Simsbury coach, father both aiming for a state crown
CROMWELL — The Simsbury girls basketball team may have made it to its first state championship game, but it wasn’t an easy season for coach Sam Zullo.
Zullo’s mom Linda died Jan. 14 in upstate New York, and Zullo spent a lot of time shuttling between coaching his team in Connecticut and spending as much time as he could with his mother before her death.
“To go through it and have the team supporting me, it’s added a whole ’nother element for all of us of family and togetherness,” Zullo said Wednesday at the girls basketball championship media lunch.
“It was a crazy time. To see the team power through it — my seniors, their leadership grew in that time frame, exponentially, keeping everything together. At this time of year, to know that you’ve gone through some difficult stuff together is really helpful.”
His mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last spring, made Zullo promise he wouldn’t miss a game so he ended up going back and forth a lot.
Second-seeded Simsbury (22-4) will face top seed Holy Cross in the Class L championship game either Saturday or Sunday at a time to be determined at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Zullo’s father Jim is a long-time basketball coach in New York and this year, at age 80, he took a job coaching the high school girls team in Northville, N.Y., where he lives. Jim had won over 500 games coaching 35 years of boys basketball in the state before leaving coaching in 2010.
“Part of it was because of everything going on with my mom, it was going to give him something to focus on,” Zullo said.
All in the family for Windham:
Two years ago, the Windham boys, led by junior Isaiah Mangual’s 21 points and six rebounds, won their first state championship in 81 years. Isaiah’s cousin Travis Mangual hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the semifinal to get Windham to the final.
This weekend, Isaiah’s father, Robert Mangual, will coach the Windham girls basketball team in the Class M state championship game at Mohegan Sun against No. 2 St. Paul at a date and time to be determined.
This is Robert Mangual’s second year coaching the girls, who are the fifth seed.
“I expected our team to do well and our goal was the state title but the way everything fell, it was fast and we’re here,” he said. “And we’re excited.”
St. Paul (23-3) hasn’t advanced to the tournament finals since 2014, when the Falcons lost to Thomaston in Class S in double overtime, 61-57.
This year’s group probably wasn’t expected to come this far, but ever since they beat Holy Cross — which is playing in the Class L championship game — in the NVL tournament final, the Falcons have been on a roll.
“That gave us a lot of confidence going into the state tournament and momentum in the state tournament to want to make another run and do the same thing,” said senior guard Audry Tice, the team’s leading scorer.
“They’ve been pretty
St. Paul is back:
much locked in with defense and they play team basketball,” coach Joe Mone said. “They’re not hung up with who scores. The last game against Oxford, the ball went to Becca (Kelly, a senior forward) the last four minutes and we let her do her thing. It’s great when you have an All-state player (Tice) who says, ‘I may have to score five (points), but I just want to win this game, I’ll give it to whoever I have to.
“That’s the key, they play good defense and they’re unselfish on offense.”
A 40-year drought for Somers:
It’s been 40 years since Somers made it to the state championship game in girls basketball.
In 1984, the Spartans lost in the Class S final to Westbrook.
This weekend at a time and date to be determined, they will face Thomaston, the No. 2 seed which has advanced to the state finals seven times and won three state championships, the last in 2022 for the Class S championship.
“It’s been 40 years — we only know because there’s banners up in the gym,” Somers coach Jay Fenlason said.
Somers returned two starters and five players overall from last year’s team which lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Northwest Catholic. The Spartans went through a few bumps during the season when they lost freshman Emma Besta, who averaged 10 points per game, to an ACL tear, but they managed to keep going after a few losses.
It will be tough to beat Thomaston, Fenlason said.
“They’re really good,” he said. “We’re going to have to play really well to win.”
Northwest Catholic going for two straight titles:
Northwest Catholic, last year’s Class S champion, returns to challenge for the Class MM title against Sheehan, whose last trip to the Mohegan Sun was in 2019.
“It’s going to come down to the little things — the rebounding, the loose balls, the 50-50 stuff,” Northwest Catholic coach Alison Connors said. “I think it’s going to be a battle. The guard play matches up well. I think it’s going to come down to the non-tangibles.”
Seven of nine players returned for the secondseeded Lions.
“Things seemed to have flowed a little better this year,” Connors said. “They know each other’s strengths a little bit better. They know where each other wants the ball a little better. They’re reading each other better.”
Sheehan coach Mike Busillo said that Northwest presents matchup problems for his team.
“They’re going to be difficult to guard,” Busillo said. “Hopefully we can contain them the best we can.”