By Ella Franzman – Editor-In-Chief 

Senior boys soccer player Cooper Fitzgerald and junior girls swimmer Natalia Gagliardi were named September Athletes of the Month by Jonathan Law Athletics and sponsored by JLHS Sports Booster Club.

Each month two student-athletes are awarded this honor for their success in and outside of school. 

“To be recognized as the first Athlete of the Month this school year I felt so accomplished,” Gagliardi said. “It felt so great for all of my hard work in the pool to be recognized and it gives me even more motivation to keep working hard in practices and in meets.”

Gagliardi and the team have been competing against top teams in the SCC and state and are still dominating. 

“Natalia was extremely deserving of the honor of athlete of the month, she has had a great deal of success for our team throughout the season, and September was no exception,” Head Coach Rob Rosner said. “She placed first in 8 out of 10 individual events over the course of the month and anchored most of our relays.” 

Highlighting and honoring two student-athletes who are excelling for their teams will push other athletes to want this nominee.

“Athletics at Jonathan Law consists of a lot of hard working student athletes, it is important that we showcase our athletes for all of their contributions both in the classroom, during competition, and in the community, our athlete of the month program accomplishes this goal,” Athletic Director Tom Drew said.

Fitzgerald, who plays central defensive midfielder, said that he gives his 110% in every practice and every game.

“Cooper exemplifies what a Jonathan Law student athlete strives to be,” Head Coach Mike Gruber said. “Cooper is hard working on and off the field, leads by example and is a good mentor to our young players.”

Fitzgerald has been locking down top attackers in the SCC and has stepped up on offense when needed. He also credited his teammate and coach for constantly pushing him. 

“Being recognized as the first athlete of the month for this year was pretty exciting,” Fitzgerald said. “It was nice to get some recognition for the hard work myself and the team has been putting in.” 

For the rest of the year, a Google Form will be posted on Twitter from @JLHSAthletics for each month. In this Google Form, anyone can nominate a student-athlete for that month.