My recent time spent covering the
postseason for Hall and Conard has further reinforced my respect and appreciation
for the scholastic sports scene in West Hartford.
BASEBALL: On the baseball front,
Northwest Catholic made a powerful statement that it reigns supreme in town by
sweeping its two-game sets with the public school teams, but the level of play
across the board was almost certainly the best it’s ever been.
Credit the sensational work being
done at the youth level for the dramatic upswing. Atop the list is the West Hartford Amateur
Baseball Association, the brainchild of Rick Sanford and Steve Meucci. Their organizational acumen has been
tantamount in providing expert instruction for the players and guidance for the
players and their parents. They don’t
get nearly the credit they deserve, and neither do the people aligned with
them, some of whom I know (Elliott Lane comes to mind) and others whom I’ve yet
to meet.
Conard’s teams have been
consistently above average. The
Chieftains have qualified for the Class LL (‘L’ in 2005) tournaments for the
past nine seasons. They have won
first-round games the past two years, beating Hall last week and Xavier last
year, but have not moved past the next hurdle since 1975 when they lost to New
Britain in the semifinals.
Hall’s 12-win season ranks as one
of the best in school history. The
Warriors went 13-9 and won the CCC West in 2009 under Dave Masters, but winning
records on the diamond have been rare in the north end.
Neither school has ever won a state
championship, but with the quality work being done at the youth level,
primarily at the West Hartford Youth Baseball League where the philosophy is
focused on competing rather than just having fun playing the game, statewide
recognition is imminent.
Such recognition is familiar at
Northwest, where Cory Carlson and his dynamic staff have the Indians racing
toward their second Class S crown.
BOYS LACROSSE: For those who haven’t
seen it, I urge you to read my story in the West Hartford News on Conard’s
tournament ouster at the hands of Brien McMahon-Norwalk.
Talk about a coach who has
dedicated his life to a program, I give you Bill Condon. He battled to keep his emotions in check
after the 16-8 loss, but it wasn’t the setback per se that shook him.
Although he wasn’t prone to discuss
it at the time and I wasn’t about to pry into his inner feelings, I could tell
that this crop of seniors meant a lot to him and the thought of not being
together as a team anymore tore him up.
If that doesn’t convince you that your boy could learn something beyond
the game playing Conard lacrosse, I’m not sure I could provide that service.
At the core of the Chieftains’
senior group is Ricky Cotton. St. John’s
University is not only getting a dedicated athlete but a young man who will
enrich the campus with his leadership, tact and understanding. By fighting back tears, Condon was showing me
that his relationship with Cotton was somewhat closer to father-son than
coach-player.
Cotton starred in three sports at
Conard, so credit should also go to wrestling coach Chris Glowacki and football
coach Rob Cersosimo for developing a great athlete and a greater person.
The Norwalk outfit showed once
again that Fairfield County lacrosse continues to retain its superiority over
any team greater Hartford can muster. At
this writing, top-ranked Simsbury is still representing, but whether or not the
Trojans can become the first Class L/Division I team north of Cheshire to
capture a pennant remains to be seen.
GIRLS LACROSSE: The Hall girls
turned in another inspired performance for another of West Hartford’s dynamic
coaches, Steve Boyle, by turning back a capably upset-minded group from
Danbury, 12-11.
Even in the internet age, there was
no way Boyle could have known that the Hatters’ dramatic improvement stemmed
from the return to eligibility of a state-class athlete in junior Raven
Winters. With Winters supplying the
athleticism and fellow junior Pauline Kaplan winning draws and controlling the
area in front of the cage, Danbury was miles ahead of the team that Hall
dismantled early in the season.
“We didn’t even know Winters
existed,” Boyle said after the game. “We just knew based on their results
against the top teams in the state that they were very much improved.”
The Warriors are very young. Kelsey Smith is the only senior, and how she
distinguished herself in ultimately neutralizing Danbury’s dominance of the
draw. Boyle instituted a counterattack
strategy that Smith and Megan Tracy exquisitely interpreted. It was essential in Hall’s rebounding from a
three-goal deficit in the second half.
Boyle heaped praise on the effort
of his goalie Maddy Hooper, whose understanding of the position has advanced
light years. Hooper, just a sophomore,
will be among the state’s best by the time she graduates, if she’s not among
them already. As Boyle said, she not
only made spectacular saves, but disrupted the Danbury advances with aggressive
play around the crease, and ignited fast breaks with good decisions after
gaining possession.
Hall is not the quickest team
around but there is none smarter. Boyle’s
daughter Alannah and Cookie Aronow combine game savvy and excellent stick-handling
to create offensive opportunities. They
weren’t intimidated by Danbury’s defensive commitment to aggressive play.
Every team of Hall’s quality needs
some speed element and that is supplied by junior Hayley Mullins. While Mullins will go to college on a soccer
scholarship, she has the stuff to gain some All-State consideration in
lacrosse. Mullins printing down the
sideline, cradling the ball safely in the pocket of her stick, is a sight to
behold.
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