We need more players like Cora Sawyer
New London The concept of preaching "team" gets harder. Look around at a society built on self-indulgence, adults hardly able to practice restraint, mugging on Facebook and with their selfie sticks. And so how to teach our kids selflessness without sounding somewhere between idealistic and fraudulent?
Happily, there's at least one Cora Sawyer out there. You'd never know she played a high school basketball game Monday night by simply reading the boxscore. That's because boxscores don't measure dives on the floor, tie-ups, deflections, fighting through screens, setting them, passing the ball to open teammates and deny defense.
Sawyer is a Stonington kid who plays for New London, the glue of a 22-1 team now, headed to the second round of the Class L state tourna- ment. The Fighting Sawyers beat Berlin in the first round Monday night at Conway Gym, 59-32.
Cora Sawyer, a sophomore, doesn't shoot much, although there were a few times Monday she was more wide open than Wyoming. It is not easy. Again: It makes for a nice sound bite to be lauded as the do-thedirty-work kid, but what happens if nobody else notices?
"The hardest part is in the mo- ment," Sawyer was saying. "But after you think about it, you realize it's for the good of the team. It pays off in the long run, but in the moment it can be difficult, like if you are working really hard, but you don't think anyone else notices it.
"Coach (Holly Misto) will be home later watching the film and mention it next day in practice," Sawyer said. "That's when you realize it's all for a purpose."
Misto understands that she has a gem in Sawyer, who has embraced the role, in spite of not always loving it.
"Cora and Spencer (Roman) do a lot of chasing on defense," Sawyer said. "We have them cover the other team's best players running around like crazy guarding people. A lot of times we'll be in man to man and Cora will still be in deny. Sometimes,
she doesn't get the recognition, doing the dirty work without the glory.”
Sawyer is an illustration, if nothing else, that winning teams are about more than home-run hitters, big-play receivers and three-point shooters. But whether a coach can sell that to his or her players, especially with any number of arbiters chirping at the about the unfairness of it all, is up for debate.
“We talk about teamwork all the time, how important each individual is to the team,” Misto said. “Everyone contributes in some way. I truly believe that. I think they do now, too. It took a while to get them in that mindset.”
Sawyer could have stayed home in Stonington and played for a first-rate coach in Paulla Solar. And yet her decision to attend the Science and Technology Magnet School could be its own television ad. Few others have been as clear about its appeal:
“I've always felt the Whaler situation starting with my brother,” she said, alluding to Collin Sawyer, who graduated last year and was an allstate basketball player. “I was raised into this. I always felt like the right place to go.
“First, I love how New London is so diverse,” she said. “When I'm doing college resumes, I can say I went to a science and tech school with diversity and with so many opportunities. Like (Monday), we went on a field trip to Coast Guard Academy to work with Coast Guard students. Coming here, I feel like I've learned a lot more life lessons already. Every single day, I learn something new, I see something knew and I meet see new people every day.”
The assignments get harder within the Class L tournament now. Better teams, better scores, no more ECC lunchmeat. They'll need Cora Sawyer, her defense and her attitude more than ever. Good thing they have her. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro. Twitter: @BCgenius