We-Ha–West Hartford Magazine’s seventh annual ‘Terrific Teens’ spotlights local teens who are making a difference in the community – and for this year’s photo shoot we headed to Westfarms.

By Aaron Green, photos by Todd Fairchild

Even though this is West Hartford Magazine’s seventh annual feature on local teens in West Hartford, the task of choosing the young adults to interview hasn’t gotten any easier.

Our goal has always been to find the kids who capture attention not just because they earned the best grades, or the most points in a game, but because they are all around good kids. As you can imagine, there is no short supply of eligible students.

This year features 2017 graduates who hail from Conard, Hall, Kingswood Oxford, and Northwest Catholic. Our tradition is to pick one male and one female from each school – but the male from Hall has a twin brother, so we had to be inclusive!

Why Westfarms? We strive to seek unique areas of town that maybe have history, or significance to the families. Since Westfarms has been a part of our collective history for over 40 years, it provided an interesting back drop for our photo shoot this year.

Here is the first male from Hall, a twin.

Benjamin Kriedel – “Future Pro Baseball Pitcher”

Ben graduated from Hall High School, and said that being a pitcher for the school’s baseball team was one of his major accomplishments. He was constantly tested throughout his career as a reliever, but through it all embraced the role, kept his head held high and a smile on his face.

Late in his high school career he was recruited by Western New England College, where he is now a student and hopes to compete for a starting role in the pitching rotation.

Ben said he is a fan of the sciences, and will major in biology.

Ben has a twin brother, Tanner, who attends UConn. He said that his parents gave both “everything we needed to succeed and encouraged us to be the best we could be.”

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Andy Pettitte is Ben’s role model – “because of his toughness and perseverance and reserved personality.”

A quote that Ben lives by is “Why not?” It inspires him because he is willing to do anything despite how reserved he may appear to be.

When not playing baseball, Ben’s hobbies include playing pickup basketball, soccer, and swimming – which he said he does to stay in shape for baseball season.

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