image description
Drury's Colin Daly
image description
Drury's Madison Saunders
image description
Hoosac Valley's Maryn Cappiello
image description
Hoosac Valley's Will Hakes
image description
Lee High's Reece Faggioni (competing for the Monument Mountain cooperative swim team)
image description
Lee High's Sophia Puntin
image description
Lenox's Jocelyn Fairfield (left)
image description
Lenox's Harper Jaehnig
image description
McCann Tech's Parker Hart
image description
McCann Tech's Paige Meyette
image description
Monument Mountain's Polly Geddes
image description
Monument Mountain's Griffin McElroy
image description
Mount Everett's Aliyah Creamer
image description
Mount Everett's Sean Warren
image description
Mount Greylock's Ezekiel Singer
image description
Mount Greylock's Knowl Stroud
image description
Pittsfield High's Caden Boehm
image description
Pittsfield High's Caroline Sherman
image description
Taconic's Nick Berkeley
image description
Taconic's Jaelynn Walker
image description
Wahconah's West Dews (competing for the Taconic cooperative wrestling team)
image description
Wahconah's Tim Kaley

County's Athletic Directors Recognize Senior Scholar-Athletes

iBerkshires.com SportsPrint Story | Email Story
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Twenty-two graduating seniors from Berkshire County public high schools recently were recognized by the county’s athletic directors with the inaugural Berkshire County Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards.
 
The honor is designed to recognize seniors who demonstrate “athletic excellence, strong academics and exemplary character, including sportsmanship, leadership and community involvement.”
 
The list of honorees – two from each of the Berkshire County league schools – includes at least one valedictorian and one salutatorian, state champions and all-Western Mass honorees on the athletic field.
 
The overwhelming majority of honorees are multi-sport athletes with several earning varsity letters in three different sports throughout the school year.
 
All recipients have at least a grade point average of 3.0, though most are well above that and have been both successful athletes and demonstrated leaders on their respective teams.
 
“Award recipients should embody the character and integrity expected of a scholar-athlete award recipient,” the citation reads. “This includes consistently demonstrating good sportsmanship and fair play, both in competition and in daily interactions. The student should show strong leadership qualities on and off the field/court/course, maintain a positive attitude, and represent their school and team with pride and respect. Engagement in community service or other meaningful extracurricular activities highlights a student’s well-rounded character and active involvement beyond the classroom.”
 
2025 recipients include:
 
Drury: Colin Daly, Madison Saunders
Hoosac Valley: Maryn Cappiello, Will Hakes
Lee: Reece Faggioni, Sophia Puntin
Lenox: Jocelyn Fairfield, Harper Jaehnig
McCann Tech: Parker Hart, Paige Meyette
Monument Mountain: Polly Geddes, Griffin McElroy
Mount Everett: Aliyah Creamer, Sean Warren
Mount Greylock: Ezekiel Singer, Knowl Stroud
Pittsfield: Caden Boehm, Caroline Sherman
Taconic: Nick Berkeley, Jaelynn Walker
Wahconah: West Dews, Tim Kaley
 
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

ADOPTED! Companion Corner: Cali and Kyzer at Berkshire Humane Society

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

Great news, Kyzer and Cali found a home for Christmas already! Still looking for a new friend for the holidays? There are plenty of dogs and cats and small animals at Berkshire Humane who would love to go home with you.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There's a bonded dog pair awaiting a new family at the Berkshire Humane Society.

Kyzer and Cali are both poodles. Kyzer is the male and is 7 years old, a quite a bit bigger than his sister Cali, who is a miniature of Kyzer and 8 years old.

Canine adoption counselor Rhonda Cyr introduced us to the two.

"They came from a household that couldn't hold on to them, and it sounds like they may have been abandoned by their previous owner with somebody else, and so they came to us looking for a new home," she said.

The two love to be around you and snuggle. But both are very happy dogs.

"Kyzer is 7 years old, and his personality is that he kind of wants to be in everything. He's very loving, very snuggly, as you can tell. And Callie here, she's 8 years old, and she is kind of like the life of the party," said Cyr. "She wants to tell you everything about her day, and she's a little bit of a little ham."

The two are considered seniors and really like soft treats as Cali just had a few teeth removed and Kyzer has a tooth procedure coming up.

"Currently, they really like soft treats, because they are both on the senior side of things. So they have had some dental work, so they are really in need of something softer. They are not big chewers at this age, really, their main focus right now is just really socializing and cuddling," Cyr said.

The two would love a quiet home with someone who wants to snuggle. They shouldn't go to a home with bigger dogs but if you have a dog, you can bring them in for a visitation with the poodles to see if they will get along. Cats will be fine and the preference is for older and more responsible children so that the pups don't get hurt, as they are senior citizens.

"The perfect home for them would be a quiet home that's not too active. Like I said, they're very social, so they could handle some visitors," she said. "They're very friendly, but I don't think that they would really enjoy any other dogs in the home."

Poodles need to be regularly groomed, and the prospective adopter will have to keep an eye on their health. Kyzer has a heart murmur that needs to be monitored. This doesn't mean he is in bad health, as he could live a perfectly normal life, but he will need to be checked by a veterinary specialist routinely.

"Ideally, he would go to a home that could provide further health care with a specialist in cardiac care. And you know, he could very well live out the rest of his life comfortably and happy," Cyr said. "We just don't have all that information at the moment, but I think that you know the way he's going right now. He's got a good spirit, and he seems to be pretty happy."

The shelter is hoping the to get them a home for the holidays.

"We would love to get them a home in time for the holidays. They've been here since the eighth of November, and they're really, really looking as much as the staff loves them here, we're really looking to get them into a home and somewhere nice and cozy so they can spend the rest of their life together," she said.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories