The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A salute to the area’s lacrosse supporters
MIDDLETOWN — Today’s column salutes the boys, girls, coaches and parents who got involved at the grass-roots level of lacrosse in the city from day one. They grew to love the sport, stayed the course for several years and can now say with confidence that they had a hand in Middletown High rising up to the varsity ranks.
Vinal Tech, Xavier and Mercy have established varsity teams. Students at the largest high school in the county (by enrollment) have wanted the same for themselves after slogging through three seasons of junior varsity. The goahead came on June 26, when the Board of Education approved funding for next season.
“This (vote) is for all the boys and girls who wanted this opportunity, to one day play varsity lacrosse at Middletown High,” said Heather Iaderosa, who, with her husband Giuseppe, started the youth program in town in 2012. “They’re the ones who have been fighting the fight and putting the work in.”
Heather Iaderosa, Maureen Dale and Craig Byrd, all parents of current players, have been vocal behind the scenes and in front of the board in advocating for the sport. Turnout has been strong and the JV won 23 of its 31 games, they said. Opposing coaches have not appreciated their JV teams having to compete against seniors, they said. Some Blue Dragons now aspire to play in college, they said. Home games should not be played at a grammar school and practice time should not be spent in a parking lot, and they deserve better, they said.
Middletown athletic director Elisha De Jesus told the Press she has long been a proponent of a varsity program, but felt the time for it was 2019-2020. Supporters scoffed at this, saying the sport wasn’t paid the mind that others receive. And had it been, they said, the Blue Dragons already would have had one varsity season in the books, instead of hearing some JV foes ask more than once, “Where’s your varsity?”
“What we have accomplished was not by one person. It’s not like we just walked into the board meeting and got approved,” Heather Iaderosa said. “There was a collective support and push for lacrosse. For the kids, the best lesson in a world of entitlement and instant gratification, is that they had to fight for this. They did not give it to mommy and daddy to fix. They stood by us and asked questions, too.
“And that’s the real world, that you’re not given everything and if you believe strongly enough and fight long enough, good things will happen.”
Board of Education chairman Chris Drake told the Press that after hearing from supporters at the public discussion portion of the June 12 meeting, he got word in the days before its June 26 meeting that they might speak again. He said he had a conversation with Superintendent Michael Conner at that point, and they concluded that the topic should be an action item on the 26th’s agenda.
“I knew we were going to end up with another group of parents asking about this again, so we needed to vote one way or another,” Drake said. “I didn’t want to keep not putting it on the agenda. They expected an answer, yes or no.” And then he added, “All’s well that ends well.”
There are decisions to be made down the road. Who will be hired to coach the varsity teams in 2019? Where will these teams play and practice? Grass surface or the artificial turf of Rosek-Skubel Stadium? Will there be enough interest to justify boys and girls JV teams? But those are for much later. Now is the time for the lacrosse crowd to enjoy the moment.
“We were very excited that we finally received the respect we deserve,” said Kyle Dale, a rising senior and JV co-captain, “and we are ready to prove ourselves even more out on the field next spring.”
WESLEYAN’S CHONG WINS HONDA AWARD
Wesleyan’s Eudice Chong, the first tennis player to win four NCAA singles championships in any division of the college game, is the recipient of the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year award.
Chong, from Hong Kong, received the award last week in a ceremony on the campus of USC in Los Angeles. She graduated in May with degrees in psychology and East Asian Studies and has returned to China, where she intends to play professionally.
She called the Honda award “an amazing honor” that “means especially more because it shows that I’ve made an impact in some way or other throughout my collegiate career, and that I finished my four years giving it everything I’ve got,” Chong said in a statement provided by Wesleyan. “As an athlete of any sport, it means so much to see your hard word recognized, and in my case, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by people who have helped me get where I am and who continue to provide unwavering support.”
Her fourth singles title in four years came at the expense of Wesleyan teammate and doubles partner Victoria Yu, 7-6, 6-2. They are such good friends that they shared the same bench during breaks in the action.
Chong was Michael Fried’s first recruit as Wesleyan’s coach. Fried invoked her name last month when Wesleyan and the city formally dedicated the 16 new courts on Vine Street.
“It would be a little bit untrue to say I saw her as the best player in her division. I saw she was a great team player — somebody you could really build a program around — and then we really got lucky,” Fried told the Press at the time. “She turned out to be even better than that. She turned out to be the best person, the best leader, the best student-athlete.”
Chong told The Wesleyan Connection blog recently that she’s always desired a professional tennis career, but also a “relatively normal college life, where I would be challenged academically and also able to participate in other activities.”
She was nominated for the Honda Award four times. Her accolades include four-time ITA firstteam All-America honors in singles and doubles and three-time NESCAC Player of the Year. Chong’s career singles record as a Cardinal was 103-6.
One day, we should see Eudice Chong inducted in the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame.
BUY A BRICK, A MEMORY
If you were a product of Woodrow Wilson High School and would like to commemorate a moment in time, sports or otherwise, get it engraved in a brick! Deb Petruzzello, the coaching icon and Middletown Sports Hall of Famer, is leading this charge through the WWMS PTO.
For $50, a brick can include your name, class, a date, or a specific game or championship. Guidelines for the engraving are 18 characters per line up to three lines (a space counts as a character). Lines will be centered on the brick unless otherwise specified.
Send your name, address, email and what you’d like engraved, with a check made out to WWMS PTO, c/o “Deb Petruzzello — Brick Campaign”, 1 Wilderman’s Way in Middletown.
Money raised will help pay for new equipment at the middle school, since the bond money used to upgrade parks throughout the city does not cover funding for equipment. Bricks will be installed as part of the entryway into the Wilson side of the new athletic complex on Hunting Hill Avenue.
** Middletown Post 75 is 9-9 and in the middle of the pack in Zone 3 after splitting with Wallingford on Saturday. First-place Cheshire has won 12 straight and is sitting at 13-1, followed by Southington (11-5) and Guilford (9-5), with Middletown, Wallingford (8-9) and Meriden (7-9) behind the first three.
Post 75 plays a Fourth of July doubleheader at Legion Field in Meriden starting at 11 a.m.
** I made the mistake of asking my soccer-loving neighbors what they thought of Russia’s upset win over Spain and they said, “We recorded it and were going to find out tonight!!” I’ll feel bad about that for the next week. My wife said, “Why can’t you just say ‘hi’ to people and go in the house?”
** Isabella D’Aquila, the daughter of Middletown High graduate Tommy D’Aquila, will be in Richmond, Virginia, this weekend with the rest of her So Cal Blues club soccer teammates. The Blues are part of the U17 division’s final four in the Elite Clubs National League playoffs after advancing out of the early rounds in Washington state. The Blues play out of Cerritos, California. D’Aquila, a striker, will be a high school senior this fall and has given a verbal commitment to play at Division I Santa Clara.
** Correction from last week’s column: There will be two basketball courts, not three, on the corner of Russell and Farm Hill at the new Pat Kidney complex, and they will be lighted.
** The sports calendar is at its most exciting when a couple of big things are going on simultaneously. This July, it’s the World Cup, great Yankees and Red Sox teams in the AL East, and another LeBron drama to heighten NBA free agency. More, please.
** Finally, a few years back I heard Kevin Costner speak while promoting his film “Draft Day”. He took questions from the audience and a young woman asked for “life advice.” Costner could have gone anywhere with that one. His reply: “Whatever you do, be on time.” In the movie business, time is money, so it wasn’t surprising to hear this, but then he waxed that being on time speaks to qualities like dependability and trust. Simple, solid advice for any age.