Spring, 2023 - Sports

The Newton Braves Boys Basketball dunks into the end of a great season

by Jordan Short

The Newton Braves Boys Basketball has faced some tough teams this season, but their morale is high and are still chasing after their original goal.

“The season has been up and down. We have played a good schedule and because of that we have struggled at times, but we have also played some of these good teams really tight and have been in the game to the very end, but we have struggled to win these competitive games,” Head Coach Paul Filan said in a recent interview.

At post time, the team's record is 4-12 overall and 2-7 in the division. “As a team, we have been playing much better over the last 5 games. I feel we are going to finish the season strong by playing some of our best basketball of the season,” Coach Filan exclaimed.

At the beginning of the season, the team set goals they wanted to accomplish throughout the season. “We established 6 goals at the start of the season, but over the last several weeks our main focus is on our goal of making the state tournament,” Coach Filan added.

The Braves will continue their season working towards their goal by taking on Wallkill Valley on February 7th, at 7:00 PM at home.

Jake Benitz prepares to take a foul shot
Photo by Jordan Short

Brave bowling team: A future force to be reckoned with

by Loretta Samples

As the season starts, the bowling team is giving their all to prepare for competition. They currently stand at a win-loss record of 4-9. In the last few weeks, the team has increased greatly in their averages and most have invested in their own equipment for bowling. During a recent interview the coach of the Bowling team, Mr. Zwitkowits, stated, “The future looks bright as the kids are excited about their progress, seven of them being freshmen.” He believes that next year the team will be a force to be reckoned with.

So the team can increase their averages even higher, they are working on form and spare shooting. At the New Year’s Eve tournament Mackenzie Genung had a second high series. In the same tournament Rachel Porzilli took second high game, as well as third high game at the NJAC tournament. Currently, the Bowling team’s top bowler is Vinsent Mabee.

With all that being said, a big congratulations to the Brave Bowling team for getting to the strong point that they are at through such hard work and dedication!

Coach McCurry gives insight on how to build a good team

by Shannon Rittie

Allison McCurry has been the head coach of the Newton High School Winter Track team for three years. She became a coach because she enjoyed her experience as a student-athlete in high school and college. She wanted to share her knowledge with student-athletes in order to help them improve as runners. She delivers her athletes what are known as "Coach McCurry" lectures. She infuses a lot of social-emotional learning into her practices as a school social worker. This contributes to the athletes' overall development.

Distance (3200m and 1600m), mid-distance (800m), sprints (55m, 200m, 400m), and long jump are the winter track events. Distance: Sebastian Montalvo and Sprints & Jumps: Bettie Wiebold & Ian Zambrano are the top athletes this year. The challenge this year is that the team is smaller, making it more difficult to construct relay teams and score as a team during meets. During a recent interview, Coach McCurry expressed that her leadership and coaching philosophy is "creating well-rounded student-athletes.” She works hard to guarantee that her team's athletes are well-prepared for life beyond high school. Her athletes not only learn running technique, but also time management, communication skills, and how to be coachable.

She stays in touch with her former college coach to stay up to date on new tactical and training methods, and she gets a lot of good workout advice from them. She is also a member of a few running organizations in the community, which helps her discover the most up-to-date training methods. "Running is such a science," McCurry says. Good luck to the rest of your season Winter Track Team!

The Newton Lady Braves shoot for a great season

by Christine Ahmad and Alli Iliff

The Newton Lady Braves basketball team shoots for gold this year. After a tough season last year, the team has come back ready to win it all. At press time, the Lady Braves are currently 5-2 overall and hold a record of 4-0 in the Colonial League. “Even with our two losses we played hard until the end of the game. In both games, we even made impressive comebacks and just couldn’t finish the job,” stated coach Dugan in a recent interview.

Every player plays a crucial role in this year's success. Sophia Brondo is leading the team in steals with an average of 3 per game and 5 points per game. Catherine Vena contributes an average of 8 rebounds per game with an additional average of 6 points. Jordyn Young averages 8 points per game with 7 rebounds. Caitlyn Pokrywa averages 5 points and 5 rebounds a game. Sophia May is averaging 7 points and 2 steals per game. Coach Dugan also notes sparks of plays from Jolen Stoner and Sam Sutton.

With so many members of the team contributing points, steals, and rebounds, the team shows tremendous effort as a whole. The Lady Braves hope to be in the running to win the league and be competitive in every game. They are striving to play well enough for the rest of the month to get a home game seed in state. Good Luck Ladies and great job on your season so far!

Senior Sophia Brondo goes up for a layup during her Senior Night game
Photo by Jordan Short

Newton Wrestling progresses to make their team strive to be the best

by Kaylee Mangual

The wrestling season is now in play, and the team is moving along with their season. The season is moving on very quickly as they are improving every time they are out, and there are a lot of growing pains. So far within the season, the win-loss streak for girls is 2-0 and the boys are 1-6. The top performances for the team is Thaylor Sibblies was second at a tournament at Sam Cali, which is a big tournament. In that tournament, he wrestled seven times in two days. As of the girls, there were three girls who won counties, two that go to Newton High School, Ava Berry and Kayeln Lee. They both won counties and the girls won a team title.

The new players that have joined are progressing extremely well. They didn’t have as much experience, but they are improving. So far they have wrestled a tough schedule so far, wrestling against three or four teams ranked in the Top 25 in the state. During a recent interview, Coach Bollette gave an inside perspective on the struggle and obstacles that have happened in the season. He stated,“We struggled to fill all the weight classes. We could use better numbers on the boys side, and the same with girls. We filled 10 of the 12 weights on the girls side, and we filled 12 out of the 14 on the boys side.”

The team as individuals are moving along as they have had some good performances so far. The team won’t know their district region state qualifiers until the season closes out. Going against one of the main teams, Jefferson, Newton beat them from 8-14 bouts, but they unfortunately lost the duel meet, falling one point short. Going against High Point, the team was underman with many being out due to injuries, even though Newton lost, they won five bouts. The main rival being Kitattiny, had some of a similar outcome of High Point, their team being a little more experienced then Newton was. At press time, the girls have already had their duel meet and the boys will have their meet Wednesday, January 19. This is the hardest part of the schedule for the season in general, both the boys and the girls.

The girls team is coming in with amazing records this year, by being fifth in the state. Ahead of them are Jackson, Kingsway, Lakewood, and Vernon. This is the first time ever that the girls team has ever been ranked. The last time there was a ranking that high was the boys team in 2009.

The wrestling season has taken off with many major matches. The team as a whole is striving to succeed with their team and have the team go far. Although there were some losses, it didn't defeat the team. They kept pushing to win every match they came across. Effort is what makes a team and the Newton Wrestling team is a great representation of that.

Aaron Stone outmaneuvers his opponent
Photo by Jordan Short

Newton Lenape Valley swim team completes another successful season

by Logan Daingerfield

As of early February, the season has ended for the Newton Lenape Valley swim team. After losing several talented swimmers to graduation last year, there was anxiety over whether or not the team would be able to live up to the records they set for themselves in prior years. Regardless, the team pushed through.

Both the girls and boys team had a record this season of 5-1. The top swimmers in each event were:

200 Freestyle: Teddy Mills/Quinn Strangeway

200 IM: Brenden Lynch/Sofia Garibaldi

50 Freestyle: David Sabol/Caitlyn Neill

100 Fly: Brenden Lynch/Sofia Garibaldi

100 Free: David Sabol/Caitlyn Neill

500 Free: Teddy Mills/Quinn Strangeway

100 Back: Dylan Cotter/Olivia Youngs

100 Breast: Jourdan Franco/Quinn Strangeway

Unfortunately, the Newton Lenape Valley swimmers were unable to qualify for states. This is a first for Coach Jacobellis, who has gone to states every year for the 12 years that she has been coaching the swim team. Regardless, the team had a good season. In a recent interview, Coach Jacobellis commented, “The swimmers swam so well throughout the entire season.” Hopes are high for next season, as swimmers improve their times and skills.

Newton Braves hockey team makes this season count

by Jordan Short

The NLV hockey team started this season out with big hopes. Ending the season with an overall record of 8-11-1 and an in league record of 4-5-l.

“We were faced with really good teams and we struggled a lot, but we bounced back pretty hard this season and tied with our win count last year,” team captain Anthony Piccirillo said in a recent interview.

With a team of amazing athletes two athletes really stood out–Junior Brayden Dabroski and Sophomore Maksym Pastukh.

One of their goals this season was to win championships.

“We made it pretty far this year getting to the championship, however we lost, but it was a good year and the team is closer than it has ever been,” Anthony exclaimed.

Robotics team works hard in preparation for a successful season

by Aisling Gill

The NHS robotics team sets their sights high, even with fewer veteran members and a new advisor. In the 2021-2022 season, they qualified for placement in the highest level of competition in the program, the FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas, an impressive achievement for any robotics team in the country. While the team’s shift in both student and advisor leadership could be seen as a disadvantage, the team sees it as motivation to work harder, with members like Felipe Narvaez, a returning junior, picking up the slack and providing extra support. “It is a great experience and I would love to get the freshman out there this year,” stated Sam Casqueira in a recent interview. Casqueira is the new head coach of the team.

As the March dates of the division competitions quickly approach, the team is working on both the design of the robot itself and the quick-thinking and on-site troubleshooting skills that are crucial to success in the early stages of the season and beyond. However, a strong team needs expertise in areas beyond a well-made robot. “Being part of the robotics team is more than just building robots,” added Coach Casqueira. “There are many different aspects of working together on a successful team, from business to coding and from CADD to strategy.”

In the past, the robotics team has placed a heavy emphasis on cooperating with local companies, advertising and public relations, and involvement in the greater community, skills that are necessities to the STEM field in the workplace and natural parts of operating any tech-based business smoothly.

In line with the ideals of the FIRST organization as a whole, the robotics team views competition season, the hours of hard work in the field and behind the scenes, not simply as an afterschool activity or a fun way to learn about STEM, but as practice for something greater—making change in the world through science and technology.

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