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Angelo Coniglio said that when his daughter started playing hockey
in 1973, it had to be on all-boys teams because there were no girls
hockey teams.
As fate would have it, there was an opening on an all-boys team with
the Wheatfield Blades and after some convincing, Angela, at age 7,
was placed on a team and she took full advantage, tending net for
several years and helping the Blades win multiple championships. She
also played goalie on several other hockey house league boys teams
during the same time period.
At the time, Angelo Coniglio said his daughter did not consider
herself a pioneer; she just wanted to play.
“She encouraged other girls,” he said. “We have a fan letter from a
16-year-old girl who was congratulating her and saying she wished
her parents would let her play hockey.”
He said after a few years, girls hockey teams formed, but she didn’t
want to play on them because she did not think they were competitive
enough.
Angela Coniglio also played goalie for the Amherst High School boys’
club hockey team, earning MVP honors and helping the team win the
league championship in 1984.
She shined at Amherst, earning varsity letters in softball, field
hockey, basketball and soccer, and was named captain of the field
hockey and basketball teams.
In her senior year, she was named to the ECIC II all-star soccer
team and scored a school record 27 goals.
By the time she graduated in 1984, she held the highest accumulation
of athletic points in school history.
“She was very competitive in everything she did,” Angelo Coniglio
said.
Angela continued her success at Nazareth College, playing soccer and
softball from 1984 to 1987.
In soccer, she set school records for most career assists with 31,
scored 42 career goals, graduated as the No. 2 all-time scorer with
115 points, and led the team to four consecutive winning seasons and
a 50-22-5 record.
In 1985, she led Nazareth in scoring with 18 goals and six assists.
Her 14 assists in 1986 was also a school record.
Coniglio was also a three-year starter in the outfield for the
Nazareth softball team, helping the team to a 28-7-1 record.
In 1988, she graduated from Nazareth with a degree in biology.
After receiving her teaching certification from Daemen College in
1989, she went on to teach science and biology, and coach several
sports at high schools in Batavia, Auburn and Port Byron.
In 1995, she was named to the ‘Who’s Who of American Teachers’.
Coniglio also participated in numerous Empire State Games. She won a
silver medal in 1984 for the Western scholastic women’s soccer team
and continued to represent the Western Region until she moved to the
Syracuse area as a science teacher in 1987.
She won bronze for the Central open women’s team in 1995.
Funds from her estate established an ongoing scholarship in her
memory in 1997; it is given annually to an Amherst High female who
excelled in athletics and plans to pursue a career in the sciences
or education. In 2016, the funds were transferred to the Community
Foundation for Greater Buffalo, where a perpetual endowed
scholarship is given for future Amherst High girls.
The Coniglio family also donates scholarship money to Angela’s many
cousins so they can pursue their academic interests in college.
The remainder of her estate was presented to Nazareth to establish a
permanent endowment to support the school’s women’s soccer program
for uniforms and equipment.
Angelo Coniglio also credited the help of his wife, Angie, for
driving their daughter from hockey practices to soccer games in the
same day, while Angela changed uniforms in the car. |
