June 18, 2018

One of the most popular members of Huntington High School’s Class of 2018, Isabella Annunziata has enjoyed a magnificent four years of excelling in classes, participating in clubs and contributing to the Blue Devil lacrosse team’s success.

Soon it will be time for the teenager to move on to Penn State University. But first, she was honored at the Team Piccola Scholarship Award recipient for 2018. The scholarship was presented to Ms. Annunziata at the 50th annual Blue Devil senior athletic awards dinner in Louis D. Giani Gymnasium.

Huntington senior Isabella Annunziata.

“I am so honored to be recognized and receive the Piccola scholarship,” Ms. Annunziata said. “It is so special to me because Mr. Piccola was one of my Huntington Village Lacrosse Club coaches while I was growing up. He was one of the great coaches I learned from.”

Ms. Annunziata cites here exceptional organizational skills as the key to her success. She was honored this spring as a Distinguished Senior after compiling an academic average of at least a 90 during every semester of high school.

A member of the Relay For Life’s organizing committee, Ms. Annunziata has been inducted into the Italian Honor Society. Besides playing four years of high school lacrosse, she ran on the winter track team for two seasons. She engaged in a credit bearing internship as a senior with math teacher Michael Graziano. The teenager plans to study nursing at Penn State.

Bob Piccola and his wife, Diana moved to Huntington in 1995 and chose Huntington to raise their family here. Their twin children, Isabella and Nolan are also members of Huntington’s current senior class.

Isabella Piccola will be attending Pace University’s Pforzheimer Honors College in Westchester to study for a career as a physician assistant She received a scholarship to play on Pace’s NCAA Division II lacrosse team. Nolan Piccola plans to study communications and journalism at Cornell University in Ithaca. He’s been a mainstay in the high school’s science research program among many other activities.

The Piccola scholarship flows from Mr. Piccola’s commitment to give back to the game of lacrosse “that we all love and respect,” he said. He has coached boys’ and girls’ HVLC teams for many years. He also played the sport at Adelphi University, graduating with the Class of 1983. While playing at Adelphi as a sophomore, the team won the NCAA Division II national title. Following college, he played four years of lacrosse professionally with the NJ/NY Saints.