Pryll Earns Asquith Scholarship

The seventh annual Asquith Athletic Legacy Scholarship was awarded to 2023 Cassadaga Valley Central School senior athlete Brooklyn Pryll, the only girl on the varsity wrestling team.

The annual monetary award is presented to a male or female senior athlete who embodies the values and beliefs Art Asquith lived and taught throughout his decades-long athletic, teaching and coaching career. The scholarship was established in 2017 when the school announced naming the new high school gymnasium in Asquith’s honor.

Pryll started on the wrestling team in seventh grade and this year went to the first New York State tournament for female wrestlers. On her days off from practice, she could be found in the school’s fitness center working to increase her strength and wrestling moves. Pryll, a Sinclairville resident, will attend Canisius College in Buffalo this fall with plans to study veterinary science.

“I was blessed with an amazing athletic and professional career,” said Asquith. “We should never take for granted the physical and mental benefits that athletics brings into a child’s life. It helps to build strength of character and physical well-being. On behalf of my family, we are happy to contribute in a small way if it helps make a difference in a young person’s life.”

The scholarship is awarded annually to one student-athlete who consistently demonstrated the characteristics which were the hallmark of Asquith’s career at Cassadaga Valley — integrity, hard work, kindness, commitment to excellence, consistency and a love for CVCS.

Asquith’s CVCS career began in the late 1950s as its elementary physical education teacher, eventually moving into coaching varsity baseball and golf, track and field, girls basketball and football as well as serving as the school’s athletic director. He established the Asquith Senior Golf Tour in 2005 and continues an active lifestyle at age 94, working out weekly at Darwin’s Fitness and still hitting the links. He’s been inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame, Western New York Baseball Hall of Fame and CVCS Hall of Fame.