Torrington rebuilds with freshmen, Gilbert reloads

WINSTED — Torrington and Gilbert girls basketball teams scrimmaged Wednesday at the Gilbert School in a preseason crossover between leagues.

Torrington is rebuilding in the NVL; Gilbert plans to be part of the power in a top-heavy Berkshire League.

Both teams had their moments Wednesday, but, more often than not, they looked their parts.

“We’re going to struggle,” said Torrington coach Mike Fritch, himself recovered from a pair of surgeries last summer.

The Red Raiders, 15-5 last year, graduated five seniors, including All-State doeverything guard/forward Brie Pergola. That leaves them with more freshmen (13) than upperclassmen (10) — a slightly ironic piece of good news for a team with just five freshmen last year and four the year before.

“We’re back to having a freshmen team,” said Fritch, glowing with anticipation for his growing program after 25 years at the helm.

Gilbert, 14-6 last year, lost significant players, too, but the main hit came under the basket with the loss of center Deanna Delacruz and forward Ali Brochu.

“We’re going to be better this year, if we can rebound,” said coach Gerry Hicks, while his team demonstrated its increased speed Wednesday.

Hicks leans on senior guard Liz Wexler, a star in the league for three years, and junior guard Marcela Moreira, back after missing last year to add to this year’s improvement.

“We have a lot of intensity,” Hicks said.

Torrington’s Fritch will count on four seniors — guards Shannon Reardon, Kirsten Gray and Amelia Mierzwinski and forward Kayla Williams — along with star-in-the making junior guard Alyssa Maraia, to help blend with the youth.

“I’ll have to approach it differently as a coach,” Fritch said. “I have to look at it as we want it to be four years down the road. We’re going to spend the year teaching the freshmen, who are very athletic, to play in our system.”

Gilbert’s Hicks wants it to happen now in a league he expects to be even more competitive than last year’s, producing a Class S semifinalist (Housatonic) and state runner-up (Thomaston) between the top two teams in the league.

“I’m looking at five, maybe six teams,” Hicks said, listing Housatonic, Lewis Mills, Wamogo and Northwestern with “size, speed and outside games,” along with his own speedy Yellowjackets, in the mix.

And despite losing stars Casey Carangelo and Julia Quinn, nobody overlooks Thomaston in their preseason forecast after five straight Golden Bear Class S finals and two state championships.

Torrington drops from Class L to M in a top-heavy league long before that, including Class L runnerup Holy Cross, Class M quarterfinalist St. Paul and Class S semifinalist Sacred Heart.

“We’re going to play hard. We always do,” Fritch said.