BERNE —  Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate Quinn Toomey, of Berne, has his sister to thank for his designation as the Class of 2021 valedictorian. 

She was named salutatorian — the second-highest grade-earner in a class — four years ago, when Toomey was a freshman in high school.

“I had to beat her,” Toomey told The Enterprise.

To that end, Toomey has had an illustrious career as a student, summed up in the bevy of awards he earned earlier this month when the school acknowledged the achievements of its seniors. 

In addition to being named valedictorian, Toomey received the Arlene B. Lendrum memorial award, a BKW Band Award, the George Martin Memorial Sports Award, the Harold H. Murphy Memorial Scholarship, and others. 

Toomey — who played both baseball and basketball at BKW — will bring his academic and athletic abilities to Keuka College, in the Finger Lakes region, where he’ll continue playing baseball. He plans to study applied mathematics and finance with the goal of becoming a financial advisor.

“Throughout high school, I’ve always been good at math,” Toomey said, “and I had a math teacher, Mr. Morin, who used to be a financial advisor. I talked to him and he urged me to look into the financial advisory field, and now I’m looking to do that as my career.”

Toomey will be joined at Keuka by his former basketball teammate, Zeke Pulliam, who also signed a letter of intent to continue his athletic career there.

Toomey said he isn’t very nervous about the transition to college, explaining that he’s “always been good at being independent.” 

In a profile posted to BKW’s online news bulletin, Toomey expressed disappointment in the way the coronavirus pandemic suffocated his final year at the school and prevented him from seeing friends who, under the hybrid system, attended school in person on opposite days that he did. 

Toomey told The Enterprise after his graduation ceremony, held at Tawasentha Park in Guilderland, that although it “would have been nice” to have a ceremony at The Egg, the Albany theater where BKW has held its ceremonies in recent years, “it was still nice to have everybody there, and we were given seven tickets for family and friends, so it wasn’t too bad.” 

Now Toomey looks forward to graduation parties being held over the next few weeks. 

“I went to one, the afternoon after graduation,” Toomey said, “and I went to another one yesterday. It’s weekends for the next three weeks or so. My friend … had one at his place — he’s got a cabin on the lake so we went swimming and stuff. It was really nice.”