Squash Season Preview

by Cameron Van de Graaf
  

Many students closely follow major winter sports such as hockey and basketball. However, another game is slowly gaining traction at Darien High School. Squash is a sport rarely associated with public schools, but the DHS squash team has done a great deal to change that perception. Ranked as the number one public school team in the nation, the team looks to retain that classification and make headway against stronger private schools. Leading the charge are junior stars Jonathan Gill and Dominick Hansford as well as senior captain Kincade Webster. Although the team has lost seven seniors, Webster remains positive, “We've got a young team, as there’s only 1 senior in the top 7… but that is in no way going to hold us back as we push hard through the year.” Juniors make up the bulk of the varsity squad, as no underclassmen are currently starting. According to Webster, the primary long term goal for the team is improving its divisional ranking at Nationals in February. The team kicks off the season with a match against Greenwich Academy on 11/30 at 3:30 PM.

Check out the profile of star Darien player Jonathan Gill at http://bluewavesportsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/athlete-profile-jonathan-gill-squash.html

A more in depth profile of the team can be found in the upcoming January edition of Neirad.

Photo: Last year's championship team.

Athlete Profile: Jonathan Gill: Squash Prodigy

By Jenn O’Neill

          Junior Jonathan Gill does it all. He started on the Boys Varsity Soccer team, maintains good grades as an honor student, and this year he plans on leading the DHS Boys Squash team to FCIACS as well as States, just like his twin sisters Madeline and Leslie Gill did last year for this girls.

          Jonathan got started at a very young age. His dad played for 40 years so when Jonathan was old enough to walk, a squash racquet replaced toys. He has been playing for 9+ years now and it certainly has paid off.  As of right now, Gill is ranked 2^nd in the country in the Boys U17 bracket and 10^th in the Boys U19 bracket. Not to mention, he is the star player for the Darien Squash team!

          So how is this sport played? Squash is similar to racquetball. Basically, one hits a ball against a wall, and has to retrieve an opponent’s shot within one bounce. There are various ways to improve, such as drills to improve power and accuracy, and sprinting to boost stamina.

          As a whole, squash is one of the smaller sports teams at DHS. Gill encourages everyone to try out squash. “I’ve never met a person who disliked squash—try it sometime!”

The Girls Hit the Ice

By Julia Cobb

As the fall sports season draws to an end, Darien High School athletes pack away their cleats and shin guards and prepare for the new winter sports season. The Girl’s Varsity Ice Hockey team is looking forward to an exciting and competitive winter. The team was a strong competitor in the championship tournaments last winter but ultimately lost in the finals of the FCIAC championship and in the CIAC tournament semi-finals. Senior captain Emily Tropsa is optimistic about the upcoming season. “Galen Rohn is back playing again this year and will have an impact. Junior Lily Christensen will play a huge role and we expect Sophomores Ellie Bennett, Katie De Haas, and Sage Thacher to really step up this year. Sophomore Shannon Hall is returning in goal and should have a strong year,” said Tropsa. While the team graduated key defenders Ellie Bullitt and Lauren Perkins, and Emma Tuz on the forward lineup, the team still has high expectations for this season. “We are trying to rebuild the team this year. One of our biggest goals is to get everyone on the same page and playing together as a team,” said Tropsa. With hard work and early morning practices the girls hope to contend for both the FCIAC and CIAC championships. The team starts off its season with its first game against Glastonbury on December 9th at Newington Ice Arena at 8:40PM.

Athlete Profile: Will Smelser

By Katrina Vassell

Along with his fellow swimmers, junior Will Smelser has begun training for the upcoming season. Tryouts are a week away, and he is working hard to achieve record times—this year he hopes to cut down his freestyle time to 4:45. With high goals in mind, Will hopes to help his team win FSIACs, Class L, and State Opens. “I think that we have a really strong team and if we work hard enough we can definitely win the champion meets,” said Smelser.

Smelser began swimming at the age of seven at the Darien YMCA and has achieved his goals with the help of supportive coaches and friends. Immersed in a tightly knit community of swimmers, Smelser has learned the value of teamwork. Most importantly, Will learned the value of hard work and determination. His hard work finally paid off when he broke his five minute record in the 500 freestyle last year.

 Currently, Smelser is able to maintain his devotion to the sport while balancing his schoolwork as a junior. By using each moment in school productively and working diligently during free periods, Will is able to save time for swimming. “I have found that swimming helps me with school because I’m a lot more responsible and better at managing time,” said Smelser. Swimming is a major aspect of his life and has helped him become a dedicated individual. In the future, Will pictures himself swimming in college and eventually winning the YMCA national meet.

House Basketball Power Rankings Are Back!

by Reed Barthold

Last year, The Blue Wave Sports Blog took the liberty of ranking and giving our opinion on the 9/10 and 11/12 House Basketball boys league. The articles received a tremendously positive response with over a thousand views for the first few articles.

This year the rankings will be led by me covering the 9/10^th grade teams and Matt Brown following the 11/12^th grade. The House rosters are to be released in the next two weeks or so and be sure to expect a Power Ranking prediction before the season starts. Stay tuned to the blog for upcoming articles on the league and any upcoming pre-season Power Ranking predictions.

For the 9/10 league If you want to contribute to the rankings by reporting scores and stats of your game, please feel free to email rebarthold@darienps.org.

The 12th Man

by Danny Rizzuto

This Boys Soccer Season has been a wild ride for the team.  Coming off a disappointing season last year, a majority of us were not excited for the year coming up.  That all changed when Jon Bradley was named coach.  There was a glimmer of hope for the program now, and the entire team was ready to give their all.  The season did not start off as planned, suffering a demoralizing defeat to Westhill by a score of 7 to 1, which was luckily overturned.  Away from home our first game, our team did not expect a turn out.  But as the game progressed, it seemed as if we had the home field advantage.  The girls team after practice had come to our game, and they were making twice the amount of noise of anyone else there.  Even as we were losing, the girls team supported us until the bitter end.

The Girls Soccer Team are the loudest bunch of people I think I have ever met.  They out screamed any other crowd we faced, making every game they attended for us have the feeling of a home game.  From their loud “BLUE WAVE SOCCER” chants to their odd fascination with Goalie Jack Fisher, the girls were an integral part of our team.  While seniors Eric Kanigan and Elliott Helgans fought for the ball on the field, seniors Marieke Bravo and Sara Shaker took the fight to the stands with their words and voices.  I don’t believe I know a girl out there louder than Sara Shaker, and I expect her to lose her voice in college.  She said of the season, “I lost my voice at the Brian McMahon game at the beginning of the season and I am yet to get it completely back.  I have never had so much fun going to a sporting event as I have had at the boys (soccer) games.  The team has brought a lot of spirit to this school.”  All the girls deserve complements for their encouragement, and without them I seriously doubt we would have achieved as much as we did.

As the season progressed, we started winning.  We liked the feeling of winning, and so we did everything we could to keep winning, and the school took notice.  Slowly students started making their way to our games.  One individual, Senior Jack Rehm, is someone I have to recognize as our greatest fan.  This kid came to almost every one of our games.  Whether he was in the stands cheering with friends or in his car escaping the cold, I knew that Jack Rehm would be watching the Boys Team.  Before every game, in school, he would seek out soccer players, walking up to them, pushing them around and say, “Are you ready?” psyching us up for the game to come.  His pump up speeches in Journalism made me excited for every game; I could not wait to get on the field.  “You guys did a good job of interacting with the fans and made every win feel like a win for the crowd and every loss hurt us just as much as it hurt the team,” said Rehm.

With Rehm came many more people, people I never knew would ever be interested in our team.  I don’t know if it started as an excuse not to go home or genuine support for our team, but soon we had a following.  Familiar faces returned every game to root us on; to rally us through trying times and difficult games.  At every game there was someone there and at the big games there was everyone.  The crowds at the New Canaan games were phenomenal; thank you for everyone who came out.  Looking over and seeing such a profuse number of fans motivated us more than any speech could.

The Westhill game remains special to many people who were there; at what other sport can people storm the field and it be ok?  The turnout to this game was amazing.  I could not comprehend the amount of people who decided to attend the game and neither could the rest of us.  We were no longer only playing for ourselves; we were playing for everyone in the crowd.  “It was an overwhelming feel of ecstasy watching the game.  As I was watching I would turn to my peers and state ‘This IS soccer,’” said senior Cal Kevorkian. 

The Football Team wasn’t our number one fan going into the season.  It was clear that there would be a quiet rivalry between the two teams.  Except, it didn’t stay quiet.  It was soon obvious through trash talking that each team wanted to do better than the other, silently wishing for the other to lose. I hate to admit it, but Football’s unbeaten streak outlasted ours.  On the other hand, our unbeaten streak consisted of more games.  This rivalry was so heated that after our 1-0 loss to Wilton, the Football team went into a cheer on their bus.  However, as our season went on, I started to see some football players attend our games.  There still may have been a rivalry, but I knew that there was a respect (at least from some players) forming between the teams.  After practices some players would come over to watch the end of our games.  We may not have the best relationship, but I still feel the football team deserves a thank you; for motivating us to do well and for eventually coming to support us. 

The point of this blog is to say thank you to everyone who came to our games.  It felt like we had 12^th man on the field when everyone was cheering for us.  The fans made this season special to the team, and I can only hope that next year’s team will earn the same respect.

   

The Fall Season in Review

By Jay Alter - As the fall season turns to Winter, I reflect on the season that passes us by…

Girls Field Hockey – They lost 14 seniors and only returned 1 starter, but they beat the #1 team in the country earlier in the season, Lakeland, and finished the regular season undefeated. It looked like the genius of nationally recognized coach, Mo Minicus, was clicking on all cylinders as they kept getting wins heading into the postseason. They were looking for their 5th consecutive FCIAC and State title, but the drive for five ended when they fell to Staples in the FCIAC semi-final and Wilton in the state semi-final. The team had a lot to overcome, losing a lot of key players and trying to play with an entirely new team, but they found success in the regular season with an undefeated record, it is unfortunate they were not able to bring home a postseason trophy. MVP: Galen Rohn; Most Improved: Kat Huber
Boys XC – The Boys Cross Country team beat Danbury in the regular season for the first time since 2004 as they went 17-0 in the regular season. However, they fell to Danbury in the FCIAC finals and came in 2nd place. They went on to win the state tournament and place 9th in New England’s, which is an amazing feat. MVP: Charlie Baird Most Improved: Marshall Huffman
Girls Soccer – The Girls Soccer team had a lot to overcome this season. They lost their longtime head coach, Jon Bradley, to the guys team and lost superstar goalie, Charlotte Phillips, and striker, Georgie Highton. Fortunately, they overcame the losses with a great season. They qualified for both FCIAC and State tournaments, but did not bring home any hardware. MVP: Leslie Yuen/Marieke Bravo Most Improved: Dillon Schoen
Boys Football – They only returned 3 starters from a team that won the FCIAC championship last season and had a lot of attention and pressure coming from the amazing season last year. Junior QB, Henry Baldwin, and the Darien tenacious defense silenced all the doubters early as the Boys finished with an outstanding 8-1 record as they prepare for the Turkey Bowl against New Canaan. The winner of the games season will continue to the state tournament while the loser will be done for the season. MVP: Henry Baldwin Most Improved: Harlan Smith
Girls Volleyball: After going undefeated the entire season, Darien Volleyball was not able to come up with the State title for the second year in a row. They still captured the FCIAC crown and were dominant all the regular season, it is just unfortunate they could not have their “perfect season”. MVP: Katie Stueber Most Improved: Nina Preston
Girls Swimming: I am still trying to figure out how this team could lose to New Canaan in the regular season, then lose to them again in FCIACs and then BEAT them in States. The reason on how they beat the rams in states really doesn’t matter, what matters is Darien Swimming did take home the state title this year after finishing tied for 5th in FCIACs. MVP: Olivia Leunis Most Improved: Caroline Orem
Girls XC: The girls went 15-2 in the regular season and were FCIAC In-season Champions. Besides qualifying for State and State Opens, the team had one All FCIAC runner, junior Grace Loh, and two 2nd FCIAC Team runners, junior Ellen Bauer and senior McKinley Stauffer. At the banquet, Coach Steve Norris expressed how proud he was of all members of the team, from Varsity to J.V. to Freshmen. The Varsity top seven will only be losing three seniors for the 2012 season, Stauffer, Alex Pear and Meredith Ott, so Darien High School can expect another great year from Girls Cross Country next Fall. MVP: Grace Loh Most Improved: McKinley Stauffer
Boys Soccer: This team had 2 wins last year and now with a new coach and a new motivated team they were able to record 14. They made it to the FCIAC semi-finals and the State quarterfinals and won the FCIAC east regular season division. This team defied all odds and made a name for themselves in the FCIAC and State this season. Darien Boys Soccer is not only not a “mockery” anymore, but now they are bordering a powerhouse as they look to return FCIAC player’s of the year, Spencer McMullin and Brennan Branca, as well as Goalkeeper Jack Fisher. MVP: Elliott Helgans Most Improved: Jack Fisher