Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Berkshire League Announces 1st and 2nd All-Star Teams

By Pete Paguaga
@PetePaguaga on Twitter

The team was announced between the two semifinal games Tuesday evening
at Thomaston High School. Pete Paguaga/Register Citizen.
1st Team
John Stevens Northwestern
Robert Skinner Gilbert
Tyler Trillo Terryville
Nick Nemergut Wamogo
Connor Guiheen Northwestern
Drew Gagne Thomaston
Jacob Johnson Terryville

2nd Team
Dylan Martland Nonnewaug
Ben Timme Nonnewaug
Luis Cordova Gilbert
Yoharkey Sarmiento Gilbert
Alex Gagne Thomaston
Greg Porcelli Nonnewaug
Mike Jeffko Northwestern
Arthur Trent Terryville

Leon Verertto Award Winner
John Stevens Northwestern

Friday, February 22, 2013

Register Citizen Staff Picks Boys Berkshire League Tourney Champs

Peter Wallace, Sports Reporter, @pwallacesports on Twitter
John Stevens has helped lead Northwestern to an
18-0 Berkshire League record and 20-0 overall.
Pete Paguaga/RegisterCitizen.

Northwestern is the only undefeated team in the state, ranked 14th in the latest New Haven Register poll a midst a slew of Class LL schools.
It’s not the competition; the Berkshire League’s top echelon provides plenty of that.
It’s just that the Highlanders feature gears that other teams can’t control.
Pressure to stay undefeated? Call it inspiration instead.
Prediction: Northwestern

Sean Meenaghan, Assistant Sports Editor, @Sean_Meenaghan on Twitter
Gilbert has shown this season that when there playing their best basketball, few teams can take them down. 
The Yellowjackets feature the number one scorer in the Berkshire League with Robert Skinner who averaged 21.7 point per game this season and Luis Cordova who averaged 15 points leading their backcourt. 
Both Skinner and Cordova can reek havoc on any defense with their ability to knock down shots and the speed to drive past defenders.
Factor in strong post play from Marc Collins and key shots from Alex Brunoli, Gilbert has the best chance to take home the Berkshire League Tournament crown March 1st.  
Robert Skinner led the Berkshire League with
21.7 points per-game this season. Pete Paguaga/Register Citizen.
Prediction: Gilbert

Pete Paguaga, Sports Editor, @PetePaguaga on Twitter
The Berkshire League's top three teams this year, Northwestern, Terryville and Gilbert all have played excellent basketball this season. 
They all have stud players on their teams, John Stevens for Northwestern,is arguably the best overall player in the Berkshire League averaged 18.5 points per-game this season.
Gilbert has Robert Skinner who is the best scorer in the Berkshire League with 21.7 points per-game and has the ability to take over games at will.
Then there is Terryville with the youngest of the three, junior Tyler Trillo. This kid can flat out score at will, averaging 21.1 points per-game this season.
Tyler Trillo, is the anchor that has helped lead Terryville
 to the second-seed in the Berkshire League Tournament.
Pete Paguaga/Register Citizen
I have seen all three of these teams play each other this season and when either of the three are on it gets fun to watch.
With that in mind, I will go with the younger of the three players. Terryville will not only win the Berkshire League Tournament but in doing so they will put the whole Berkshire League on watch for next season.
Prediction: Terryville

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Berkshire League Announces 1st Team All-Stars

By Pete Paguaga
@PetePaguaga on Twitter

2013 Girls Basketball Berkshire League 1st Team All-Stars
Rasa Hamel-Northwestern
Maggie Eberhardt-Thomaston
Katie Burke-Nonnewaug
Teagan Dunn-Lewis Mills
Abby Hurlbert-Thomaston
Heather Kearns-Housatonic
Hope Schevchuck-Lewis Mills

Ed Kolakowski Winner:
Hope Schevchuck- Lewis Mills

Boys Berkshire League Tourney Schedule Released

By Pete Paguaga
@PetePaguaga on Twitter

The BL Tourney schedule for the Boys has been released.
All games at Thomaston High School.
The schedule will be as listed
Saturday
1pm No.4 Nonnewaug vs No.5 Wamogo
2:30pm No.3 Gilbert vs No.6 Thomaston
Tuesday
5pm No.2 Terryville vs Winner of 3 v 6
7pm Northwestern vs Winner of 4 vs 5
Friday
Finals at 7pm at Thomaston

Monday, February 18, 2013

Register Citizen Staff Picks Girls Berkshire League Tourney Champs


Peter Wallace, Sports Reporter, @pwallacesports on Twitter
It’s a tossup between Thomaston, Nonnewaug, Lewis Mills and Northwestern for the BL Tournament. The regular season didn’t really settle anything except a well-deserved Thomaston crown.
The Golden Bears were best over the whole season, but, for once, a tournament gets to decide who really best head-to-head team is.
Predictions should be easy. Thomaston beats the next two seeds, Nonnewaug and Lewis Mills, twice. End of story.
Nothing’s easy. Northwestern, 14-6, with double losses to Mills and Nonnewaug, tamed the Bears twice.
The Highlanders have a big, athletic front line. 
I’ll go with them, just because their regular-season record puts the “extra-interesting” stamp on this year’s tournament.

Prediction: Northwestern

Sean Meenaghan, Assistant Sports Editor, @Sean_Meenaghan on Twitter
Sean is putting all his eggs in the Chiefs basket and hoping
 Katie Burke can lead them to a tournament championship.
 Photo Credit: Pete Paguaga.
It is pretty hard to deny the dominance Nonnewaug has showed throughout the season. Senior Katie Burke ranked second in the Berkshire League in scoring with 16.9 per game but with players like Jess Fengler and Courtney Carlson who could easily get hot and score in double figures, offensive production should not be a problem for the Chiefs moving through the tournament.
Nonnewaug has to keep a close eye on the duo of Heather Kearns and Katie Heacox in their first round matchup against Housatonic Tuesday night. Both Kearns and Heacox were averaging at least 13 points a game this season and can spark the Mountaineers to go on a run. 
Teams like Thomaston and Lewis Mills have given Nonnewaug trouble this season. The Chiefs need to keep pressure on their opponent defensively and keep fouls to a minimum.

Prediction: Nonnewaug over Thomaston

Pete Paguaga, Sports Editor, @PetePaguaga on Twitter
It’s hard not to see a Berkshire League Tournament Championship game not be between Nonnewaug and Thomaston. 
I believe Nonnewaug will skate past Housatonic in the first round and then beat Lewis Mills in the semi-finals, who will beat Terryville in their first round matchup.
Pete is putting the pressure on the Thomaston faithful to help,
the Golden Bears win the BL Tourney. Photo Credit: Pete Paguaga
After witnessing both Thomaston and Nonnewaug games in person, I can tell you two things. Thomaston flat out earned the win in the first match up of the season when they won 46-41 at Nonnewaug; last Fridays match up not so much in my honest opinion. 
With Katie Burke on the bench for most of the first half, Thomaston should have put their foot on the gas and been up more than the 11 points they were up at half. It seemed like they didn’t want to close out the game before half.
But none the less when it was close at the end, the Golden Bears were able to count on Maggie Eberhardt to shut the door on the Chiefs, scoring the last 11 points and leading her team to the Berkshire League Championship.
Even though Thomaston has beaten the Chiefs twice this season, I believe that this game will come down to home-court advantage and after what I saw last Friday night my decision was pretty easy.

Prediction: Thomaston squeaks past Nonnewaug

Tell us below who you think will win?

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Wolcott Tech honors local hero

By Pete Paguaga
@PetePaguaga on Twitter
ppaguaga@registercitizen.com

Tonight Wolcott Tech High School honored a local recreation youth coach, Tim Considine who lost his battle with ALS in October.
Wolcott Tech athletic director Ray Tangary speaking about
Tim Considine. Credit: Pete Paguaga.
This wasn't the first game played in honor of Tim. Torrington High School played a game in his honor in January.
The idea for thaving the game came from sophomore basketball Matthew Dell'Agnese. From what his mother Dawn told me before the game, Matt played for Tim and really wanted to do something for his former coach.
When Matt got a new pair of sneakers, he made sure to put Tim's initials in the tongue of the shoe. That was just one of the many stories that I was told this evening about Tim.
The night started with a JV basketball game, between Wolcott Tech and Cheney Tech, which was pushed back 30 minutes, due to Cheney Tech coming late after being backed up by an accident on the way to the game.
John Dell'Agnese (right) speaks about Tim Considine as his wife
 Dawn Dell'Agnese (left) looks on.Credit: Pete Paguaga. 
After the JV game, Wolcott Tech athletic director Ray Tangary, John and Dawn Dell'Agnese and Tim's widow Cheryl stood at half court with some Wolcott Tech players that knew Tim.
Ray, John and Cheryl all talked about Tim and what he meant to youth basketball in the City of Torrington and to his family and friends.
"I knew Tim well," said Wolcott Tech head coach Rene Williams. "This was a wonderful event for everyone."
Coach Williams was reiterated by two of his players, both Danny Diaz and Luke Pergola.
Diaz who never played for Tim but knew of him as a coach.
Cheryl Considine, talking about her late husband Tim
and thanking Wolcott Tech for hosting the event.
Credit: Pete Paguaga
"This was a great event to be apart of," said Diaz.
Pergola though was closer to Tim and his family.
"We were real close family friends," said Pergola. "Our families went on vacations."
Other than the two high school games, there was a halftime game played by the Torrington youth basketball program and boy did they put on a show.
There was one player he wore #6 on the white team this kid could play. I didn't get a chance to interview this superstar, because after the game he ran back to his parents. But Torrington High School or Wolcott Tech might have a new superstar for the future.
Overall it was a great night, and a great event held by Wolcott Tech.
Also a nice surprise to all those in attendance, Ray Tangary announced that they have decided that the second to last home game every year will be the "Hoops for hero" game in honor of Tim Considine.
All proceeds from the game went directly to the Tim Considine Memorial Scholarship Fund.







Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Naugatuck Valley League Releases 2013 Football Schedule

By Pete Paguaga
@PetePaguaga

Today at www.nvlfootballblog.com the 2013 NVL football schedule.

From the NVLFootballBlog conditioning week can start on August 14 for schools that didn't use spring practice. The start date for schools that use spring practice can start conditions week on August 19.
First day of practice is August 20 for schools that didn't use spring practice is August 20 and it's August 24 for schools that did.

September 10 is the first allowable date for games to be played according to NVLFootballBlog.

The NVL-SWC Challenge will be from October 16-19 and the NVL Championship game will take place on November 21, if necessary.

The Thanksgiving games will be on, well Thanksgiving day and the day before, which fall on November 27 and 28 this year.

The CIAC playoffs begin on December 3, for the quarterfinals. The semifinals will be played on December 7 and the finals a week later on December 13 and 14.

Here is what theTorrington Red Raiders (6-4 in 2012) schedule will look like next season:
(* denotes big game by our staff)
Game 1: @ Ansonia *
Game 2: Wilby
Game 3: @ St. Paul
Game 4: Wolcott
Game 5: Naugatuck *
Game 6: Barlow
Game 7: @ Holy Cross
Game 8: Kennedy
Game 9: @ Woodland
Game 10: Sacred Heart
Game 11: @ Watertown *

All NVL teams schedules can be seen on the NVLFootballBlog.

Information for this blog was used from NVLFootballBlog.




Friday, February 1, 2013

Flight and Motion


By: Peter Wallace


Flying
Jason Bresson talked with us about the art of flying last week. Bresson and his co-flyer Ariel Lagasa, both Torrington residents, are members of a rarefied community of expert sky divers who use wing suits to stay aloft for up to four minutes before deploying their paracutes, compared with a sky diver’s average free fall time of 55 seconds.



NVL and Berkshire League moves?
There’s talk in the Naugatuck Valley League that Oxford, located between Naugatuck and Seymour, could become the next NVL school when its current commitment to the South West Conference ends next year. If that happens, the talk says the league could also divide into size divisions — small, medium and large. Several leagues in the state already follow that model, while others — notably the huge Central Connecticut Conference — go by geography.
While it’s still in the talk stage, what do you think of the possibility — an idea floated by nobody — of one day merging the Berkshire League with the NVL?
The immediate objections — smaller schools — might be solved by a mega-league divided by size divisions. The long distances, from Derby to Falls Village (Housatonic), could be solved by geographic division.
There could be advantage for both leagues, but particularly the BL. Small school state tournament “Cinderella” schools invariably just make the tournament after battling with larger schools in their leagues. The BL goes up to Class M, while the NVL spans the range from LL to S.
Meanwhile, the league’s traditional-power M schools, Lewis Mills, Nonnewaug and Northwestern, would have regular access to stiffer competition. Gilbert and Torrington boys basketball teams proved a couple of weeks ago that cross-over games between divisions (in this case Class L and Class S) can be ultra-exciting on both sides.
For the NVL, if another Class S school like Oxford joins, the Berkshire League might offer more credibility for a mega-league divided by size.
What do you think?