John Cardarelli (2001)

No CCRI golfer ever has combined athletic and academic brilliance better than Cardarelli did.  Besides leading the golf team to successive New England Region XXI championships in 1994 and 1995, as team MVP he helped the team finish #5 nationally with a 22-1 record in 1995 and twice was a first-team All-Region and All-Tournament selection.  Yet his junior college student-athlete accolades were starting to be recognized by being selected as a NJCAA Distinguished Academic All-American, NJCAA Academic All-American by Sport, National Scholar-Athlete by the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators and the Izzy Siperstein Award winner as CCRI’s top male student-athlete.  With High Honors, he earned a 3.7 GPA once graduating.  In 1997, Cardarelli graduated with a B.A. from Notre Dame, majoring in Government and International Relations.  He was in the U.S. Army Reserve, traveling the world extensively, and had served as a Press Secretary for Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana.