Forthofer, Piccirillo Earn Senior Scholar-Athlete Awards

BOSTON, Mass. – Two Wentworth Institute of Technology senior student-athletes had the department’s highest honor bestowed upon them as men’s lacrosse player Tyler Forthofer (Glastonbury, Conn.) and women’s lacrosse player Lisa Piccirillo (Islip, N.Y.) earned the Carl A. Swanson and Eugenia Louise Sweeney Senior Scholar-Athlete Awards, respectively. The awards are given annually to a male (Swanson Award) and female (Sweeney Award) who has exhausted their eligibility, has a minimum grade point average of a 3.25, and has excelled in his or her sport while showing exemplary character.

Forthofer and Piccirillo were honored at Wentworth’s Varsity Ring Ceremony, where 48 senior student-athletes who have completed four years in their respective sport received a ring. This year marked the 19th year of the event and over 600 student-athletes have been recognized through the years.

A four-year mainstay on defense and co-captain of this year's Leopards squad that won a school-record 11 games and advanced to the finals of the ECAC Tournament, Forthofer picked up 34 ground balls and caused 14 turnovers while helping the defense post a 7.46 goals against average, the second-lowest in program history. Six of his 14 caused turnovers came in a 12-10 loss at the University of New England in the ECAC championship. The Leopards’ 11 wins in 2013 was a marked improvement from their 2-11 record in 2012 and the 11 wins were one more than the previous three seasons combined.

Starting 37 of the 45 games in which he played in over his career, Forthofer ranks fourth all-time with 32 caused turnovers and 13th in program history with 112 ground balls. He also scored a pair of goals and had three career assists. He earned All-Commonwealth Coast Conference honors this past season and became just the second Wentworth men’s lacrosse player to ever be selected to play in the USILA North/South Senior All-Star Game.

In addition to balancing academics and athletics, Forthofer has been actively involved in the ROTC program as an Army ROTC scholarship student and was commissioned earlier in the day. Forthofer will serve seven years of active duty and one year of reserve duty. He served as a member of Wentworth’s student-athlete advisory committee and volunteered for Hurricane Sandy relief on Long Island last fall.

When Piccirillo arrived at Wentworth as a freshman, the department did not offer the sport of women’s lacrosse. With some assistance from classmates who had also played the sport in high school, they began the process of starting a club program. In the fall of 2010, the program began with players having a wide range of experience.

Continuing as a club program in the spring and fall of 2011, Piccirillo’s efforts had paid off as Wentworth announced that women’s lacrosse would become a varsity sport for the 2012-12 season – in time for her senior season.

A captain at both the club and varsity levels, her varsity debut saw her finish third on the team in scoring with 16 points (11 goals, five assists), with five of her goals coming on free-position shots. Off the field her she served as an orientation leader for two years, took part in alternative spring break as a sophomore, and graduated from the “Soar in Four Leadership Program” where her capstone project was volunteering to organize and run a lacrosse clinic for high school girls lacrosse players. Lisa has been a part of Wentworth’s Accelerate Challenge where she has done extensive research on women’s lacrosse headgear and has been working on prototypes, in hopes of making this project a reality. This past spring Lisa was one of 14 Wentworth student-athletes to be inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma, the national college athlete honor society.

Both student-athletes will receive their Bachelor’s degree at Wentworth’s commencement on Sunday, August 25. Forthofer was a Mechanical Engineering Technology major, while Piccirillo majored in Industrial Design.