The Knightly News

Westbrook High School's Newspaper

Issue 37 Mid Winter 2024

Girls Basketball
The main focus of the team was working hard and together as a team this season was an obtainable goal.  The squad worked hard and were little and mightly.  They never gave up and had an especially key win vs. HK.  Head coach Sean Donadio and assistant Coach  Paula "the goat" Fitzgerald are proud of their team, will miss the senior players and look forward to the season next year.  Special Thanks to Norah Hayden, '24 the team manager.

Congratulations to the following award recipients:

Adriana Spash- Varsity Coach’s Award

Natalia Fineza- JV Coach’s Award

Leticia Pires- Varsity Most Valuable Player

Anna Landino- Varsity Coach’s Award

Reagan Zambrello- JV Most Improved

Leticia Pires received All Shoreline Honorable Mention

Boys Basketball
Under the direction of a new head coach Alan Stekloff and assistant Trevor Phelan, the boys worked hard this season.  The team graduates 7 seniors , we will see what next year brings!
Congratulations to the following award recipients:

Miles Hayden- JV Most Improved Player

Tyler Fineza- JV Coach’s Award

Elliot Koplas- Varsity Most Valuable Player

Trevor Jones- Varsity Most Improved

Dev Patel- Varsity Coach’s Award

Maurice Whalen received All Shoreline Honorable Mention

Indoor Track and Field
Our Indoor Track team had a good season.  With only 11 athletes on the team, almost the entire team was able to compete in our Shoreline Conference Championship on Feb 2nd.  Andre De Sousa finished top 10 in both the 55m and the 300m, and Jamie Freis earned a medal in the 300m, finishing in 6th place.  Both our girls and boys Sprint Medley Relay finished in 8th place and scored a point for our team.  We have a young team with only 2 seniors and every athlete celebrated personal bests by the end of the season so we are looking forward to Outdoor Track and continuing our success and hopefully getting more banners up in the gym! 

Congratulations to the following award recipients:

MVP Boys Indoor Track- John Dias Heringer

MVP Girls Indoor Track- Jamie Freis

Most Improved Boys Indoor Track- Andre De Sousa

Most Improved Girls Indoor Track- Lily Freeman

Sheridan’s Coach’s Award- Anjali Cotton

Alexa's Coach’s Award- Jeffrey Chiriap

Girls Ice Hockey-Co-op
The Hand girls’ ice hockey co-op team is comprised of a collection of athletes coming forth from various towns along the Connecticut Shoreline. This includes our sole member of the squad, Brooke Ouellette, '26.  The team returned to both the SCC and State Tournaments. The Hand girls’ ice hockey co-op team had a bye in the first round of the SCC Tournament as the No. 2 seed. In the semifinals on Feb. 21, the team faced No. 3 Hamden Co-op and fell 4-1.

The team then entered the state tournament as the No. 8 seed, where they fell 7-5 vs. No. 9 Hamden Co-op in the first round on Feb. 26.

Boys Ice Hockey Co-op
Jack Ford '24, is our sole member of the boys ice hockey co-op with with Southington/Coginchaug/Westbrook.  He has been a part of the co-op since his sophomore year.  Jack, we are proud that you were able to continue playing hockey in high school, you sure did put the "W" in SCW hockey. Good luck with your future endeavors!

Gymnastics Co-op
Hannah Freund, '24 and Grace Vincent, '27 were two members of the Haddam Killingworth/Morgan/Westbrook gymnastics co-op. The Knightly News wishes to congratulate Hannah and Grace on a spectacular season! Hannah placed first on floor and fifth all around and Grace placed fifth on floor and sixth all around at Shorelines.   The pair both made First Team All Shoreline.  Good luck to Hannah as she competes on the high school national gymnastics team in May!

OSW Competitive Cheer
The  the first season for OSW competitive cheer squad was a success! The squad is competed at home for Shorelines February 10th.  

Unified Sports 

 The seventh annual unified basketball tournament was held at WHS this winter.  Many local area high schools participated in the tournament.  We had the biggest turnout this year with over 200 participants overall. WHS came through with over 15 volunteers to help the tournament run smoothly. Danya Velez kicked off the event with a wonderful, heartfelt speech on how important Unified Sports is to our Westbrook community. Stephen Farrell made a guest appearance and received an honorary alumni t-shirt.  Teams competed in both gyms in a bracket style tournament, playing 5 games throughout the event. Thomas Greaves scored 14 points over all 5 games, and Emerson Aguilar Rivera scored 20 points! The event concluded with closing remarks, medals for the teams, and pizza.   

In our next issue Spring Sports Update!

Baseball Co-op with Valley
Softball Co-op with Old Saybrook

Boys and Girls Tennis

Boys and Girls Track

Good luck Spring Sports athletes and coaches!