The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Coginchaug quartet latest to join college athletic ranks
Though on the small side in enrollment, Coginchaug Regional High School has a certain stature when it comes to producing college-caliber athletes. Four Blue Devils in the Class of 2021, three of whom will compete at the NCAA Division I level, officially joined the roll last week when they signed national letters of intent.
Jessica Berens will play basketball at Bryant University, goalkeeper Claire DeFlora will play soccer at Merrimack College, Elyse Boothroyd will dive for Central Connecticut and Owen Clancy will play baseball at Division II American International College.
Bryant, Merrimack and Central are all members of the Northeast Conference.
Berens, a 6-foot-4 post player, gave a verbal commitment to Bryant in October. She averaged 12 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks for the Devils last season and was an All Shoreline Conference first-team selection.
Berens also was recruited heavily by Columbia of the Ivy League. In the end, she was drawn to Bryant’s “tight-knit community feel” as much as the appeal of playing close to the basket for Bulldogs coach Mary Burke.
“I knew Bryant would be the best place for me,” said Berens, who played as a freshman during the Blue Devils’ 2018 Class S championship season. “It just felt right for me. The teachers, the coaches, they care about every person and want to see you succeed and they give you the resources to succeed. It was kind of like its own mini-family.”
Berens spent the spring and summer months keeping her game sharp working individually with her AAU team, participating in an August tournament in New Hampshire, and competing in an AAU-sponsored fall league on Sundays.
“She seems really happy with the decision and really excited
about her opportunity,” Coginchaug coach Chris Watson said. “Jessica worked hard to get this opportunity and she deserves it. She has the physical abilities, she’s talented and she keeps getting better every year. I’m very proud of her. She’s been an awesome kid to coach.”
Watson said Bryant will get a versatile player, not just one with size.
“Generally speaking, a lot of the coaches recruiting her really liked the fact that given her height, she runs the floor really well. She can move without the ball well,” the coach said. “Yeah, she can play in the paint, but she can also get up and down with the guards. A couple of coaches I spoke to who saw us play mentioned how good she was setting ball screens and rolling to the basket and scoring that way. She also has a good touch and can be a good mid-range shooter (in college).”
Like the rest of us, Berens is holding out hope that there will be some semblance of a 2020-21 high school season. Her junior year ended in the Class M quarterfinals — without an outcome. Coginchaug’s game at Canton was halted by a power outage in the second quarter. The game was due to be finished the next night, but with COVID-19 baring its teeth around the state, the CIAC that afternoon canceled the remainder of all winter sports.
And yet she’s thinking big picture as much as the close of her Coginchaug career. Berens again will be in the running for Shoreline Player of the Year honors.
“Being my senior season and as a captain, if we do play I just want to be able to help push my team and be a leader for a lot of the younger girls we have,” she said. “I want to push them and get them to play to their best potential.”
Merrimack is new to Division I soccer, so DeFlora gets to join the program at an opportunistic time. Head coach Gabe Mejail kept after her during the recruiting process, which made an impression with her.
“He said he saw things in me with my technique that he doesn’t really see in a lot of other goalkeepers,” said DeFlora, who plays yearround and works with her own coach. “There are certain things he teaches that he said I can already do.”
DeFlora was one of the top players in the Shoreline at her position over the last two seasons. She had 17 saves against perennial power Old Lyme in a 1-0 defeat in the conference semifinals.
“That game took a lot of work, but it was worth it,” she said. “The goal was a shot outside the 18 at the near post. I got a finger on it, but I didn’t get high enough to it. Old Lyme had so many shots, they deserved at least something. I saved so many.”
DeFlora has been a vocal leader for her teammates and her air of confidence was something they fed off.
“She is kind of one of those players who makes everyone else play with an extra level of confidence,” coach Megan Kavanaugh said during the regular season. “It makes such a big difference when your keeper is winning the ball behind you.”
DeFlora looks back on her development over the years — “whether it’s training or working with a private coach, I don’t ever stop playing” — and appreciates where the journey has taken her.
“If I could have told my younger self that I was going to play Division I soccer one day, I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said. “Now that’s it’s real, I’m super excited about what the future holds for me.” Looking back, I think I made a good mark on the team and made a lot of great friendships that I think will last forever.”
Boothroyd, who plans to study criminology at Central, has honed her performance on the board at Mercy as a freshman, then with Coginchaug beginning with her sophomore year, and with Elite Diving at its Cheshire location.
At Coginchaug, she holds the record for points in both the six- and 11-dive categories and is driven to surpass those totals this winter.
“I’m just hoping we do have a season so I can improve my scores and my dives all around,” she said.
Coginchaug partners with Lyman Hall as a co-op boys program in the winter (girls teams compete in the fall season). Boothroyd is one of a handful of girls on the team, which has practice time and home meets at Sheehan High in Wallingford.
“I was nervous with the switch to joining a mostly guys team, but they took me in and the team is now basically my second family,” Boothroyd said. “We spend so much time together in the winter. The team was so welcoming to me.”
Boothroyd competes primarily against male divers, which drives her as a competitor.
“In some ways it can be difficult because the boys have more physical strength,” she said, “but in my mind it makes me want to push harder and work harder to beat them.”
Signing with Central, which she knew she wanted to do since midway through her junior year, “was really reassuring that all the hard work pays off in the end,” Boothroyd said.
For Clancy, AIC’s baseball program was a good fit all the way around — academically, proximity between Springfield, Mass., and home, and the caliber of play in the Northeast-10.
“The coaches told me I had potential and that I’m a good player,” he said, “and that good players need to work to be great players, and great players can become stars. I’m hoping four years of college ball can help me be that kind of player.”
Clancy will spend time through the winter taking countless cage cuts with Blue Devils teammates Kolby Pascarelli, who committed to Bryant early on, and Evan Faiella.
After shaking off the disappointment of not having a junior season because of the pandemic, Clancy spent summer and fall in center field for Middletown in the Connecticut Elite Baseball Association.
For the fall season, Clancy was third on the team in hits and batted .296 with a .426 on-base percentage. Overall, he was fourth in hits with 31 and hit .277.
“And he was very good in center field,” Middletown coach Dan Botti said. “Owen covers a lot of ground and has a good arm. He’s a very good athlete.”
THIS AND THAT
** No. 4 seed East Hampton will host No. 6 Haddam-Killingworth for the Shoreline boys soccer championship at 11 a.m. Monday. The Bellringers (8-3-2) are going for their first league title. They got here with a 2-1 overtime win over Old Saybrook in the semifinals, their first win over the Rams in six years.
“As a senior, it means everything to go to the Shoreline finals,” East Hampton’s Justin Landon said.
H-K’s road to the final includes wins over Old Lyme and Portland. H-K (7-3-2) has flown under the radar and also caught a break when Valley Regional canceled its season for coronavirus-related reasons.
** Meanwhile, H-K meets Old Lyme for the Shoreline girls championship at 1:30 Monday in Old Lyme. The Wildcats beat the Cougars 2-0 two weeks ago. This fall has seen quite a conference run for the Cougars, who also won the Shoreline boys cross country title. Senior Matt Jennings was the individual champ.
** In H-K’s Shoreline volleyball championship sweep of Hale-Ray, the Cougars’ Jessica Timothy (14 digs, 14 kills, 10 service points, 6 aces), Audrey Snyder (11 points, 10 kills, 9 digs), Meghan Doxsee (8 points, 4 kills, 25 assists) and Lola Chagnon (13 digs, 7 points) and Addy Duquette (7 points, 1 ace, 4 digs) had standout performances.
** The leaves needed to wait. This November Masters was spectacular. The sport has an overflow of talent. Dustin Johnson shot a record 20 under, proving he is the best player on the planet — and then some. He is engaged to Paulina Gretzky and gets to hang with The Great One from time to time. And his future mother-in-law is Janet Evans. I mean, does he not have it all?
** Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open, sure, but his game was no match for Augusta National. He reminds me of RoboCop in golf spikes. One thing we learned is that a driver-wedge game does not equal success there. DeChambeau was all over the place. Let the record show ageless Bernhard Langer shot 1under 71 to DeChambeau’s 73 on Sunday (they were grouped together). For the tournament, 63-year-old Langer was one shot better (285-286). Golf can be a great equalizer that way.
** I am all in on the Steelers running the table in the regular season. Also, props to the guy in the Lynn Swann jersey walking down Newtown Street the other day.
** Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn were regulars on the soundtrack of my youth. The ‘80s was a good decade to be young and a Celtics fan. Never missed a game on TV in that era. Heinsohn was a Boston superstar as a Celtics player, coach and four-decades-long broadcaster, and his pointed jabs at referees were appreciated always. RIP Tommy.
** Finally, if you haven’t tried “Cobra Kai” on Netflix, go for it. Season 3 drops in January and it will come with the great Elisabeth Shue. The show can be cheesy and at times politically incorrect, but it works. It also makes one think about present-day parenting.