Boys Basketball
North Last year the Knights went a disappointing 3-21, but second-year coach Dale Florio is confident all the hard work in the off-season has paid off. The team is returning seniors Garvin Brown, Brandon Byrd, Darren Allen, Trevor DeFreitas, Chris Avino, and Brandon Smith, as well as junior Kyle Reed.##M:[more]##
Florio says that there are other sophomores and juniors who will be stepping up this year, including Brandon Johnson, Ethan Harel, Will Whipple, Greg Weisbecker, Chris Hase, Miles Eisenman, Ralph Otis, and Larry Brodie.
“We had a very successful summer session,” says Florio. “The players want to prove themselves. I like the emotion and teamwork they’ve displayed here in the preseason.” The team is working on making better decisions and cutting down the turnovers, he said. “I think we’re going to be smarter this year,” he said. “We have a lot of speed.”
The team’s first game is on Friday, December 19, against Allentown. The boys will also face South on Tuesday, December 23.
South. Coming off last season’s 15-10 record, the Pirates have a strong starting roster, including four seniors and one junior who will lead the team, including senior forward Austin Witter, at 6-feet-8, who had a school record 151 blocks last season.
Also on the roster is senior forward Dan Block, at 6-4, who started half the games last year and who has worked hard getting into shape, says coach Bob Schurtz. “It might be rebounding or blocking, but I think he’s one of the key guys in making us work,” Schurtz said. Also starting is Chris Johnson, senior point guard at 5-feet-7, who also started in a good percentage of the games last year. “One a team of big trees, he’s the little guy,” Schurtz joked. But, “over a four-year period, he’s grown — maybe not in height, but he’s grown up in ever other aspect.”
Senior forward Dan Balevski, at 6-5, missed the first half of the season last year with an injury, but Schurtz says he should develop into a great asset. Schurtz hopes to be developing junior guard Jack Dennehy, also at 6-5, into a player who will fulfill the shooter’s role.
The team’s first game is at home on Friday, December 19, against powerhouse Trenton. The team will also face North on Tuesday, December 23. Then it will head to Wildwood for a Christmas tournament.
Girls Basketball
North. Despite losing Kathy Ruiz, the top scorer in the school’s history, the Knights are returning seniors Erin Egan, Blair Moore, Deeksha Taneja, and juniors Lexie Forsell, Denise Pyfrom, Kathryn Davis, Jenna Greenstein, and Jackie Silva.
The team also graduated Megan Pisani, its best outside shooter, and Danielle Parisi. “We only graduated three people, but they were the heart and soul and core of the team,” says coach Bob Boyce, who says it will be a rebuilding year for the Knights. “We’re trying to find someone to score.”
However, there is potential, especially in Erin Egan, and with Lexie Forsell, who is the point guard. She is currently injured, but when she is healthy, she is a legitimate threat, says Boyce, adding that Taneja is also dealing with an injury. He says he hopes to see the girls each chip in eight to ten points a game. “We’re not going to have someone score 30 points a night like Kathy did,” he said. “But we do have a little more balance. One of the things when you have a player that good is they kept looking to her too much.” He says he is now looking for others to step up and make plays.
The Knights went 14-12 last year and have a tough opening schedule, with their first game against Allentown on Friday, December 19, followed by Voorhees, High School South, and then a holiday tournament against Bishop Ahr, South Brunswick, and Hillsborough.
South. Last year’s successful 21-5 season and a run to the state championship before falling to Trenton is a tough act to follow, but the Pirates have three seniors returning as captains: Tory Sharpless, Liz Huttner, and Steph Dontas. Also returning is junior Erica Simi.
The team lost five seniors to graduation last year, “but I think these four kids are ready to step up and fill the gap,” says coach Lisa Guarneri.
The team will kick off its season on Friday, December 19, against Trenton. Following that, South faces North on Tuesday, December 23. “We want to be one of the better defensive teams in the CVC,” said Guarneri..
Swimming
North. Both the girls and boys opened their seasons with easy wins against Lawrence, one of their strongest opponents. Last year the boys finished with a 9-3 record, while the girls finished with a 10-2 record.
This year Virginia Hung, Kelly Covey, Rocio Riestra, and Katrina Chen are returning swimmers, and two new additions, Connie Zhang and Ann Lee, are swimmers to watch, says Coach Theresa Bonanno.
Among the returning swimmers for the boys are Derek Chiao, Edwin Chiu, Evan Hundley, and Nathan Hirschbein. Ben Lao and Ben Chang, newcomers to the team, are “budding,” and should be coming up strong this year, Bonanno added.
North’s program has over 20 new swimmers this year, as 90 students made an appearance in the tryouts, she said.
Both the girls and boys overcame Lawrence to open their seasons with a huge boost. “The first meet is always the hardest because we haven’t had a chance to scout,” says Bonanno. “We knew what Lawrence had lost. But neither team knows who they’ve gained.”
“I thought it was going to be much closer,” Bonanno admits. “Lawrence has always been a powerhouse. They’ve always been a team we lost to, until last year.”
“Our swimmers performed way beyond any of my expectations,” Bonanno says. “Our returning swimmers came back stronger and more spirited and with a whole different attitude.” That included more of a “team first” mentality, and instead of worrying about individual statistics, new swimmers have also grasped the team attitude quickly, she says.
Following that match, both teams went on to defeat Nottingham and Princeton to improve to 3-0.
Bonanno says her goals this year include winning the division title again and “hoping to place higher in the counties this year. We need to keep our strength going through the county meets this year. We would really like a Top 3 placing.”
South. The South girls have not lost a regular season meet in eight years. “We certainly don’t plan on starting to do that now,” says coach Paul Hamnet. “We’re hoping to get through the CVC and win the Mercer County title again. Hopefully, that ultimately leads to a Central Jersey championship, which is going to be harder this year.”
While the girls fell to Lawrence in the state tournament, Hamnet says he is pretty confident the team can give Lawrence a run for its money this season. Among the returning swimmers this year are seniors Julia Tomei, Rachel Sartor, Elizabeth Wembacher, and Lauren Curatolo; juniors Meredith Ketchmark, Rebecca Lewinson, Brynja Winnan, Victoria Lee, and Gabrielle Giambagno; sophomores Anne Bonazzi and Amanda Grant. Freshman Jocelyn Yuen and Cori Michibata are also swimmers to watch.
Sartor and Tomei will serve as captains, and the success of Lewinson, Ketchmark, and Winnan, will play a large factor.
The South boys, who went 14-2 last year, went undefeated in the CVC, and are looking to do the same again, Hamnet says. “I think to do better in the Mercer County tournament is a big goal for them,” he adds.
Key for the boys this year are seniors Mike Prewett, Alp Yurter, Christopher Perez, Joseph Grant; juniors Mike Mai, Alex Huang, Abhishek Shevade, Ilya Grabylnikov, Erik Dixon-Anderson; sophomores Kevin Welsh and Daniel Druckman, and freshmen Grant Lee and Daniel Kravets. Grant, Prewett, and Druckman will anchor the team this year, with Yurter and Perez serving as captains.
Wrestling
North. This year’s squad will be young, as North lost Ted Hirt, Matt Kalinowski, Brian Gallagher, Ben Newman, and Vikram Kumar to graduation last year.
Coach Bill Mealy says that in order to improve on last year’s 5-14 record, the squad will be depending upon its returning seniors, including Taylor McLoon, Ahmed Abdelhady, Matt Rabin, Chris Mealy, and Iquan Williams. Also returning are juniors Ethan Kaye, Nathan Frost, Zack Larson, and Peter Le; and sophomore James Mulhall.
South. Under direction from a new coach, the Pirates are looking to bounce back from last year’s winless season.
Jesse Palermo, the new head coach, says he is focused primarily on making sure the team is disciplined and receives plenty of positive reinforcement and encouragement. “You’re not going to find a harder sport than wrestling,” aside from boxing or martial arts, says Palermo, who wrestled in high school and at Princeton University. “Wrestling’s hard enough on its own. You don’t need a really negative influence. My role is just to make sure they’re learning technique and encourage them to know that they are improving.”
Palermo says while his team is young — returning are four seniors and 12 juniors, rounded out by 11 freshmen and 13 sophomores — “I don’t see any reason why we can’t win several matches this year. Right now, we have a solid, solid team.”
He says his standout wrestlers are in the core of the team’s lineup, from 130 pounds to 171. “Everyone on the team is good, but we really have a dynamite core of wrestlers in those middle weights.”
Palermo attended Princeton University originally as an architecture major, but realized he did not want to pursue that career path and took some time off. In that time, he became a substitute teacher and began coaching wrestling in his hometown of Skaneateles, New York. The team finished with a 20-5 and an honorable mention in the states. Palermo, whose mother is a retired lawyer and whose father is a veterinarian, graduated from Princeton University in June and will be getting his certification in education for both elementary school and middle school social studies. He now lives in Plainsboro.
While Palermo says wrestling is a sport that is hard to predict, so long as the team can “get a couple pins and avoid getting pinned in most of our matches, then we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
“This is going to be the turning point in their program. My goals are really just to get them to the point where technically, they can compete at every level.”
Palermo also credited assistant coach David Botwin. “He’s been helping me to get acclimated to all the rigors of coaching,” Palermo said. The team’s first match is on Friday, December 19, at Nottingham.
