Staff photo / Greg Macafee. Brookfield's Sophia Hook (left) and Girard's Thomas Cardiero (right) were named Trumbull County Players of the Year on Monday night.

HOWLAND — Brookfield’s Sophia Hook and Girard’s Thomas Cardiero are finishing their high school careers on a high note.

Both seniors were awarded the Trumbull County Player of the Year award Monday night during the Trumbull County Coaches Association banquet at Leo’s Ristorante in Howland.

Hook becomes the third player in Brookfield girls basketball history to win the award, joining Sue Chomos (1992) and Bailey Drapola (2019).

Cardiero becomes the fourth player in Girard boys basketball history to win the award, joining Nick Cochran (1988), Greg Morgan (2001), and Dylan O’Hara (2015).

“It’s a great feeling, I’ve worked very hard all these years to win something like this,” Cardiero said. “It’s a great feeling to see all of that hard work pay off.”

Hook added: “I feel like this is a great way to end my career. I know we didn’t go where we wanted to in the playoffs, but I feel like this definitely boosts my confidence and it just shows everyone that hard work pays off in the end. Just be a team player and things will pay off.”

Throughout their careers, both played big roles in their program. Hook has earned All-County and All-MVAC honors since she was a freshman and was named the conference Player of the Year as both a sophomore and a senior. She finished her career at Brookfield with 1,535 points and also earned All-Ohio 3rd team honors as both a senior and sophomore.

“Every day it seemed like she was getting better and better,” Brookfield coach Ken Forsythe said. “You wouldn’t think it was like that with a player like her, but she still gets better and better each day.”

With the ability to look up to players like Drapola, Hook said she never necessarily focused on finishing her high school career by winning this type of award, but she wanted to stay in the moment. But, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy with how it turned out.

“I tried to look towards it but just focused on playing the game and having fun with my friends,” Hook said. “This was my last year and it was definitely fun playing with them.”

“The amount of time I’ve dedicated to basketball, I’m really glad it paid off in the end.”

Hook said she’s undecided on where she’s going to college but she definitely has plans to pursue her basketball career at the next level.

Like Hook, Cardiero has played a big role for his program throughout his high school career and finished his four years at Girard’s as the program’s second-all-time leading scorer.

His impact goes all the way back to his freshman year when he started for coach Craig Hannon. As the years went on Hannon said you could start to see Cardiero take a step forward when he needed him most.

“In his freshman year he was really just a spot-up shooter and by the time he was a senior, he was everything to us,” Hannon said. “He had to do so darn much for us but he took it on his shoulders and did everything we ever asked.”

Hannon said that more often than not, he would hand the ball to Cardiero down the stretch in close games and say it was his to win.

“I would tell him you’re going to have to win us this one and when we needed him to do that, he did it,” Hannon said. “That’s what made him great, he sensed when that needed to happen and he did it quite often for us.”

Hannon’s belief in Cardiero as a freshman gave him confidence throughout his career to excel and step up in those big moments. This past year he scored 17.3 points per game and grabbed 9.8 rebounds and was named the NE-8 player of the year as well.

For the Girard senior, it was nice to see the hard work pay off.

“It’s been crazy, It feels like just yesterday I was a scrawny little freshman playing my heart out, trying to get as much playing time as possible,” Cardiero said. “Now, to be here and win this award, it’s such a great feeling.”

gmacafee@tribtoday.com