Carmen Congelli, a Marlboro High School student and star athlete, died on Saturday night after a long battle with rhabomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue. She was 17.
She missed no softball games throughout the 2010 season, despite undergoing weekly chemotherapy treatments. She was awarded the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's Spirit of Sport Award in February.
She was the only child of Ray and Joann Congelli of Marlboro.
Congelli was the Journal’s softball player of the year last spring, and was first diagnosed with the disease in September 2008. She missed all but five games of the 2009 softball season, but won Mid-Hudson Athletic League Player of the Year in 2010, hitting .450 with 13 RBIs for the MHAL champion Iron Dukes. Congelli also played soccer and basketball at the Ulster County school.
"She's just an inspiration to everybody — not just athletes, but people in general," Marlboro athletic director and family friend Jonnah O'Donnell said in December. "She lifted this community up and gave them a reason to pull together. They fight for her. They look at life differently."
She helped her team to the state playoffs twice in her time at Marlboro. On Dec. 14 of last year, she became just the fourth softball player in Marlboro history to have her number retired.
“It means a lot to my daughter,” Joann Congelli said of the ceremony at the time. “It means a lot to my husband and I. The community, as Carmen said, is wonderful.”
