It Was An Award-Winning Senior Year For Aidan Cassara Of Westhampton Beach

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most students under quarantine and out of school, Westhampton Beach senior Aidan Cassara was put to work.

His parents, Lou and Mariann Cassara, own and operate Barth’s Pharmacy, and the family business was in need of some extra help during that time. They needed help delivering prescriptions to those who needed them, but also to assist with a vaccination pop-up for the Westhampton Beach community at the Westhampton Beach Firehouse.

Aidan, his older brother Conor, a Westhampton Beach graduate who just received his doctorate from Ohio Northern University, his younger sister Olivia, and even Aidan’s girlfriend Cameron Maxwell, were all put to work to help out the family business.

“Some of the older people were a little afraid of coming in, as they should have been at the time, so I would make deliveries to their houses,” Aidan explained. “I went to Sag Harbor, a bunch of different places dropping off regular prescriptions. And then we made the firehouse happen — my dad was so happy to make that happen for the community.”

Aidan’s work during the pandemic, along with his play on the field, was a big reason why he was the recipient of this year’s Thomas Cutinella Memorial Leadership Award.

The award was established to honor the memory of the Shoreham-Wading River High School football player, who died on the field after colliding with a player in 2014. Only one player in the county is picked each season for the award, and to be nominated for it, student-athletes need to exhibit characteristics of kindness, modesty, selflessness, as well as a genuine concern for improving the condition of the community at large.

Westhampton Beach head coach Bryan Schaumloffel thought his three-year varsity player was the perfect fit for it for his efforts during one of the toughest times the community, and country at large, has been through.

“The Thomas Cutinella Award is one of Suffolk County’s prestigious awards, named after someone who tragically passed away and who’s death had a big impact on Suffolk County football,” Schaumloffel explained. “The ‘Tommy Tough’ rules are named after him also and try to reinforce the safety measures in the game. So for Aidan to get that award, it’s a great honor for him and it’s a great honor for our program. Again, it kind of shows the great kids we have at Westhampton and their great character.”

Cassara brought home a lot of hardware, not just after the football season, which he was named Second Team All-Long Island as well as All-County, but at the end of the school year as well. At the district’s athletic awards ceremony on June 17, Cassara was the recipient of the Westhampton Beach Carl A. Hansen Athletic Award as well as the Westhampton Beach Joe Taylor Memorial Scholarship Award.

All three of Cassara’s major awards — the Cutinella, Hansen and Taylor — all have similar themes in that they are for student-athletes who exhibit great character, leadership and work ethic skills.

On top of his awards, Cassara was given the number 12 this past season, which was worn by the late Cory Hubbard and is handed out by the coaches to a player they feel exhibits the same traits.

“I’ve known Aidan for a long time. In fact, I coached Aidan in PAL football in elementary school. He’s a special kid,” Schaumloffel said. “He’s very respectful, a coach’s dream. He would do anything a coach would ask him to do and he leads by example, not only on the field, but he can be a vocal leader as well. He was a great part of our program and we’re going to miss him a lot.”

While it came to no surprise to his coach, Cassara admitted that all of the awards he received came as a big surprise to him. With no Suffolk County football banquet this year, Cassara found out he was the Cutinella Award recipient by coming across a social media post by Axcess Sports. And then at the school’s award ceremony, Cassara said he had to be nudged by good friend and football teammate Christian Capuano to go up and receive his awards because he said he didn’t think his name would be called for them.

“Honestly, I was shocked,” he said. “When my dad came across the same post for the Cutinella Award, he texted me and said ‘I’m so proud of you.’ I wouldn’t want to say I’m proud of myself, but I didn’t think I could receive such a high award. I didn’t know Thomas but, just like Cory Hubbard, I’ve heard so many stories of just how great a kid he was, so I was just shocked and so grateful to receive that award.

“The same with the Hansen and Joe Taylor awards, I would love to reach out to the families just how very grateful I am and I couldn’t be happier with them,” he added. “I want to thank my family, friends and girlfriend, the town of Westhampton Beach and the school district, and the parents and coaches. They all shaped me into the person I am today and I was blessed to be raised in this loving community.”

Cassara was also a key lacrosse player at Westhampton Beach, having played varsity for four years, but his final two years were basically taken away from him, due to COVID last year and then a lingering hamstring injury from football that continued into this past spring, limiting him to a handful of games in his senior season. While he didn’t get to play as much lacrosse as he would have liked throughout his time in high school, Cassara will be able to continue his playing career at the University of Tampa.

While many student-athletes have had a rough go of it over the past year or two due to the pandemic, Cassara remained very positive throughout it.

“I wouldn’t have changed anything, even with corona,” he said of high school career. “Coronavirus shaped the future for a lot of players, but many of us also took advantage of the virus, meaning when everybody had to be quarantined, of course we still followed all of the guidelines, but I got myself a squat rack and bench, and I just started getting ready for football season. Of course I would never want what happened globally, but what it did for me, it wasn’t too bad. I’m very happy with my high school career. I think it’s just me being hard on myself, I feel like I definitely could have done better, but overall I’m happy with how everything went.”