The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Optimism abounds as basketball season arrives
MIDDLETOWN — It appears most area coaches are looking at building years. There are a couple of exceptions, led by John Pinone’s Cromwell club, but in places like Middletown, Xavier and Coginchaug, it looks like it’s one day at a time.
MIDDLETOWN
It’s Brave New World at Middletown.
In recent years the Blue Dragons have been among the state’s elite. In the last three years MHS went to the quarterfinals, the Class L championship game and last year the Class L semifinals.
Coach Rick Privott hasn’t been shy, scheduling state power programs like Hillhouse, Weaver, Hamden and, indeed, added Bassick of Bridgeport to his Class L program. But the Dragons have been hit hard by graduation and this year the Central Connecticut Conference “rewarded” MHS by handing it a schedule that included the top two teams from the other divisions in the CCC.
“Where do I start?,” asked Privott. “We have East Catholic, Hillhouse, Weaver, East Hartford, Northwest Catholic, Bloomfield, Hamden, Bassick, Simsbury ... can I keep writing?”
That’s in addition to what’s expected to be a very good Maloney team, Platt, the Bristol schools, Newington and the usual CCC South suspects.
Middletown returns one starter, DeAaron Lawrence, plus often-used Kalil Thomas. Seven graduated from the 22-5 team that went 17-3 in the regular season and was a CCC and state semifinalist. The Dragons also lost Jayden Bermudez to academics, said Privott.
“This is a season of unknowns,” said Privott. “We have a team of unproven players at the varsity level. We have talent, but all are coming up from the junior varsity. I believe we will get better throughout the season, but with our schedule, we need to be great from the start.”
Middletown opens Dec.16 with East Catholic at Trinity College in Hartford at 6 p.m.
XAVIER
The Falcons have their own issues. Besides playing its usual Class LL schedule that includes Fairfield Prep, Notre Dame of West Haven, Hillhouse and Hamden, teams such as West Haven and Guilford are expected to be very good.
Like Middletown, Xavier has been hit hard by losses. Mitch Nappi (second team, All-SCC), Ethan Telford and Ryan Vynalek all graduated, and two players — Alex McGovern and Kyle Jenkins — have transferred out to prep schools with McGovern going to Suffield Academy and Jenkins gong to Hotchkiss.
The key returning players are junior guard Jackson Benigni (20.9 ppg.; All-SCC), senior guard Matt Bielenda, senior guard Kyle MacGillis and senior forward
Zach Strole.
Coach Mike Kohs, now in his 19th year and with a career mark of 273-148, said other key players are juniors Dan Comcowich, Aiden Kaufman and Nick DeBrizzi, plus sophomores Andrew Brown and Marcus Williams.
“We should have solid guard play and have the potential to be a good perimeter shooting team,” said Kohs. “But we will need to be consistent to be competitive. We are very inexperienced and we need to develop an inside presence to balance our perimeter game. I am very concerned with our ability to rebound and we’ll have to compete on the backboards to have success..
“Team rebounding and great team defense will be musts in order to compete with this difficult schedule.”
Xavier, 10-12 last season, opens Dec. 22 at West Haven.
CROMWELL
Coach John Pinone, now in his 17th year at Cromwell, is upbeat.
“We should be competitive and I feel we could be a contender for the Shoreline Conference,” he said. “We return three starters and we will be able to play eight guys this season.”
The three key returnees are Reese Reyes, Noah Budzik and David Dewey.
Pinone said that East Hampton and North Branford will be the toughest teams in the SLC.
Cromwell, 12-9 last season, opens at home with Westbrook on Saturday, Dec, 16.
PORTLAND
There is cautious optimism in Portland.
“We are looking to build off of the success we had last season,” said first-year coach Alan Stekloff. “We return two seniors and will infuse a lot of young talent at the guard positions.”
The seniors are forward Dianta Highmsmith and guard Dylan Curtin. Stekloff pointed to junior guard Brett Thivierge and sophomore guard Grant Collins as key contributors.
Stekloff, who replaced AD Chris Serra, who resigned to devote more time to family and AD duties, didn’t pick a favorite in the SLC.
“The Shoreline is a tough conference and we look forward to competing against everyone,” he said.
The HIghlanders, 9-13 last season, open Saturday, Dec, 16 with Creed in a 1:30 p.m. matinee.
COGINCHAUG
Coginchaug is another team hit hard by graduation.
“We return only one starter,” said coach Todd Salva. “But we have an athletic team that will play good defense, rebound and execute well on offense. I’m not sure where the points are going to come from yet.”
The returning players from last year’s 16-8 team are seniors point guard Ryan Cross, guard/forward Peter O’Onofrio, center Kyle Strang, guard Macquire O’Sullivan and guard/forward Kevin Cross, plus juniors guard T.J. Vallone and forward Elijah Rivera.
Like Pinone in Cromwell, Salva picked East Hampton as the team to beat in the SLC.
Coginchaug opens with Valley Regional at home on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.
H-K
Haddam-Killingworth has a new coach in Jim Abbott and a lot of new players as seven graduated, including four starters.
“The team is somewhat inexperienced,” said Abbott. “But we should be competitive.”
Abbott said the key returnees are senior Jackson Parmentier, senior Zach Light and junior Matt Willis.
The coach also joined the parade in naming East Hampton as one of the SLC’s best, along with Cromwell and Creed.
H-K, 12-9 last season, opens at home with Morgan on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.
VINAL TECH
Coach Gary Marineau, in his fourth year at Vinal, said his team is very young and listed four sophomores among his top seven players.
“We are very young overall,” he said. “But the team has good positive energy and attitude. Our goal is to make states.”
The returning seniors are guard Deoraj Singh, forward Jakari Freeman and forward Matt Taylor. The sophomore quarter includes forward Toby Marineau, guard Xavier Hull, forward Steven Thomas and guard Jyqwan Fountain.
Marineau said that Prince Tech, Wilcox Tech and Goodwin Tech should be the powers in the league.
Vinal, 6-14 last season, opens by hosting its TipOff Classic Dec. 16 with O’Brien Tech.
HALE-RAY
The only way for HaleRay to go is up.
The Little Noises were 0-20 last season, but return everyone.
“The big group of players are now seniors,” said coach Nate Moses, in his third year. “We have serious potential and I think we will have a competitive season..”
The keys to Hale-Ray’s success are seniors Connor Egan, who averaged a double-double last year, and Dylan White, who averaged 11.5 ppg. last time around.
Moses said he, like so many others, thinks East Hampton is the team to beat in the SLC with North Branford a close second.
Hale-Ray opens against North Branford at home on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.