Scholarship Recipient Selected by Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance

Johanna “Hanny” Wolkoff of Farmington High School is the 2020 recipient of the $3,000 Bo Kolinsky Memorial Sports Journalism Scholarship from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance. She will receive the award, named after a longtime Hartford Courant sportswriter and past CSWA president who died unexpectedly in 2003, at the 79th Gold Key Dinner on Sunday, June 14, at the Aqua Turf Club in the Plantsville section of Southington.

Wolkoff has been involved with student journalism since her freshman year, and as a sophomore, she was the sports editor of The Voice, the school’s student newspaper. She served as the paper’s managing editor as a junior and editor-in-chief as a senior, while also anchoring the sports updates on the school’s weekly news broadcasts. Recently, The Voice was honored with an award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Wolkoff attended the selective School of The New York Times journalism program last summer. A top student, she was a senior captain for the field hockey and softball teams. She will continue her education at the University of Maryland.

Gold Key Award recipients for 2020 are five legendary scholastic coaches: Cookie Bromage (Enfield field hockey), Joe Grippo (Morgan girls volleyball and girls basketball), Lou Milardo (Hale-Ray softball), Ricky Shook (Danbury wrestling) and Angela Tammaro (Greenwich Academy field hockey and lacrosse). Baseball Hall of Fame honoree Claire Smith, 2017 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, will receive the President’s Award.

The Gold Key Dinner was inaugurated in 1940, with baseball legend Connie Mack and golf superstar Bobby Jones among the initial recipients. T

The roster of honorees since then reads like a Who’s Who of Connecticut sports – Joe Cronin, Julius Boros, Willie Pep, Lindy Remigino, Floyd Little, Joan Joyce, Otto Graham, Calvin Murphy, Gordie Howe, Bill Rodgers, Geno Auriemma, Rebecca Lobo, Brian Leetch, Kristine Lilly, Marlon Starling, Dwight Freeney and ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen are just a few of the past Gold Key winners. A complete list is available at www.ctsportswriters.com.

Tickets to the Gold Key Dinner are $75 apiece, and may be reserved by contacting CSWA President Tim Jensen of Patch Media Corp. at tim.jensen@patch.com. Proceeds from the event benefit the scholarship fund.

Photo credit: Joan Winner of Winner Photography LLC