#Cassie Cirella

[riilsports]

Titans’ Cirella selected as 2021 Alice Sullivan Scholarship winner

September 1, 2021

     Congratulations to Cassandra Cirella, who has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Alice Sullivan Memorial Scholarship.

     The scholarship is awarded in memory of Alice Sullivan, a teacher and administrator at East Providence High School for four decades. She served as the Assistant Executive Director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League and was the moving force in the early 1970s for the development of women’s athletics. 

     Cirella - or Cassie as she is known to her friends - graduated this spring from Toll Gate High School, where she competed for the Titans’ soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse and indoor track teams. A captain of the soccer team both as a junior and senior, she helped lead Toll Gate to the RIIL Division III Girls Soccer Championship last fall, scoring two second-half goals in the Titans’ 3-1 win over Narragansett.

      She also contributed to her school through her involvement with Best Buddies, VAASA, S.A.D.D. and the RIIL Student Ambassador program. She has served as a peer tutor and volunteered at the Milford Police Station, along with volunteering many hours at multiple school and community blood drives.

      A High Honor Roll throughout her four years at Toll Gate and a member of the R.I., National and Italian Honors Societies, Cirella will be attending Coastal Carolina University this fall, where she plans to major in psychology and hopes to play club soccer and lacrosse.

       Along with all of her other extracurricular activities, she has balanced working a part-time job at local restaurants with officiating youth soccer since she was a freshman. she aspires to be a high school girls soccer coach one day and is certain getting that opportunity would give her “an indescribable feeling.”

     “Playing sports and officiating makes me feel grounded on the difficult days that I am forced to endure, and on most days, athletics are my source of happiness,” Cirella wrote in her application for the Alice Sullivan Scholarship. “Before the pandemic, I was the teenager that would fill her days to escape the difficult times. I would fill my hours after school with hours of practice, whether it be team or individual. I am grateful for growing up this way and being given these opportunities in life, I continue to look forward to playing sports each day. I love to improve and watch myself grow, and with that comes achieving greatness. If all goes as planned, I will be able to coach in the future and gain that same feeling that I have while I play during my adolescent years.”

[riilsports]

FINAL, RIIL Division II Girls Soccer Championship: Toll Gate 3, Narragansett 1 Cassie Cirella strikes again for Toll Gate with about 2 minutes to play to help clinch the first title for the Titans since winning DII in 2015. (at Johnston Senior High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH6glqODC9F/?igshid=10p73ef5qwcgl

[riilsports]

Cassie Cirella gives Toll Gate a 2-0 lead. @TgAthletics @TollGateTitans @TitansToll @Marinerchief @NHSMariners (at Johnston Senior High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH6YV-BjaPC/?igshid=uztkahtfftsd

[riilsports]

2018 RIIL Spirit of Sport Award - Maddie Potts, Chariho H.S., & Gianna Cirella, Toll Gate H.S. (posthumously awarded) Accepting in their honor were mother Stephanie Potts (2nd from left), mother Tara Cirella & sister Cassie Cirella (center) (at Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick (Airport))