Rossi, D'Annunzio Selected as County Scholar Athletes

The Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference recognized two Scotch Plains-Fanwood high seniors Wednesday for their work on the field and in the classroom.

Kelsey Rossi and Joseph D'Annunzio were honored as Scholar-Athlete Award Winners at the awards dinner. The county selects two students — one boy and one girl— from each school in Union County.

Rossi was a member of the Raiders swimming and track and field teams and was also recently honored for her athleticism by UNICO District X. In addition to serving as a Raider, Rossi has also swam for Jersey Gators and Highland Swim Club.

She will attend Cornell University in the fall, where she plans to swim.

D'Annunzio played soccer and baseball for the Raiders. He will attend Rutgers University, where he will continue his baseball career. The two-sports star made the commitment to the New Jersey university last fall.

"I will miss soccer to some extent, but baseball is my true sport,'' D'Annunzio said at the time. "I'm more talently gifted in baseball. But I love both sports."

Rutgers is a member of the Big East Conference along with schools like Villanova, St. John's in New York City, Syracuse, and West Virginia. The league has a reputation of grooming Major League talent.

"I saw myself possibly going south or west, but I visited the school and it was a lot 
different than I thought,'' D'Annunzio said. "It has a great business school and it's more of an engineering type of school. If baseball doesn't work out long term, I'd like to fall back on my dad's family business. It's also close to home and if I need anything they're close by. They can come watch me play. That was a big part of it."