WESTFIELD, Massachusetts (August 16, 2024) – The Futures Collegiate Baseball League announced its winners of the 2024 Adam Keenan Sportsmanship & Scholarship Award, with Jackson Haker receiving the honor for the Westfield Starfires.
The award, which “is bestowed upon the player who exemplifies the outstanding attitude, character and sportsmanship that is synonymous with Adam Keenan’s legacy," is named after the late Adam Keenan, a Lowell, Massachusetts native who was a member of the former Seacoast Mavericks during the FCBL’s inaugural season.
Keenan passed away on June 6, 2011, due to an undiagnosed rare heart condition called Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy. His family began the Adam Keenan Foundation to help ensure that athletic facilities have automatic external defibrillators accessible.
Haker, a third-year member of the Starfires, has donned the team’s uniform for a combined 88 regular season and playoff matchups, second-most in franchise history. In 2024 he earned an FCBL All-Star Selection for the first time in his career, coming off his junior season at American International College where he earned his second-straight Northeast-10 Conference Academic All-Conference selection.
Haker, who will be attending Central Connecticut State University for the 2024-25 academic year, is the only player in franchise history to play in all six of the team’s postseason games.
The league, alongside the Keenan Family, has recognized one athlete from each franchise since 2020 with this prestigious award. Westfield’s previous winners are Danny Crossen, Hunter Pasqualini, Shayne Audet, and Josh Frometa; Crossen, Audet, and Frometa each played at least two seasons with the squad, with Audet joining Haker in the small group of three-year Starfires.
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