This spring season, Sadie Passante, a junior and dominant soccer and basketball player at the Morgan School will be starting a brand-new sport to her, lacrosse, fulfilling a legacy set for her by her late grandfather. 

Along with most of her extended family and her friends, her grandfather, Bob McHenry, played lacrosse and was even honored for it in the lacrosse hall of fame in both Connecticut and Pennsylvania for his contributions. The McHenry shoreline All-Star Lacrosse Jamboree is also named after him and is an annual event for youth lacrosse across the Connecticut shoreline. 

“I wanted to play lacrosse to honor my grandfather. He was an incredible lacrosse coach who coached at Yale and many other places. I didn’t know him young enough to learn about and share his love for lacrosse, so I want to try it out to see what it’s all about,” said Passante. 

Since a very young age, sports have always been a very significant part of Passante’s life, whether she was playing soccer outside with her siblings or actively participating in structured sports teams. She has been playing soccer for ten years and basketball for eight. Growing up in a busy house as one of seven children, her home was always filled with chaos, and she always had something to do. There was always someone to help her with her homework or someone to talk to when she was bored. Even now, she still constantly competes with her siblings. Passante joked that on an almost nightly basis, she plays living room basketball with her younger brother Rocco, making sure not to go easy on him.

Passante said, “I am very close with all my siblings, and we are all very competitive, so we were always competing at something, whether it was sports or just simple things. Throughout my childhood, I was especially close to my two younger siblings, as we all have similar interests and share our love for sports, specifically soccer.”

Along with town travel and rec teams, she has been playing club soccer for Rush CT since third grade. “I have had an amazing experience, and have been able to experience several different college-level coaches,” Passante said. When she first started playing, there was not a team for her age, so she played “up” a level, and some of the people she met on that team are still very close to her. “The team I have now, I have been playing with for several years, and I could call each of my teammates my best friends. It is so much fun to be able to do my favorite thing [soccer] with people I love,” she added.

At all different levels in her athletic career, she has had many different coaching experiences. Some extremely intense

coaches and some very laid-back coaches. “Some coaches have increased my love for soccer, encouraging me and helping me get better. Although I have had negative coaching experiences where the coach was very degrading, causing me to dread going to practice. I was able to find my love again through coaches who deeply cared about me and pushed me to improve,” said Passante. 

Though she is only a junior, Passante has recently announced her verbal commitment to play Division I soccer at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), starting in the fall of 2026. For most high school athletes looking to pursue an athletic career at the collegiate level, the recruiting process is very hard and extremely long.  

She said, “I’ve always known I’ve wanted to play soccer in college, and it has been a dream of mine since I was little, so I felt so excited when I was finally seen by CCSU as it was always my dream to play DI.”

Passante started her recruiting process her freshman year of high school, going to several ID camps, trying to showcase her ability, but struggled to be seen for the first couple of years of recruiting because her club was not the best in the league. 

Eventually, through different connections of past coaches, CCSU noticed her and came to one of her club games. “When they came to my game, I was nervous, but knew I had to perform to the best of my ability so they would further their recruitment process with me. It was a very quick turnaround because after that, they gave me a tour on campus. Honestly, once I stepped on campus, I knew it was the place I wanted to be. There is a certain feeling that you can see yourself there, and that is what I felt. I loved the coaches and the players I met, and the campus was so nice. It is the perfect size for me as it is around middle-sized, and the turf was just redone, so it was really nice. I met with the coaches, and they offered me. I didn’t take long to commit, as I knew that’s where I wanted to be,” Passante said. 

With being a successful high school athlete, there are also sacrifices that have to be made. While participating in club soccer, Passante was also on an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team, Connecticut Storm. She started playing for her team in 5th grade, and though she loved it and her experience, it became hard for her to juggle both this team and her club soccer team at the same time. “With club soccer and AAU basketball, I felt like I was mis

sing so much of both, and letting down both of my teams. I had to make the hard decision to quit so I could focus on soccer,” she said. 

“Specifically, in my last couple of years, I had incredible coaches who pushed me and were some of the nicest people ever. But overall, I am happy I made the decision as I couldn’t commit to both and love soccer more,” she added. 

Though Passante has been playing both soccer and basketball for most of her life, this spring season she has joined the Morgan girls’ lacrosse team, and will be playing for the first time. “I’m so excited to start lacrosse this year and just want to have fun. I love being busy and wanted to try something new, and lacrosse stood out to me as my whole extended family and a lot of my friends play it,” she said.

Passante has not only the talent, passion, and dedication for her sports, but she also has quite a collection of achievements under her belt. She is a two-time First Team All-Shoreline athlete and a two-time Connecticut Class S First Team All-State athlete for soccer, earning the titles her sophomore and junior seasons. In basketball, she was Honorable Mention her sophomore year, and this past season she was First Team All-Shoreline.

She has been a part of three of the four consecutive Shoreline Morgan Girls Soccer Championship teams, and also played in the Shoreline championship for both soccer and basketball this year. She also played in the Class S State Championship for both soccer and basketball, though the teams came up short of a win.

“One of my favorite accomplishments is winning Player of the Game for the state-semifinals game [against Somers] for basketball this year, or making it to the state championship and also earning all-state,” said Passante. 

Though already committed to a college, Sadie Passante is certainly not done with her high-school career and has about four more seasons of sports left to finish out before she moves on.