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The Berlin Citizen — Thursday, January 26, 2012
Mother-son team navigating Redcoat swimmers By Jim Bransfield Special to The Citizen
The Berlin High boys swim team is a family affair. That is, when it comes to coaching. This season, Dan Thurston, son of head coach Eileen Thurston, is an assistant coach of the Redcoats. “It’s a pleasure learning from and working with my mother,” said Dan. “We both bounce ideas off each other and are both comfortable with criticism from each other. She has a lot of knowledge about how to deal with the
whole swimmer, both in and out of the water, and for a young coach that’s really helpful.” Coach Mom agreed that coaching with her son is pretty cool. “It’s great to work with him,” she said. “It is always a gift to be able to share a passion with your child, and to work side by side with him is the best gift of all.” That cooperative spirit is especially important this season because it’s a rebuilding year for the Redcoats. Some 17 seniors graduated and no team can take that
Youth Sports
Wrestling
The Berlin Minutemen traveled to Meriden to compete in the highly-competitive team duals. The first match was against Mayo Quanchi from Rhode Island. The Minutemen took an early lead with wins by Isaac Cortes and Trevor Graham. J.P. Gorneault kept things going with a pin. Riley Hanson then dropped a close match. Nathan Orde had a tough loss as well, but Eli Watson got the Berlin back on track with a technical fall. Luke Mangiafico won by forfeit and Daniel and Josh Veleas picked up wins. Pins by Nick Aborio and Kevon Bradley pushed the Minutemen out to a 41-18 lead. Losses by Ronnie Watson, Calvin Johnson and Marcus Alleyne closed the gap. Jared Zima went on to pick up a win, as did Seth Pelletier, but with three forfeits and other losses Mayo Quanchi pulled out a 71-59 win. The second match pitted the Minutemen against Warwick PAL, Rhode Island. Wins by Trevor Graham, J.P. Gorneault, Josh and Daniel Veleas, Nick Aborio, Marcus Alleyne, Jared Zima and Seth Pelletier were not enough as Warwick topped the Minutemen 72-48. In their third match, against Bristol, the Minutemen had wins by Trevor Graham, J.P. Gorneault, Riley Hanson, Josh Veleas, Nick Aborio, Marcus Alleyne, Jared Zima and Seth Pelletier, but were topped by the Gladiators 84-46. In the final match of the day, Southington was too much to
handle, topping the Minutemen 72-53. Winning for Berlin were Eli Watson, Daniel and Josh Veleas, Nick Aborio, Marcus Alleyne, Jared Zima and Seth Pelletier. Winning all their matches on the day were Nick Aborio, Josh Veleas and Jared Zima. Minutemen Coach Roger Moss said, “this is a very long and tough day of wrestling that gave our young wrestlers a full day of quality matches ... Losses now will prepare us for the state tournament in about a month.”
Basketball Third/fourth grade Parks and Recreation Huskies 22, Hornets 21: Huskies scoring - Zachary Hrubiec 8, Jake Dubuc 4, Tyler DeGroff 4, Clemens Henning 2. Hornets scoring - Charles Nims 8, Jacob Sparks 6, Timothy Stapell 5, Jackson Roman 2. Tar Heels 36, Bulls 23: Tar Heels scoring - Camden Murphy 12, Zack Murray 8, Danny Lynch 8, Ryan Salee 4. Bulls scoring - Mark Addamo 13, Peter Cugno 4, Anthony Undercuffler 4, Kyle Krupa 2. Spurs 28, Knicks 24: Spurs scoring - Paul D’Amore 12, Justin Piskorski 10, Aiden Jones 4. Knicks scoring - Jeffrey Madeia 12, Jake Holmes 8, Dominic Accarpio 2, Joseph Caracoglia 2. Florida 24, Celtics 11: Florida scoring - Paul D’Amore 14, Jack Carroll 4, Justin Piskorski 4, Trevor Miano 2. Celtics scoring - Jacob Darewonko 9, Nathan Capodice 2.
kind of hit and maintain the level of quality the Redcoats have achieved in recent seasons. “We are a smaller team than we’ve been in recent years,” said the head coach, pointing out she has 19 swimmers in action. The Redcoats have also been up against some good competition. Berlin opened with a 91-87 loss to Simsbury, then lost to Hall of West Hartford, 100-77, Rocky Hill, 94-85, Manchester, 99-79, and Newington, 92-83. “We are optimistic for the rest of the season,” Eileen Thurston said. “We anticipate having an exciting division schedule in the remain-
ing month and a half. We have two divers [Nathan Giaccone and Jakub Cwieka] who are very close to qualifying for states. “Already this is a very different team than the group that stepped into the water the first day after Thanksgiving.” Thurston listed her best swimmers as Dan Klotz (100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Ryan Marquis (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 50 freestyle), Luke Switzer (100 breaststroke), and the two divers. “Dan just missed breaking the school record in the 200 freestyle against Hall and the 100 butterfly against
Manchester,” said Eileen. “Nathan [Giaccone] had a score of 158.55 and just missed qualifying for states against Newington.” Thurston said she was especially proud that her inexperienced team is on a streak of four straight in which there have been 40plus best times registered. “That’s a tough accomplishment,” she said. “Our swimmers and divers have put in a lot of work and are seeing that effort pay off.” She also said that another notable accomplishment was one turned in by Tom Drozdzowski, a novice in the butterfly, dropping his time from 1:29 to 1:19 in a week.
Qualifies
pointers by Nick Moshier (6 points) was a shot in the arm for the Blue Devils, but it wasn’t enough. Jeremy Desimone had a good quarter for Berlin, scoring all five of his points, and Mozzicato added six as the Redcoats padded their lead, 39-25. An acrobatic bucket in the lane by King put Berlin ahead 43-25 at the outset of the fourth, and the Redcoats kept coming. Plainville’s Matt Thomas (3 points) indicated the Blue Devils’ defense was lacking this night. “We gave up too many second-chance points,” the junior forward lamented. “Our offense
comes around with our defense. It has to start from there.” “I play my heart out. We all work hard,” Thomas added. “We just have to keep working.” UPDATE: The good times continued for Berlin this week as they survived East Catholic, 49-46, on the road Monday. A pair of free throws by Gilbert with 4.5 seconds to play, his only points of the night, sealed the deal for the Redcoats, who were led by Mozzicato’s game-high 22 points. Gilbert was sent to the line after making a clutch steal.
mally do.” Plainville has held teams to just below 33 points per game this season. Micowski praised Kelley Slabinski, Katy Dressel and Mikayla Wells for their defense Friday. “We’ve been a really good defensive team all year,” the coach said. “When we fall short, it’s because our offense doesn’t produce. We’re working on that.” Berlin’s play had a lot to do with that in this game. “Being a small team, we’ve made some adjustments offensively and the girls have adapted just fine,” King said. “I’ve been most pleased with the ability to play 10 to 12 kids a night. That allows us
to execute a tight game plan. At 11-2, we feel we’re winning the games we should. We haven’t stumbled yet. I hope that continues.” Ashley Malloy added six points and five rebounds for Berlin, who got points from eight different players. Paige Young had four points and five rebounds, and Kailene Rampone chipped in with five points.
Continued from page 21 day. “It’s his first year of varsity and he’s exceeding expectations.” A 3-pointer by Colin King (7 points) extended Berlin’s advantage to 22-14 in the second frame, and the hosts headed into the break leading 26-14. Plainville’s Kreyshon Shuler scored all four of his points in the second. The Redcoats’ Tommy Undercuffler also had four points in the period. He finished with 12. In the third, a pair of 3-
Lady Continued from page 21 said of Trzasko. “She’s been working real hard for hours after practice focusing on her outside game, and it’s paid off.” Plainville (7-5, 6-2) could never get going on offense. Alle Caponigro led the Blue Devils with nine points on 4-for-6 shooting, but Plainville made just seven of 32 shots overall. “We were tentative on offense and we weren’t making things happen,” Plainville coach Jen Micowski said. “[Berlin] executed on a lot of what they ran, but we kind of stood around. We didn’t attack the basket like we nor-
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