Watertown High Schoolers Honored in Will McDonough Writing Contest

WATERTOWN, MA - Two Watertown residents were crowned winners in the 2016 Will McDonough Writing Contest earlier this month.

Senior Sofia Farhadi and junior Nicole Frisoli, both students at Watertown High School, were awarded first place in the grade 12 and grade 11 divisions of the competition.

Farhadi won for her essay "If at First You Don't Succeed..." and Frisoli received top honors for her piece "Women in Sports."

The Will McDonough Writing Contest is presented annually by The Sports Museum and co-sponsored by Bank of America and the Boston Globe. Each year approximately 2,000 students in grades 4-12 send the museum entries, which are voted on by judges from the Globe.

The essays will be on display in the Will McDonough exhibit at The Sports Museum throughout the month. On April 8, Farhadi and Frisoli were also honored at a ceremony at TD Garden alongside their fellow winners.

In addition to having their work available for the public to read, the winners all received e-readers and were granted the opportunity to watch the Boston Celtics take on the Milwaukee Bucks from the press box at the Garden.

According to a press release the aim of the contest is "to encourage the development of language and writing skills while incorporating the topic of sports and concepts such as teamwork, respect, and perseverance."

It is named after Will McDonough, a Globe columnist for four decades who was the paper's only sports writer to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Photo 1: ​Senior Sophia Farhadi of Watertown receives a print version of her 2016 William McDonough Writing Contest winning essay “If At First You Don’t Succeed…” from Jackie MacMullan.

Photo 2: Watertown Junior Nicole Frisoli receives a print version of her 2016 William McDonough Writing Contest winning essay “Women In Sports” from Jackie MacMullan.