Ridgefield continues to prove it’s an elite program
Matt Knachel, a thirdteam All-State player, graduated. Dylan Veillette, a first-team All-State player as a sophomore, transferred to a prep school.
Still, Ridgefield was 12th in votes in the preseason GameTimeCT Boys Basketball Top 10 Poll.
That is a sign of respect for the program coach Andrew McClellan has built.
“We knew we’d still be really good,” said junior Alister Walsh, the one returning starter.
That is a sign of confidence McClellan’s players have.
Don’t look now, but Ridgefield, which got into the top five last season, is back at No. 6.
In the latest poll, you’ll also find the top four teams are Catholic schools. And six of the top 10. They are able to attract players from across school districts. And the better they get the more top young players want to play for them.
That’s not an opinion. That’s fact.
The other fact is prep schools swoop in and attract top players from public and Catholic schools alike.
That’s not an opinion. That’s life.
Public schools obviously are subject to the cyclical ebb and flow of talent. Against this backdrop, Ridgefield, a suburban school with the 19th highest enrollment in the CIAC, has become a fascinating study in success in recent years.
Ridgefield, 13-2, has beaten Notre Dame-Fairfield, St. Bernard, Windsor and avenged an early season loss to Danbury. All Top Ten teams when they played, although Danbury did drop from seventh to 11th in the latest poll.
Ridgefield faces Wilton on Friday in a rematch of last year’s FCIAC final that the Tigers won. That made it four in a row.
You know how many Ridgefield players were on GameTimeCT’s 25 To Watch this preseason? None.
And at midseason, the five we overlooked? None. “Everyone has stepped up a little bit this year,” Walsh said. “It gives everyone opportunities to shine in their role. We really work on coach’s system on offense. I’ve played with a lot of the guys since third grade and our assistant coach (AJ Romeo) coached us. So we’ve
played the same defense for like eight years.”
If teams were ranked by how they look in the layup line, Ridgefield may be ranked 66th. The Tigers win with dogged man-toman defense and sharp, relentlessly unselfish offense.
“The guys I learned under in Chicago, they talked about a program,” McClellan said. “The philosophy, the idea, we can build a program that we can sustain a level of success. We’re trying not to be good one year and then not very successful the next year.
“This is high school basketball. You lose kids every single year. This year we lost a kid to transferring out. That’s unsettling. You know you’re going to lose your seniors. At least you have them for three-four years. We still thought we had a chance to be very good. We have a program and an identity we feel comfortable with. We’re at a point where we built the schedule up where we’d find out pretty quickly how good we were going to be.”
With the FCIAC schedule set, Ridgefield scrimmaged with Notre DameWest Haven and lined up Immaculate, Notre DameFairfield, St. Bernard’s and Windsor in addition to Danbury.
“Ideally, you’d pick up some of those games later in the season,” McClellan said. “We always feel we’re a better basketball team in February than in December. The beginning of that schedule was kind of scary. You could find yourself 1-4 pretty easily.”
Ridgefield lost to Danbury by two, but smoked
St. Bernard, which came within a hair of beating Northwest Catholic, by 30 and beat Notre Dame-Fairfield by 12. The Windsor game, scheduled for Dec. 23, was postponed until last weekend.
“We lost to Windsor twice last year, the second time ended our season (in the state Division I quarterfinals),” Walsh said. “We wanted that game. They were missing their point guard (Quintin Floyd), but it still was a really big win for us.”
Ridgefield 72, Windsor 45. At Windsor.
“I think it is the biggest statement win for our program,” McClellan said. “I don’t know why they’re Division II (this season). That’s another story. To me, that’s one of the top 3-4 programs in the state every year.”
Of course, McClellan was disappointed when Veillette, powerfully built at 6-6, decided to go to St. George’s in Middletown, R.I.
“To me, in 2023, there are no secrets anymore,” McClellan said. “You get discovered (by colleges) wherever you are, especially if you play AAU, which he does at a high level. He found a situation that he thought would be advantageous for him. I love him. He’s a great kid. I’m still in communication with him. He made a decision to take a different path. You have to deal with it.”
The focus on this year’s team, of course, deserves to be on this year’s players. Meet Nick Sganga, Jordan Katz, Evan Kozdeba and Jack Michalowski. You already met Alister.
“Nick Sganga has really stepped up,” McClellan said. “He’s our starting 5
man at 6-6, an inside-out guy. He played all junior varsity last season. Double digits almost every game. Offensive rebounds. He’ll make jump shots, good job catching and finishing.
“Probably the only kid who played a lot last year is Alister. He’s a jack-of-all trades at 6-2. I call him a guard, but he really plays forward. He guards bigger people. He can slash and pass and defend. He’s not great at anything, but he’s really good at everything. He really gets up for these big games we play.
“Jordan Katz is our starting point guard. Solid. Captain. Organizer on both sides of the ball. Evan is our shooting guard. He’s 5-8, all-league defender, guards the best guy on the other team Has had a couple 20point games, good scorer. Jack is our 6-2 swingman. Slash a little bit. Knock down an open shot. Very good defender.”
McClellan originally is from Upstate New York. He moved to Chicago with his wife, Holly, an attorney, and coached at La Grange and at St. Patrick’s on the city’s northwest side. After the family moved to Connecticut, McClellan first was an assistant and took over as head coach at Ridgefield in 2013.
Last year when we talked, he said his players used to be intimidated by the top teams. That feeling is gone. When the CIAC went to five divisions in 2018, Ridgefield looked to opt out to a lower division. It was denied. That way of thinking is gone.
“No. 1, there’s not anything we can do about it,” McClellan said. “We want to be in Division I. We want to play the best teams. I don’t have an issue being in
the same division as them.
“That’s not my Division I problem. Who is in Division I needs to be addressed. I feel strongly there needs to be more than 16 teams in the bracket. For instance, you can go 16-4 and your first game is against one of the top teams in the state. And (winless) Westhill will get Northwest Catholic or East Catholic. That doesn’t help anybody.”
All 16 teams in Division I make the state playoffs. Teams can opt to move up into Division I. In the other four divisions, teams that win 40 percent of their games qualify.
“I think the way you get all the good teams in Division I is if there are 32 teams,” McClellan said. “Right now, teams sizewise, they’re pushing them down because they’re not good. I don’t think they should be rewarded for not being good.
“Connecticut is crazy to have five divisions. I wish there were two. If you told me there were three, I could live with that.”
McClellan asks why couldn’t you get all the conference leaders automatically in (Division I) and go by the state ranking for the other teams? He also has discussed the idea of coaches meeting before the tournament and seeding the brackets. Makes sense.
“In the meantime,” McClellan said. “We’re trying to figure out a way to win some state playoff games in Division I that has escaped us for the most part. That’s the reason for some of our scheduling.”