Sorting out bests, worsts from winter

MIDDLETOWN >> Now that the winter season has been put to bed, it’s time to take a look back at the best and worst of the past season in the area.

The bests far outweigh the worsts, but there are strong candidates in both categories. The kids uniformly get high marks. But the worsts are reserved exclusive for just stunningly ridiculous things done by adults.

There’s a room for debate on this best or that best, but the worst were just, well, the nodoubt worst.

So fasten your seatbelts, enjoy the ride. It might get bumpy. But it might be fun, too.

• BEST TEAM (boys): 1. Middletown High boys basketball team. Three years over 20 wins and this year took on all comers from Hillhouse to Hamden to Bloomfield to Windsor to Newington to Ledyard to New London to Sacred Heart. And without question, absolutely the most fun team to watch. 2. Xavier wrestling. Mike Cunningham has built a powerhouse program 3. MHS boys swim team. A staple; good every year. 4. Xavier hockey. 5. MHS hockey coop with Wethersfield, Rocky Hill and Plainville.

Honorable Mention: East Hampton.

• BEST TEAM (girls): 1. Mercy basketball. Tim Kohs has everyone back from a Class LL semifinalist. No room at the inn for anyone new. 2. Middletown girls. State LL quarterfinalist. Great trait: won every close game played. 3. Cromwell girls. Another every-year, top-flight program. 4. Mercy indoor track. 5. Tie: East Hampton, Cromwell.

• BEST BASKETBALL PLAYER (boys): 1. Ahmod Privott, MHS. Kid can score inside, shoot the three, play defense, rebound. The best. Doesn’t hurt he’s great in the classroom, too. 2. DeAaron Lawrence, Middletown. Maybe the best pure shooter around. A junior. 3. Jackson Benigni, Xavier. Only a sophomore. Handles the ball, shoots the three, not afraid to mess with the big boys inside. 4. Dayquan Singletary, Middletown. Maybe a surprise choice here, but not if you watch him play. 5. Mitch Nappi, Xavier. Give him an opening and he will shoot threes with the best of them. • BEST BASKETBALL PLAYER

(girls): 1. Bella Santoro, Mercy. Great point guard. Made Mercy go. 2. Jen Barbour, Middletown. Did for Middletown what Santoro did for Mercy. 3. Gianna Russell, East Hampton. Great scorer. 4. Meghan DeVille, Mercy. Tough as nails inside. 5. Brielle Wilborn, Middletown. Only beginning to touch her enormous potential.

• BEST COACHNG JOB (girls): 1. Rob Smernoff, MHS girls. No one expected this team to be among state’s elite. 2. Tim Kohs. No seniors, went to semis. Enough said. 3. Kelly Maher, Cromwell. She’s not the State’s Female Coach of the Year for nothing.

• BEST COACHING JOB (boys): 1. Rick Privott, Middletown. His kids run through brick walls for him and he wins 20-plus games every year in the tough CCC. 2. Trevor Charles, MHS swimming. Took an inexperienced team that was 1-3 to start the year, won 11 meets in a row, easily won the CCC-South and finished seventh in Class L — third among non-Fairfield County teams — and did it without a stud swimmer. 3. Mike Kohs, Xavier basketball. Winning 10 games in the Southern Conencticut Conferenece was a singular achievement with an untested, inexperienced group. Great job. 4. Mike Cunningham. Another excellent year. 5. Mark Fong, Middletown wrestling. Took an inexperienced group and had a solid 15-6 season.

• BEST ATHLETES (NON-BASKETBALL): 1. Ryan Devivo, Xavier wrestler. Class LL and Open champion, second in New England in his weight class. 2. Tie: the Reid brothers, Xavier hockey. 3 . Tie: Tahj Mitchell-Westberry and Tyler Wenzel, MHS divers. 4. Tie: Jared Guidobono, Xavier hockey goalie and Stephen Vaughn, goalie for Middletown co-op ice hockey team. 5. Laurenzo Thompkins, MHS track.

• NEXT WINTER’S STARS: 1. DeAaron Lawrence, MHS basketball. 2. The entire Mercy starting lineup. No place for newcomers. Loaded, loaded, loaded. 3. Dominique Highsmith, MHS girls basketball. 4. Tyler Wenzel, MHS diver. 5. Jackson Benigni, Xavier basketball. Far better than a normal No. 5 choice here — lots of competition.

• BEST STUDENT SECTION: Middletown High. Not close, the local kids are great.

• BEST GAME OPERATION BY SCHOOL: 1. Middletown High. The local school handled nine postseason games without a hitch. Great gate organization, great game-supervision, great security. And the adults let the kids have fun, yet keep impeccable order. A model for every school to follow. 2. Bulkeley High in Hartford. Top-notch organization and game security. 3. Xavier. AD Tony Jaskot runs a great operation and does the same kind of game security and organization as MHS. The school just doesn’t yet have the experience of running multiple big-game operations that MHS does.

Heck, why do you think the CIAC loves to have games, diving/swim competitions, track meets and the like at MHS? Answer: professionals run the show.

• WORST SECURITY/ BIG GAME PREPARATION: Glastonbury. Crowd control was non-existent at the CCC girls final. Again, a suburban school that lives in La La Land, apparently thinking that there will never be any problems from their little cherubs. Fact is, in my experience — and I can list the places — the absolute worst places are many suburban schools who just don’t get it.

• WORST BEHAVIOR: Canton students, who chanted “Trump, Trump, Trump” at the students of color from Classical Magnet in Hartford. Yes it was racist. Inarguable. But the worst were adults in Canton, who went to a board meeting to defend their little miscreants. Not hard to see where the kiddies get their un-American ideas.

One parent was quoted as saying it was just “conservative Republican kids” chanting the president’s name. Disgraceful.

• IDIOT OF THE SEASON: 1. A Bloomfield fan screamed at Middletown’s Tyshaun James when he fouled out of the CCC quarterfinal round game. James said something back — which he shouldn’t have — but James is a kid, this cretin in the stands was a biological adult. The idiot compounded the felony several minutes later by walking through the Middletown fans to scream yet again at James over MHS teacher and scorebook keeper Jenn Price.

The jerk was escorted out of the gym by Bulkeley security folks. How is it an adult could ever bring themselves to yell at a kid? Man should never be allowed in a gym again.

2. I also saw a woman yelling, screaming and gesturing at Brielle Wilborn when she fouled out of the CCC title game. She made fool of herself, but at least she stayed in her seat. Woman needs professional help.

• SILLIEST TELEVISION: Connecticut’s TV stations and their nutty, overthe-top, overblown, exaggerated and just plain goofy weather reports. The notion that a station has to have an SUV that goes out in the snow to tell us — gasp! — there is snow on the roads is mind-numbing.

When they zoom in and tell us “This is happening on your street!”, I guess they figure we don’t have the good sense to look out the window. Hilarious. I mean, how many times does a “reporter” have to stand beside a pile of road salt, or ask some poor guy what he thinks of the snow, before they look in the mirror with embarrassment?

• IRATE PARENT HOT DOG AWARD*: An upset! Bulkeley High. Good dog, quickly and kindly delivered by the good folks at Bulkeley High.

* — Named in honor a woman who, after reading my criticism of AAU sports, said I had no idea what I was talking about because her lovely AAU veteran daughter was going to be a star. She said I should therefore stick to rating hot dogs. So I do what I’m told.

• THE UNFAIRNESS AWARD: The CIAC for its continual refusal to recognized the inequities that exists in high school sports concerning schools without borders.

• THE SEASON’S WAY TO GO AWARD: Tie: Middletown High’s boys basketball team and Westbrook’s boys basketball team. MHS was the state’s best public school Class L team and Westbrook was the state’s best Class S public school basketball team. Maybe the CIAC won’t recognize that, but it says so right here.

Get out and enjoy the kids in the spring. The snow will be gone, the sun will shine and it will get warm. Promise.