Sole, Hafner Win Crowley Scholarship

Sachem North's Alec Sole and East's C.J. Hafner were named the two recipients of the Tim Crowley Scholarship, given annually to the top student-athlete from each baseball team, prior to the final game of the sixth annual Tim Crowley Memorial baseball tournament Saturday evening.

"I think all the kids have to realize that sports isn’t the only thing in life," said Tim's father Tom Crowley, who handed the award to the players in an on-field ceremony prior to the first pitch. "Education is what makes you money, and that’s what gets you by in life. Very few kids are going to make it in the pros from anywhere."

Each player was chosen amidst an impressive class of candidates from both schools.

"We’re student-athletes as we go through, and this basically shows you why," said East head coach Kevin Schnupp. "This is great. It’s everything you try to teach all along."

Sole, who was given an athletic scholarship to play at Saint Louis University, was proud of a body of work he had put together over four years on the field as well as in the classroom at Sachem North.

"It’s very special to me," he said of the award. "I heard Tim Crowley was a very nice man and very honest, those are some of the qualities I want to have."

The ceremony holds special meaning for North head coach Tom Gambino, who attended Sachem with Crowley and also went to Oglethorpe University in Atlanta where Crowley was when he died in a car accident.

"That’s more personal for me because I went to school with him," said Gambino. "I was there when he got into the accident. To me this night great, I love it. The kids know that I knew him. I think it’s awesome."

Gambino was also proud of the way Sole, his ace pitcher, conducts himself, making him worthy of this award.

"He has a work ethic that he doesn’t just have on the baseball field," Gambino said of his ace. "He works in the classroom too. That’s why he’s getting money to go to school athletically and that’s why he’s got that academic money."

Hafner, who will attend Cortland in the fall, was grateful for the ability to get a head start on the high expenses that a college education leave behind.

"It'll help me out with paying for college. It’s nice to be acknowledged for the hard work," he said. "To be acknowledged for somebody who passed away who loved the sport and for working hard, being in memory of that, I think it’s pretty nice."

Schnupp remarked at how Hafner was able to step up play and earn the scholarship amidst a number of his als0-worthy teammates.

"Some years there’s some great candidates, he’s in a great class," he said. "There’s a few guys that do the right thing in the classroom and on the baseball field. It’s a big award for him."

Crowley, a 1993 Sachem graduate, passed away following a car accident on April 11, 1997, just weeks before he was set to graduate from Ogelthorpe University. Like he did at Sachem, Tim excelled at the collegiate level. His countless athletic accolades, including being named Most Outstanding Senior Male Athlete in 1996-97 and 1997's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year for baseball, were met with academic honors as well. He was also named to the GTE Academic All-American Baseball team in 1997.

Sachem North beat Sachem East, 6-1, in this year's showdown.