Bridgeport, Conn. - Tyrone Hall of the Queens men's basketball team, Thomas Liantonio of the LIU Post men's lacrosse team, Missy Sadler of the St. Thomas Aquinas women's basketball and softball teams, and Mike Williams of the LIU Post football team have been named the 2018 recipients of the John Smillie, Jr. Award.

This award is given in honor of NYIT Athletic Trainer, John Smillie, Jr. who passed away two years after battling cancer.  The John Smillie, Jr. Award is given annually to a student-athlete or student-athletes who have overcome personal or physical challenges and hardships to pursue their intercollegiate athlete careers. John Smillie's children were in attendance to present the awards.

Tyrone Hall
In the summer of 2015 while preparing for the upcoming season at Queens College, he was playing in a summer basketball game in the renowned West 4th summer basketball league. During a game, Hall suddenly collapsed and went into Cardiac Arrest. Against all odds he regained consciousness from this episode and was rushed to the hospital.

After seeing numerous specialists he was diagnosed with an Anomalous Right Coronary Artery and would need immediate surgery in order to have a chance to live. This condition if the second most frequent cause of sudden cardiac death in youth athletes.  From here Hall needed open heart surgery to correct the condition that could take his life without any warning. Though his surgery was successful this was only the beginning of his recovery.

Hall would spend the next year recovering from open heart surgery, and working tirelessly to reach his goal of a return to college athletics. With a new permanent implant monitoring his every heartbeat, and after a full year of recovery, he was cleared to compete for the Queens College Knights prior to the 2016-2017 season.

Over the past two seasons, Hall played in 45 games for the Knights, averaging 9.3 points per game in over 22 minutes played per contest. This past season, he averaged 12.2 points per game, while leading the ECC and ranking in the top-10 in Division II with a three point field goal percentage of 46.5 percent.

Thomas Liantonio
Liantionio missed the 2017 season while overcoming a potentially life-threatening inflammatory cardiomyopathy (heart infection) and after being cleared for that condition, his doctors found that he had a mass growing above his eye and was putting pressure on his brain and eye.

Within three weeks from the start of his headaches he underwent a craniotomy and eye orbit reconstruction to remove the mass. After recovering from surgery in January, Liantonio made his way back to the lacrosse field and helped lead the Pioneers to the final of the ECC Championship. He showed no signs of rust by scoring 21 points on 12 goals and nine assists in just six games. Nine of those points came in the ECC Championship, six of which came in a semifinal win over Mercy.

Missy Sadler
Sadler was diagnosed with a hearing impairment when she was just 2 years old and has been wearing hearing aids since the age of 3. 

Sadler said playing sports was the biggest hurdle to overcome in her life, and it’s a hurdle she still must clear every day. She still cannot wear hearing aids on the court or on the field, so teammates must speak louder than usual or use hand signals to communicate with her. 

On the court, Sadler helped the Lady Spartans to an ECC Championship by averaging 3.8 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game over 32 contests. On the softball diamond, she was an All-Conference selection after hitting .351 with 33 hits in 94 at-bats. With both sports, Sadler has been an inspiration to her teammates and coaches these past two years and continues to get better and better despite her disability.

Mike Williams
In April 2016, during Spring football season, Williams developed some health issues and was forced to go for an evaluation at a nearby hospital. A colonoscopy revealed a diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis. Doctors placed him on prescription medications to alleviate the symptoms. Unfortunately, the medications did not relieve the symptoms and he was given a surgical intervention to aid in his treatment. As he continued to lose weight, Williams was then administered a second surgery. The symptoms persisted and did not subside. June rolled around and Williams was given the news that he would need a third exploratory surgery.

Williams was nervous and decided to transfer hospitals to be cared for by an expert in the field. Physicians removed his Colon and implanted a catheter. His situation then stabilized and he was no longer losing weight. After playing at a weight of 185lbs, he was down to 110 lbs. Physicians informed him that he would need two more surgeries to reconfigure what was once his colon and intestinal track.

In September 2016, he underwent another surgery to replace his J pouch.  He was set for another surgery in December 2016 to remove the catheter and complete the reconfiguration of his digestive system. 

Williams then re-enrolled in classes and began working out. He gradually started putting weight back on and eventually gained all of his weight back. It was late July, when Williams was finally given a clearance to return to the gridiron. LIU Post Athletic Trainer Shawn McNamara had this to say about Mike. "I was personally amazed and in awe of the hard work and dedication portrayed by Mike. He is the toughest and one of the hardest working individuals I have come across in my tenure as an athletic trainer."

In his comeback season, Williams finished with 109 rushing yards on 27 carries, an average of 4.0 yards per carry, and added 13 catches for 123 yards.