Two sisters — caretakers of Granby dynasty — stepping down
Jody Wickman was a sophomore on the first field hockey team to win a state championship in Connecticut, playing for coach Dot Johnson at Granby High in the fall of 1973. Her sister Sandy was a junior in 1978 when the Bears won their third title.
Since, Granby has gone on to win the most field hockey championships in the state [14], including the last one in 2019.
And in the last 51 years, Granby has only had three coaches — Johnson, Sandy Wickman Mason and Jody (Wickman) Bascetta.
But Wickman Mason and Bascetta, who have been co-coaches since 2003, are leaving. Bascetta, 62, is retiring from her middle school physical education teaching job and wants to retire from coaching so she can spend some time at her beach house in the fall and with her grandchildren.
So her sister is going too. “We’re a package deal,” said Wickman Mason, 58. “We came in together and we’re going out together.”
It’ll be hard. There’s always been field hockey in the fall for the sisters. Their mother, Jerry, played in high school and started the middle school program in Granby. They played in middle school, high school and college.
“When I was offered the position, I said to Dot, ‘I’m not doing it unless Jody’s doing it.’ What Jody brings to the table is she was in school, she knew all the kids and she already had an established relationship with them.”
— Sandy Wickman Mason
When Wickman Mason wasn’t coaching or playing, she was officiating. Bascetta was Granby’s athletic director for a while, an assistant coach to Johnson, and she also officiated.
“One of the hardest things of this is that I won’t see my sister every day for 16 weeks,” Wickman Mason said. “Otherwise, we don’t see each other all that much.”
The Bears are a familiar presence in the Class S state championship game, advancing to the finals 23 times. Johnson won her last title in 2000, advanced to the finals in 2001 and 2002, and the next year Wickman Mason and Bascetta took over the team and won six of the next nine championships, then one more in 2019.
“They took right over and were familiar with the program,” Johnson said. “It was a good transition.”
Johnson’s record over 34 years was 393-83-80, and since 2003, Wickman Mason and Bascetta have kept pace. Granby has gone 272-54-11-2 (the last two are overtime losses) and 26 of their players have gone on to play in college.
Bascetta also contributed players: her daughters Meghan (who helped the team go 19-0 in 2000); Ashley (who helped her Aunt Sandy and her mom win their first two titles in 2003 and 2004); and Abby (who won three championships — 2007, 2009, 2010). Another daughter, Kasey, played soccer but joined the field hockey team her senior year.
During the early years, Wickman Mason was the head coach and Bascetta was a volunteer, but when Bascetta’s daughters graduated she became an official co-coach. Wickman Mason remained the face of the program, giving interviews to reporters and making the head coaching decisions.
“When I was offered the position, I said to Dot, ‘I’m not doing it unless Jody’s doing it,’ ” Wickman Mason said. “What Jody brings to the table is she was in school, she knew all the kids and she already had an established relationship with them.”
Said Bascetta: “Fortunately, Sandy got to make all the tough decisions. I got to always just coach and she handled the coaching decisions sometimes coaches don’t want to make. She took that role.
“I think that’s how we worked best together.”
Glastonbury coach Maureen Perkins usually played Granby in the preseason and then would invite the Bears for a postseason scrimmage to prep for the state tournament. Glastonbury is Class L and Granby Class S.
“They’re really knowledgeable about the game and they’ve done well over the years in adapting to new rules and skills and style of play,” Perkins said. “I also think they’re really good at figuring out what will work for the kids they have, what system or style of play. Their kids are always so fundamentally sound.
“I feel like the stability is part of the reason [Granby is] so successful. There’s an expectation, there’s a tradition, a kind of a way things are done. I have a lot of respect for that.”
Wickman Mason was always the organized one.
“If you asked the players,” she said, “they would say that I always came with a plan and it was planned out to the minute — and all it took was Jody to go, ‘Well, wait a minute’ and then my plan was derailed.” Bascetta laughed.
“It drove Sandy crazy.,” she said. “But I think the girls benefited from two heads.”
Wickman Mason is the vice president of operations of a physical therapy company. Her boss has been understanding over the last 18 years, but she will be happy to be able to devote more of her time to her job.
“We’ve been so fortunate,” Bascetta said. “We’ve had great young women who are so much more than hockey players.”
“I’ve been watching those NCAA commercials where they’re like, ‘This person became an orthopedic surgeon,’ ” Wickman Mason said. “That’s the caliber of athletes we were so gifted to have.”