Well before COVID-19 required it of everyone, Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings and Sacred Heart University swimmer Bryana Cielo displayed courage beyond their years.
The pair of Connecticut athletes was honored via Zoom presentations as April’s recipients of the Hartford HealthCare Connecticut Courage Award, which includes a plaque and a $1,000 donation in their name to their universities for scholarships to help future students achieve their dreams.
The two were selected by a panel of writers and sports information directors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the Associated Press and College Hoops Illustrated, as well as the program’s ambassador, former UConn basketball standout and Hall-of-Famer Rebecca Lobo.
Each month between November and April, two inspiring student athletes, one male and one female, have been recognized as Hartford HealthCare Connecticut Courage Award Winners.
“Hartford HealthCare is excited to recognize these two remarkable young student-athletes, who despite setbacks, have overcome challenges to continue to perform their best as both scholars and athletes,” said Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and chief executive officer of Hartford HealthCare. “Our organization’s purpose is to help people live their healthiest lives, and both Bryana and Kurt’s courageous stories of recovery and perseverance are an inspiration to all.”
Rawlings, pictured above, a senior quarterback on the Yale University football team, helped win an Ivy League title in his sophomore season, passing for 2,320 yards and 19 touchdowns. Unfortunately, a year later, the Maryland native fractured his leg in a game, just after his mother was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. She underwent 24 rounds of chemotherapy, 21 rounds of radiation, surgery and treatment with experimental drugs. In July, her cancer was in remission.
As Rawlings prepared for the 2019 season, he faced a double challenge. He needed to rebound from the injury and outperform Griffin O’Connor, who was named 2018 Ivy Rookie of the Year as Yale’s quarterback in his absence. By the time the season started, Rawlings regained his starting job with the same perseverance as his mother. He completed his career setting every career passing and total yardage record at Yale and being recognized as Ivy Player of the Year. He led the Bulldogs to a 9-1 record and the 2019 Ivy League Championship with a 50-43, double-overtime win over Harvard in which he passed for 417 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 62 yards.
“I feel incredibly blessed to have had the teammates and coaches I had to help support me,” he said, “but even more blessed to have my parents who have always been there for me. They have given me everything and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to spend some time helping them for a while.”
Cielo is a senior swimmer at Sacred Heart University who earned all-conference honors at her Montville, N.J., high school and a scholarship to swim for Sacred Heart. During the 2016-17 season, she was an New England Conference (NEC) Academic Honor Roll member and a key member of the Pioneers’ 200-medley relay, school-record-setting team.
She was forced to end her stellar 13-year swimming career, however, after two grand-mal seizures and a diagnosis of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy during the summer before her junior year of college. Doctors determined that training put too much stress on her body and increased her risk of drowning.
Despite having to sit on the sidelines for her junior and senior seasons, Cielo remained a valuable member of the team as she motivated and inspired her teammates. In January 2020, after one year seizure-free, her doctors and coaches allowed her to swim one final race — the 50-meter freestyle at the NEC Championships. As if pulled from the pages of a Hollywood script, she swam the best time of her life and finished sixth in her heat. She chronicled her journey in a blog here.
“I dreamed for years about what my senior meet would be like and I wasn’t going to miss my chance,” she said, “no matter what the circumstances. I feel so lucky to have felt the rush of the water one last time.”
In May, one male and one female student-athlete will be chosen from the 12 finalists as Hartford HealthCare Courage Award Winners. Hartford HealthCare will donate $15,000 to the general scholarship funds for the 12 student athletes selected as finalists, with $2,500 being awarded in the names of each of the two winners and $10,000 on behalf of the other 10 finalists. The winners will be recognized at a special ceremony with Lobo, who served on the Board of Directors for Hartford Hospital, where she was born.
“We thank Hartford HealthCare for helping us create a platform to share the personal stories of courage for student-athletes at colleges and universities throughout Connecticut,” said Doug Vance, executive director of CoSIDA. “We hope the stories of the personal challenges that these remarkable young men and women have battled can inspire other young people to show courage in the face of adversity in their own lives.”
Sports information directors at all colleges and universities in Connecticut can nominate deserving male and female intercollegiate student-athletes through March 30 at HartfordHealthCareCourageAwards.com.
Not feeling well? Call your healthcare provider for guidance and try to avoid going directly to an emergency department or urgent care center, as this could increase the chances of the disease spreading.
Need to see your doctor? New Patient? For more information about Hartford HealthCare virtual health visits, click here.
Click here to schedule a virtual visit with a Hartford HealthCare-GoHealth Urgent care doctor.
Stay with Hartford HealthCare for everything you need to know about the coronavirus threat. Click here for information updated daily.
Questions? Call our 24-hour hotline (860.972.8100 or, toll-free, 833.621.0600).
Get text alerts by texting 31996 with COVID19 in the message field.