Winter and Spring Athletics
student athletes. This team was extremely respectful of each other and their opponents, and represented South Kent School very well. Challenging / Unique / Rewarding - great season, South Kent Varsity Basketball!!! Submitted by Coach Gary Benz
Prep Basketball The 2014-2015 Prep basketball season started with a lot of promise. The team had depth and talent and size. And although the season concluded with an invite to the prestigious National Prep Championship tournament (which showcases the top ten teams in the country) and 19 wins, one can only wonder what could have been if the team had been healthy the entire year. The injuries, which included cartilage in the knee, torn ligaments in the thumb, ankle injuries and thigh contusions, gave others the opportunity to step up when we needed them the most.Travis Atson, who came off the bench early in the season, took on a starting role and increased his offensive production when KJ Santos went down with a torn ligament in his thumb. Others who stepped up during the season included Shunto Murakami and Ryan Sweeney in the backcourt, and Jovan Grujic and Chris Wright in the frontcourt. The team was led by fourth form sensation Tremont Waters. Waters led the team in scoring (22.34 PPG) and assists (5.34 APG). Waters was the guy that made the team go, but he had plenty of help. Aaron Carver seemed to be the team’s “Mr. Everything.” Carver led the team in rebounds (9.17 RPG), played multiple positions and always seemed to come up with the big play. Carver will play at Old Dominion University next year. In the frontcourt, 7’2” Tyler Jackson was slowed early in the season with an injury. Fortunately, 7’0” Jovan Grujic and 6’9” Chris Wright were able to man the ship until Jackson’s return. Grujic, who will attend Stephen F. Austin in the fall, and Wright were assigned to protect the paint and guard the opponents’ biggest and strongest players. They did all of the dirty work and did it well. 14 • The Hillside Fall 2015
The addition of Jackson in December gave the team another low post scorer with size. Jackson came on like gangbusters, averaging a double-double in points and rebounds the second half of the season. Jackson will attend UC-Santa Barbara in the fall. This season the team had some major accomplishments. They remained a top ten team in the country for the entire year. For the second year in a row they were invited to the National Prep Championship tournament. Waters reached the 1,000 point mark in only his fourth form year. The most important stat this year is that the team attained its highest GPA in over seven years. The 2014-2015 South Kent Prep Basketball team joins a list of other Cardinal teams to finish as one of the country’s top ten teams this year. Along with soccer, hockey and baseball, South Kent has a history of athletic success. Despite all of the setbacks the Prep Basketball team encountered this season, they persevered and had another superior year. Submitted by Coach Kelvin Jefferson
Varsity Hockey Faced with a long season ahead of us, we prepared ourselves for a competitive and extremely difficult year. Young and very inexperienced, the South Kent varsity hockey team had a profuse amount of work to put in in order to be successful. After a week of practice, we traveled to the Gunnery to play Shepaug High School. After a long game, Shepaug came out on top, beating us with a whopping score of 6-0. This game determined the mindset for all of our veteran players on the team and showed all the new guys just how hard it was going to be. Over the next few weeks of the season, we worked hard in practice, developing the basics for all of our new players, and working hard to improve the overall strength of the team. We would later play Shepaug at the new Stockdale Arena; this game would be the first game ever played in the new rink. The odds were against us; many did not believe in us and felt bad that “the first game in the new arena would result in a loss.” After three periods and the final buzzer, the South Kent varsity hockey team came out on top with a 3-1 win against Shepaug. This was the first