WiNK

I previously wrote an article a few weeks about how rainy this spring season is and how it has interfered with sports. While there has been that, the season has also held a lot of successful teams. I asked Mr. Hutchins, one of the longest serving members of our athletic department, how this season compares to previous years. He said, "I think if you want to find a comparable year of overall success, you would have to go back to 2014 when the following teams won the league: Boys and Girls Tennis, Baseball, and Boys Lacrosse. As someone who gets to watch a majority of games across all sports, I have to say the level of play from all teams has gone up dramatically. I think this can be attributed to playing a more competitive schedule, having coaches who understand how to progress a team through the year, and not getting caught up on losses early. Playing in a more competitive sports conference has also allowed our play to improve over time. That said, sports success is somewhat cyclical and I imagine that has something to do with it as well. You can see other teams in the HVAL fall off but there is some young talent that will get better on other teams. The real question is can our younger talent continue to develop and work on their game and match the competitions."

This year, the Boys Tennis, Boys Lacrosse, and Ultimate Frisbee team won HVAL Championships and Girls Lacrosse were Runners-Up.

The Boys Tennis team had a very good season this year, going 15-2 overall, and an undefeated 13-0 in the league. We won the HVAL Championship and managed to advance past the first round of the New England Tournament for the first time in recent memory. This success is likely because of how much depth we have this year. Whereas in previous years we often had good top players but not great bottom players. This year however, all twelve members of our team could carry their weight, and that carried us further on in the tournament.

The Ultimate Frisbee team had another very good season, going undefeated in the HVAL and winning their third straight HVAL Championship. Sartaj Singh, a member of the team, said, "Besides good bench depth, our starting lineup had tons of star power. Like basically the whole group could be on the HVAL All-Star team. That really helped push us into winning it all."

The Boys Lacrosse team won their second straight HVAL Championship and also went undefeated in the league. They also won the Western New England Championships. I talked with Drew Greeley, a veteran of the team, who said about the reason they did so well was, "We had really great captains this year. They did a fantastic job of keeping us together and very well focused. Not just in games but in practice as well they kept us all on task and together. The other main thing is that everyone really bought into the team spirit. This doesn't always happen, but when it does it really helps the team." One other thing to note is that Captain Jacob Smith was recognized as the best player in Western New England Division III lacrosse and was selected as a high school All-American.

Finally, the Girls Lacrosse team were the HVAL Runners-Up, and they managed to win in a semi finals matchup in which they played "the best they played all season against a team that they had just split the season series with." Coach Thaler also said about why the team did well, "We had a combination of a lot of what makes teams do well. We had a very talented group across all the ages of the team. We also had a lot of experience, especially in our seniors, Libby Hinshaw and Kate Hynes. Finally we had awesome chemistry and passion. This is one of the teams I've had that have worked together the best and that made them all want to win for each other as well as themselves. That plays into the passion part because every girl also really wanted to win every game we played."

Overall, this has been one of the most successful spring sports seasons in a really long time.