymnastics — Brooke Anderson, Cranston West
Girls hockey — Kiera Goffe, Smithfield
Boys hockey — Griffin Crain, Hendricken
Girls indoor track — Sophia Gorriaran, Moses Brown
Boys indoor track — Devan Kipyego, St. Raphael Academy
Girls lacrosse — Kate Shields, Bay View
Boys lacrosse — Colby Frigon, La Salle
Girls soccer — Ellis Bishop, North Kingstown
Boys soccer — Dan Goba, North Kingstown
Softball — Alyssa Twomey, Pilgrim
Girls swimming — Katie Chiappetta, Blackstone Valley Prep
Boys swimming — William McClelland, Barrington
Girls tennis — Kylie Eaton, Moses Brown
Boys tennis — Jack Ciunci, Bishop Hendricken
Girls track & field — Lisa Raye, West Warwick
Boys track & field — Nick Martin, East Greenwich
Girls volleyball — Ella Maack, North Kingstown
Boys volleyball — Matt Tiernan, Chariho
Wrestling — Jacob Joyce, Ponaganset
Independent School Athlete of the Year — Sadie Martiesian, Wheeler
The full first and second Providence Journal All-State teams will be announced in print and on providencejournal.com later this month.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Meet the 2023 RI High School Athletes of the Year
