Cupertino High Senior Wins CCS Scholarship

Announced last week, the Central Coast Section recognized six scholar athletes and awarded the select few with a 2011 scholarship award.

Among the six athletes named was Cupertino High senior Abby Sywe.

Sywe, the female athlete of the year at Cupertino for the 2010-11 school year, plays volleyball and basketball for the Pioneers and will be attending UCLA in the fall.

The Joyce Ridgeway Memorial Scholarship Award was awarded to Sywe for her relentless work ethic and drive to be the best.

Sywe doesn’t enter anything she does halfway. Instead, the gritty Cupertino High senior charges forward and never gives less than 100 percent.

“I actually went onto the CCS site to look for when the boys basketball team would be playing and saw the scholarship opportunity,” Sywe said. “I never expected to win it. There’s so many amazing athletes all across the section. When I received the message that I had won, I was walking to class. I was really excited and very grateful.”

Her essay submitted showcased her growth throughout her high school career.

She stated, “I was once afraid to put in 100 percent of my effort. What if I tried my hardest and failed? I still fear failure, but I’ve learned to consider only the option of 'do' rather than 'not do'.”

Joyce Ridgeway was the very first CCS Assistant Commissioner whose strong advocacy of women’s sports helped model major changes to the previous CIF model.

One of the people not surprised that Sywe would win such an award was Cupertino Athletic Director Craig Ellegood.

“I thought she deserved it,” Ellegood said. “She’s such a strong leader on campus, especially on both of her teams (volleyball and basketball). She’s very active and juggles everything well.”

The Cupertino girls volleyball team qualified for the CCS playoffs for the first time in Sywe’s career this past fall.

On the hardwood, Sywe and lefty guard Ashley Park, formed a dangerous one-two scoring combo for the Pioneers throughout the girls basketball season.

Cupertino started 2-0 in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division play with wins over Homestead and Los Altos.

Girls basketball head coach Paul Williams coached Sywe in three of her four seasons at Cupertino.

“I’ve coached some great scorers and a lot of very talented basketball players, but she’s truly the best,” Williams said. “She’s the hardest worker I’ve ever coached. I’m really proud of her.”

A team captain during her junior and senior seasons, Sywe did her best work leading by example.

During back-to-back games in a preseason tournament this year, Sywe ended up battered in both contests. After a hard hit on day one, the Pioneers guard suffered another hard collision that drew a lot of blood from her nose the very next day.

“There was so much blood, I had to take her back into the locker room to get the bleeding to stop,” Williams said. “Once I was just done patching her up and she had a lot of gauze in her nose, she asked me if she was cleared to go back and play. That’s the type of player she was. I think we lost that game by a few points, but you could tell the crowd really appreciated Abby’s effort coming back from such a hard hit.”

At UCLA, Sywe plans to major in Microbiology. Her college hunt spanned both coasts, but her love of the California sun kept her on the West Coast.

“I actually thought I was going to go to the East Coast,” Sywe said. “But I realized I didn’t want to leave California and really liked UCLA. It’s definitely the place for me.”

CCS scholarship awards ranged from $500 to $1,500. Sywe, who also holds a 3.976 GPA, was awarded $500.