Crismale Burgarella, Kara

Kara Crismale-Burgarella's career highlights at Guilford High School are innumerable: 1,195 career points, playing for the 1992 Class L state championship, listed in USA Today as one of the top 20 players in Connecticut in 1993.

But there were the little things, too.

“I also recall when I scored my 1,000th point in high school against Lyme-Old Lyme High School,” Kara said. “We were playing at home and my grandfather was at the game and keeping track of my points. I scored a basket (which was the 1,000th point), and he came running out on the floor to hug me in the middle of the game! We were fortunate not to get a technical foul.”

It's for those reasons that Kara's advice to up-and-coming basketball players would be to embrace every moment you are playing the game.

“The games you play, the people you meet, and the lessons you learn will stay with you for the rest of your life and be the cornerstone of your future success,” she said.

Kara graduated from Guilford in 1993, with her teams compiling a record of 81-16 during her four year varsity career. The Indians were Shoreline Conference Champs in 1992 and league runners-up in 1991 and 1993. The 1992 Class L state championship basketball game was the first in program history.

Kara was a two-time All-Shoreline pick (1992-93), a member of the New Haven Register's All-Area team (1993), a New Haven Tap-Off Team (1992-93) selection, and a Hartford Courant All stater (1993). Her career earned her induction into the Guilford High School Athletic Hall of Fame (2009) and the New Haven Tap-Off Basketball Hall of Fame (2012).

Kara went on to play at Colgate University, where she still holds the record for most 3-point attempts in a single game, going 7-for-14 in a 1997 matchup vs. Canisius. She eclipsed the 1,000-point barrier for the Raiders, as well, and earned All-Patriot League honors in 1996.

Kara graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2002 and is currently a partner at the law firm of Faulkner & Graves, P.C., in New London, concentrating in personal injury litigation. She became the youngest female board certified Civil Trial Advocate in Connecticut in 2012 and has been elected as a “Rising Star” in Super Lawyers Magazine each year since 2010.

Kara and her husband Richard live in Guilford.