Milford High boys seeking perfection
His Scarlet Hawks are the envy of many a coach -- athletic, experienced, and tough-minded.
But Steve Manguso has been at this game a long time and he knows what lies ahead.
So his Milford High boys' basketball team, unbeaten in its first 13 games and the Mid-Wach A leader in Central Massachusetts, will keep on working.
"We still need to rebound better and execute in the half-court. If we get into a slugfest, and we're not scoring points off turnovers, then we have to run stuff and get good shots," he said.
Manguso knows that he has a special group, led by eight seniors who have played hundreds of games together over the years in a number of sports, including a run to a Super Bowl title in football last fall: "They're great kids."
The unquestioned floor leader is senior Bryant Johnson. Manguso calls him "the best point guard I have seen in a while and one of the best that I have ever had. His decision-making and court sense is just ridiculous. He gets the ball where it needs to go." Also a dangerous 3-point shooter, Johnson is averaging 15 points a game.
In 6-foot-1-inch senior forward Tyler Washington, Milford has a force inside the paint and superb finisher on the break, a player who is once again pacing the Mid-Wach A in scoring, at 19 points a game. "He's an excellent rebounder, and he's athletic and tireless. That's how he scores," said Manguso, who pointed out that both Johnson and Washington also play tough defense, taking a "ridiculous" number of charges.
Senior guard Paul Seaver (15 points a game) has emerged as an efficient scorer, one who plays with poise and under control. Lloyd Kennedy, a 6-foot-5 senior center, is making opponents miss inside the paint with his defensive prowess. Seniors Mike Oliveri, Brian Flumere, and Mike Walsh all have received starting assignments on a Scarlet Hawks squad that goes nine deep. Senior Billy Duncan and junior Tristan Lee, junior varsity players a year ago, have been valuable contributors.
The road ahead may have some bumps on it. The Scarlet Hawks will face stiff tests against Xaverian, Wachusett, and Worcester North before facing Mid-Wach B leader Marlborough in the regular-season finale Feb. 22. "I believe it's the toughest schedule in Central Mass. in the final 10 games," Manguso said.
Chapel Hill girls continue streak
Just imagine: A freshman showing the rest of her Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School teammates how to win.
But Kyla Wesley didn't back down from the challenge.
A year ago, one season removed from a winless 0-16 campaign, the girls' basketball team at the Waltham prep school, inspired by their fiery frosh leader, went 14-4 and turned around the fortunes of the program.
"She changed the attitude here. She showed the girls how hard you have to work, how to be competitive," head coach Josh Bubar said of Wesley, who shared most valuable player honors in the Girls Independent League after averaging 19 points a game.
This season, as a sophomore, she is one of three team captains.
"There are other kids in the league as athletic, but no one else is as willful," Bubar said. The coach described one telling sequence during his team's comeback win against the Montrose School this season. In the course of about 30 seconds, Bubar said, Wesley stole the ball and scored a layup, converted the ensuing inbound pass into another basket, and then grabbed a defensive rebound and went baseline to baseline for a bucket.
With Wesley again taking a leading role, Chapel Hill won its first nine games, including big wins over nearby Gann Academy and Woodward of Quincy. The squad is ranked No. 1 among Class D prep teams in New England.
Wesley's scoring pace, at 14 points a game, is down a bit; she's sharing the ball more and feeding the post, where Kamilah Washington is averaging nearly 12 points a game. "She finishes real well, does not miss layups," Bubar said of Washington. "And in high school basketball, if you have a post that does not miss layups, it's like gold."
Junior captain Jeanine Kalikow runs the point and is also an effective 3-point shooter. The third captain, senior wing Grace Watterson, is the team's best defender. Sophomore forward Sandra Dickson completes the starting five.
Chapel Hill faced a tough rematch against Woodward last night, and has another lined up Saturday night against Gann.
"I really like our chances of playing in the Class D New England tournament," Bubar said. "This team really deserves the success it is achieving."
Marlborough team wins with balance
Are you looking for a "player to watch" skating up and down the ice in a black and orange Marlborough High hockey uniform?
Keep looking.
"We don't have any stars, not one or two players that we depend on," said Marlborough's coach, John Butler.
What he has is hard-working players who turned their season around after a 5-1 loss to archrival Hudson High by ripping off six straight victories, including an impressive 6-2 win over previously unbeaten Worcester.
"The kids came together and started playing better as a team," said Butler, whose young squad was 10-2 at the end of last week. "We started doing the little things that make big things happen. Once you start winning, you get in a good groove. And that's the best thing at the high school level. We definitely are playing with more confidence."
Butler shook up his three lines after the Hudson loss to balance out the scoring. A pair of juniors, Jim Delaney and Jon Casey, along with sophomore R.J. Byrnes, make up the first line. Two seniors, Ryan Stokes and Sean Breen, and sophomore Greg Silverman skate on the second line, and junior Patrick Sullivan, freshman Cody Evangelous and sophomore Jared Johnson are the third trio.
The result? The Panthers feature six players with either 10 or 11 points.
On defense, Butler has three sturdy, physical blueliners -- junior Wes Russell, along with two sophomores, Kyle Lind and Alec Butler, the coach's son.
Goaltending was a concern at the beginning of the season, but junior Tim Pacific, a first-year starter, has made Butler a believer.
"He has worked so hard," Butler said of Pacific. "Our goal is, by the end of the season, for him to be a good to very good goalie. He's on his way to being good. I have high expectations for all of my players, not just my goalies."
His squad, he said, is one of roughly six teams that has a chance to emerge as the Central Mass. Division 3 champion, along with Auburn, Hudson, Leominster, Westborough, and Worcester.
"Any team that shows up to play can beat anyone else," he said. "We know that we don't have a superstar, but the kids work hard as units, and go out five at a time."
Holliston girls making a run
The turning point for the Holliston High girls' basketball team was a confidence-building overtime victory over Tri-Valley League rival Medway in mid-December, just three days after absorbing a one-point loss to Dover-Sherborn Regional.
On a Panther squad working three new starters into the lineup alongside senior captains Cara Hart and Maggie Carragher, the win provided a needed lift.
"We were behind the whole game, we rallied, and after that the girls really believed," said Holliston's coach, Kristen Hedrick.
Her team responded with three straight wins before falling to league leader Westwood, 57-34, and a solid Hopkinton squad, 43-42, but answered with three more wins for an 8-3 start.
Hedrick noted the leadership of Hart and Carragher, saying they have been key in "getting the other girls to understand where we wanted to go this season and where we wanted to take it."
The 5-foot-7-inch Hart is an accomplished scorer -- her 15-points-a-game average is the second highest in the league -- who often draws extra attention with box-and-one defenses. "But when teams do that, we've had other kids step up, and it forces them to get out of that defense," Hedrick said.
Hart, who is considering Bentley and Ithaca as college choices, starts at off-guard, but swings over to the point when Hedrick works through her substitutions. "Defensively, she's stepped it up, she has great basketball instincts, and her game is constantly evolving," the coach said.
The 5-foot-8-inch Carragher, the team's emotional leader, according to Hedrick, averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds per game over a recent stretch, playing both in the post and out on the wing.
The other three starters -- point guard Rachel Mayne and forwards Rachel Finer and Kaitlin Donovan -- are all juniors. Rebecca Salant, the only sophomore on the varsity roster, is a key reserve off the bench.
Hedrick is pleased with the way her squad plays together.
"We don't run our plays through one person. We do everything as a team and all the kids get opportunities to score. We really believe that we can beat any team in the league; that's how we want to play."
Framingham High gymnasts on a roll
An unbeaten run through the Bay State Conference is not unusual for the Framingham High girls' gymnastics team. The Flyers went 8-0 in both 2004 and 2005.
This year's edition does not have the depth of previous Framingham squads, yet the Flyers will head into tomorrow's final league meet against Natick with an opportunity for another 8-0 season.
"It's a great team; they are hard working, and they have a lot of fun," said coach Sandy Maier, who has directed the program since 1991.
The signature win was a 131.95 scoring effort at Braintree, a sterling performance that surprised even Maier.
"We had been scoring around 124 this season, Braintree was averaging around 130," Maier said. "We didn't see ourselves winning. I told the girls to do their best and have a good time.
"But judges see things differently; it is subjective. We did the same routines, we hit the same tricks, and scored that much higher. Judges are from different parts of the state. It was icing on the cake to beat Braintree."
Freshman Alex Mazzola and junior Katie Cooper have shined in the all-around competition, and the Flyers also have received strong performances all season from freshman Nikki Podoloff, and juniors Ashley Allen, Chelsea Mryglot, and Maria Pinheiro.
Even with an 8-0 mark, the Flyers could be shut out of the postseason tournament. The average of a team's top four performances are used to select the 12 sectional qualifiers, and Framingham likely needed a few more 131-plus-point performances to advance in the South bracket.
"Once all the teams are in the same gym, that's a true measure of where you're at because you have the same judges," Maier said of the tournament setting. "The judging is a situation that everyone is up in arms about every year. The crazy thing is, if we did get there, I think we'd do pretty well."
