Winter Sports Preview

Winter+Sports+Preview

Girls Basketball – The first girls’ basketball game will be held on Monday , December 13th at New London High School . This year the girls will be coached by Kaitlyn Sullivan, a special education teacher at Clark Lane Middle School, and will also have two assistant coaches, Coach Long and Coach Mecca, who bring a wealth of experience, knowledge, and excitement to the program. Sullivan says , “My goals for the season include, returning to the ECC final and qualifying for the state tournament, having a winning record, and building a program of girls who are role models and give back to the community. I look forward to building a program of girls who will be positive role models for our future Lancers. Our team is most excited to have Lancer Nation back in the stands supporting us!”.

Competitive Cheer – Last year’s cheer squad won States. Katlyn Brown, long-term cheerleader and senior, who participates in the fall football cheer program as well as the winter competitive cheer program commented on the upcoming season: “I would say there isn’t just one or two, but there are multiple stars coming up. Some of them are Adriana Caba, Jamarys Olivero, Ava Hume, Aeracura Henry, and I could possibly keep going.” Coming off a state win in 2020, Brown says, “This year we have an eight person team which is a drastic difference then what we had the year we won states.” As there are only four people returning out of the eight person team, Brown says, “I cannot wait to see what the year brings and I really do think we could go places this year, but anything could happen.”
Boys Basketball- The WHS boys basketball coach William Bassett is excited for the new season. Bassett mentioned a few players that have had a big impact on the team in the past. Jordan Elci (senior) and Nolan Gollsneider (senior) are expected to have a really good year. Bassett states, Sean O’Connell (senior) was the “anchor to last year’s team.” EJ McCue and Pat Barrs are a couple seniors that Bassett has high hopes for this season. Underclassmen that should have a chance for impact this year will be juniors, Logan Peabody and Evan Piotrowski. Bassett says, “We are looking forward to being able to play a full season along with an opportunity to play in the GameDay Holiday Showcase at Mohegan Sun.”

Fencing- The fencing team won ECCs and States in 2019 and 2020 for women’s foil and epee, and with a lot of new athletes and one of the largest teams in recent history, Captain Danielle Nykyforchyn believes they have a good chance of winning ECCs and States again. With the return of captains Nykyforchyn and Taylor Wininger-Sieve, the team has strong leadership, as well as upcoming talent, like sophomores Maple Siu and Kyijong and freshman Hazel Siu. For men, Alex Silverman will help lead men’s epee. The senior squad for foil include Corey Samataro, Derek Valencia, and Ashnan Arshad
Wrestling- After a season off the mat just working conditioning, the WHS Wrestling team is finally back to competitions. Head coach Mr. Gamble is very excited to be able to return to normal with limited restrictions. He says there are lots of new people on the team and thinks that this year will be a good year for building up their strength and talent. Some people to keep an eye on are Lucas Gannotti, a freshman who has previous wrestling experience and a good work ethic, and Mason Concascia, a senior who won ECC during his sophomore year.

Indoor Track – The indoor track season is being set into motion. There are many promising things to be seen this season. Coach Kevin Blackburn and Coach J Criscuolo are looking forward to the season this year but there are still complications due to covid, “We expect to have a season but everything is up in the air but for now we are just in practice mode.” Even just with it being practice they still expect high things from the athletes. “We want them to go 100 all the time.”

There are many students running, and many returning athletes, there is great promise from the whole team. But they expect great promise from returning runners; Maddy Myers, Abby Maynard, Julia Cameron, Alexa Collins, Emma Devito, Kameryn Mazzulli, Emilia Podeszwa, Evan Child, Jay Zimmermann, Theodore Joseph. The coaches expect to have a great season, and they cannot wait to get back out there with the team and have some fun.

Boys Swimming – Boy’s Swimming and Diving is splashing into a transition season with new head coach Shannon McGuckin.The team placed 3rd overall in ECCs last year. Now with seniors Kevin Kilcommons, Liam Pescatello, Liam Pickett, Max Whitlock, and sophomore Noah Weskcott leading the team, they are looking forward to another successful year.