Chronicle Sports - Dec. 11, 2008

CHRONICLE SPORTS

CAPE TECH | CHATHAM | COLLEGE ROUNDUP

Cape Cod Tech Hockey Program Saved At 11^th Hour

PLEASANT LAKE — When coaches and school officials met with the Cape Tech hockey team Tuesday afternoon, they were forced to tell the team their season was over before it ever began. Financial woes, they said, were forcing the school to pull the plug on the program.

But thanks to some persistent parents, the program has been saved.

Cape Tech school officials and the Cape Tech Hockey Booster Club came to a monetary agreement late Tuesday afternoon that will ensure the 19 varsity players that their season plays out as expected.

The school will pay for transportation to games, coaches’ fees and a little more than half the cost of ice time, with the parents paying the other half, $5,400. The compromise also includes a cut back of one hour of practice ice time ($250) per week.

“We’re very satisfied,” said Cape Tech hockey booster club President Lisa Donoghue. “We’re not sure how we’re going to raise the money, but enough parents called and said they’re willing to do what they have to.”

That commitment was enough to convince Cape Tech Principal Leonard Phelan, Superintendent Director Burt Fisher and Business Manager Robert Sanborn, who initially said that in the current economic climate, they could not justify spending approximately $20,000 on 19 student athletes.

“It was heartbreaking to meet with the kids today and tell them we were not going to be able to offer them a season,” Phelan said. “No one wanted to deny the kids that. But our budget, like many other schools, is not in the best shape. The specter of teaching position cuts looms large and to go ahead and spend a substantial amount on the hockey season when we need to spend money on staff to execute our primary mission here makes for a difficult choice. Thankfully, everything worked out with a happy ending.”

Financial backing from the booster club will save Cape Tech “between seven and eight thousand dollars,” according to Phelan, who estimated the school will pay between “12 and 15 thousand” to run the hockey program this year.

Although the season was salvaged, the scare raises longterm concern about the future of the hockey program at Cape Tech, which has been going strong since 1976, the same year the school opened.

“We think the future belongs in a Lower Cape co-operative hockey program,” Cape Tech Athletic Director Don Farley said.

Cape Tech was merged with Chatham for the previous 19 years until Chatham seceded (and teamed with Harwich) due to “philosophical differences” between the two schools.

Cape Tech hosts Wareham at Charles Moore Arena at 4 p.m. Monday in its season opener.

Chatham’s Masaschi, Cape Tech’s
Richmond Closing In On 1,000 Points

by Eric Adler

CHATHAM — It took years and years for the Chatham girls basketball team to produce a 1,000 point scorer. It may not take longer than a month from now before the program sees its second.

With 899 career points, Chatham senior Taylor Masaschi is on the brink of reaching the millennium mark.

Chatham senior Taylor Masaschi needs 101 points to reach the 1,000 point milestone. File Photo

A six-foot-one sharp-shooter, Masaschi scored 238 as a freshman, 318 as a sophomore, and 343 last year when she led the Lady Blue Devils to a 17-8 record and helped them reach the Division Four South sectional semifinals.

Chatham’s Taryn van Esselstyn became the first female basketball player to reach the four-digit mark last year, but when all is said and done, Masaschi can become the girls’ program all-time leading scorer, provided she can surpass van Esselstyn’s 1,169 points (Christian Messersmith, class of ’05, holds the Chatham school record and Cape and Islands boys record with 1,705 points).

A perennial Mayflower League All-Star, Masaschi averaged 13.7 points-per-game last year. If she produces at that pace again this season, she could possibly reach the 1,000-point plateau in early January. Not that she’s looking at the calendar.

“Scoring 1,000 point is in the back of my mind, because it’s an extra thing. The team comes first,” said Masaschi. “It doesn’t have to be me who scores points, it can be anyone so long as we win.”

Winning games is something Masaschi knows a lot about, having led the Blue Devils to a 43-23 record and to the state tournament in each of her three years at the small Division Four school. Topping teams may be more of a challenge this year considering Chatham graduated three starters: Maggie Cole, Gina Falish and van Esselstyn, the team’s playmaking post player.

“I expect to see more double teams, but that means that everyone else will have an opportunity to step up,” said Masaschi. “Last year, a lot of the points were split between Taryn and I [van Esselstyn rung up 343 as well]. This year, we’ll have to have more even scoring.”

Where Masaschi scores from on the floor may also change. She played point guard last year, but as the tallest on the team, she could assume van Esselstyn’s vacant role at center or perhaps small forward to utilize her strong outside shot.

Wherever she plays, Masaschi will be a force, and possibly more so this winter than last after a six-month tour (May to October) around the U.S. with the AAU Rhode Island Breakers.

On a team laden with Division One college talent, featuring Boston College-bound recruits Mary Nwachukwu and Katie Zenovich, Masaschi moved “from the end of the bench” to the starting lineup, where she averaged 12 points per game over a 60-game stretch.

“It was difficult at first, because the girls on the team and other teams were so much better than I was,” said Masaschi. “They were stronger, they were able to physically push me around, and some could practically dunk.”

But in holding her own, and playing in big venues south of the Mason Dixon line (Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina to name a few), Masaschi was able to showcase her skills in front of college coaches.

Still undecided where she’ll play ball next year, Masaschi is debating between Brown, Navy, Manhattan College, New Jersey Tech and Florida’s Eckerd College, which offered Masaschi a partial scholarship to suit up at the Division Two school in St. Petersburg.

Although that decision looms, Masaschi’s main focus is on Chatham’s Dec. 18 tip-off against Cape Cod Academy (two days before her 18^th birthday), and a season of promise that lies ahead.

“I hope that we can achieve great things,” said Masaschi. “We have a lot of young talent but several seniors. All of the seniors have played together since fourth grade, and I feel like that bond will be substantial, especially in a tight game where we’re down by a point with two minutes left.”

In that event, it’s almost certain who will get the last shot. And if it goes in, that’s the only bucket Masaschi said she’ll care about.

“Getting 1,000 is a goal, but I’m not counting my points each game,” she said. “I feel like if I play my game, everything will work itself out.”

That’s the way things have played out for Cape Tech senior Dom Richmond, who needs just 46 points for 1,000.

Richmond netted 235 as a freshman, 271 as a sophomore, and dropped in 448 last year (for a 21.3 points-per-game average), when he led the Crusaders to an 11-10 record.

The six-foot-three Richmond, who “has no set position,” will be a marked man now that Cape Tech graduated seven seniors from last years’ team, including four of its starters.

“I expect teams to play box-and-one on me, but coach [Brent Warren] has figured a way to get around that,” said Richmond. “We basically have a whole new team, but I think we’ll do all right in the [Mayflower Small] league.

Only three other Cape Tech boys basketball players have hit quadruple digits, Billy Pina (1,234), Justin Sullivan (1,301) and Freeman Perry (1,072).

“I knew that if I played varsity all four years that I could score at least 250 each year and do it,” said Richmond. Still, he didn’t know his point total until he was informed last week, at which time he said, “It’s exciting to be that close.”

It’s unlikely that Richmond will reach the millennium milestone in Cape Tech’s opener at Bristol-Plymouth (Dec. 19), but he could do it the following game (Dec. 22) when the Crusaders host Harwich in their home opener, or the next night at home against Chatham.

Kelleher Flourishes In Final Season At Springfield

Former Harwich Field Hockey Star Earns All-American Honors

College Notebook by Eric Adler

by Eric Adler

CHATHAM — In addition to being the seven-time South Shore League champion and a perennial high school power, the Harwich field hockey team has also been an incubator of collegiate talent.

Several Rough Riders, under the tutelage of long-tenured coach Cheryl Poore, have taken their stick skills to the next step, including Sara Broderick, who earned All-American honors at Northeastern, and Joanna Daluze, famous for her double-overtime goal that gave UMass Lowell the NCAA Division Two championship in 2005.

Going Out In Style. Springfield senior Jane Kelleher finished her college career as the NEWMAC player of the year. She scored a team-best 36 points and team-high 17 goals this fall. PHOTO COURTESY OF SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT

Add Jane Kelleher, a senior midfielder on the Springfield field hockey team, to the list of former Rough Riders who’ve flourished on a college field.

Kelleher recorded a team-best 36 points and team-high 17 goals, including six game-winners, in leading the Pride to a 16-7 record and their fifth straight New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) title in as many years.

Not surprisingly, a number of post-season awards followed.

Kelleher was named the NEWMAC player of the year for the second straight year; she was selected to the 2008 Longstreth/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division III New England East Region Team; and she was named an All-American second-teamer by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) and womensfieldhockey.com.

“Jane had an outstanding career. She’s been our top offensive threat for three years and really the key to our program, on and off the field,” Springfield coach Melissa Rogers said. “She has a great work ethic. She played the full 70 minutes most of the time, and really led by example.”

Kelleher, who had a 23-goal, 9-assist season last fall, picked up where she left off, recording a hat trick in Springfield’s 7-0 win over Smith College the second game of the season. A few games later, she potted two between the posts in a 2-1 win over Connecticut College to spark the 2-2 Pride, which rolled off eight wins over its next 10 games.

Kelleher was a main weapon in Springfield’s post-season run as well, but the Pride’s title hopes were dashed following a 4-0 loss to Tufts in the second round of the NCAA Division Three tournament. The fourth-seeded Jumbos overwhelmed Springfield with a 44-4 edge in shots and 29-2 advantage in penalty corners.

Kelleher finished her career with 145 points, second best in team history behind only Brittany Veazie, who had 148 points. The Chatham native also had 19 game-winning goals (second to Veazie’s program-best 22), and she and Veazie share the team record for most career goals (63). Kelleher, in other words, leaves behind a legacy.

“Although Jane’s goal total didn’t jump up by 10 each year, the fact she continued to lead us in scoring says a lot, because after her sophomore year, she got noticed, after her junior year, she got double teamed, and her senior year, she was tripled teamed,” said Rogers. “Each year it became harder and harder for Jane to score, but she continued to do so and that’s what’s so remarkable about her.”

Former Harwich High School standout Marnie Rowe also wrapped up her senior season in style, guiding the Middlebury Field Hockey team to a 14-4 mark.

Rowe recorded five goals and three assists, good for 13 points (fifth-best on the team). She scored one game-winner and was the catalyst in the Panthers’ 8-0 win over Bates, opening the scoring two-and-a-half minutes into the contest.

After a stellar regular season, Middlebury advanced to the NCAA regional title game, but came up short to familiar foe Bowdoin, which won its ninth straight over Middlebury, dating back to 2005. The Polar Bears defeated the Panthers by a goal in last year’s NCAA championship game.

Former Harwich High School star Lauren Gonsalves played 18 games and started two for the Merrimack College field hockey team, which finished 5-14.

A freshman forward and sports medicine major, Gonsalves scored a goal and collected a couple of assists for the north of Boston school.

Gonsalves’ lone goal of the season was a big one as it proved to be the difference maker in Merrimack’s 1-0 mid-September win over American International College. She took a feed from senior Maggie Florence and scored on AIC goalie Nicole Spence 24 minutes into the first half.

Gonsalves’ first assist this season came in Merrimack’s 4-2 win over St. Anselm. She was also on the passing end of a score against St. Michael’s College.

At Harwich, Gonsalves was a four-year South Shore League All-Star, where she scored a Bay-State best 149 career goals, including 49 as a senior when she led the Rough Riders to the Division Two South sectional finals.

Blue Devils Still Kickin’

Chatham High School soccer standouts Bryan Connell, Kenny Davol and Will Jaques have all continued to get their kicks.

Connell played in 11 games, scored two goals and recorded four assists as a freshman forward on the Thomas College men’s soccer team (7-11) in Waterville, Maine. Connell scored his first college goal just after halftime in Thomas’ 8-0 win over Fisher College, and notched his other goal in a 5-0 victory over Unity College.

Davol is a freshman midfielder on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts men’s soccer team, which went 7-9-1 this season.

Jaques, a sophomore midfielder on the Marietta College men’s soccer team, helped the Ohio school to an 11-7-3 mark and to its third Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament in the program’s history.

Also around campus, Harwich resident and former Cape Cod Academy star Abby Doyle made her way into 10 games as a freshman midfielder on the highly successful Lynchburg College women’s soccer team.

The Virginia-based school won their second straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship and made it to the sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III tournament for the third straight year. The Hornets finished with a 21-1-3 record.

Kett Wins Amateur Title

Former Harwich High School golf star Tyler Kett won the 58^th annual Cape Cod Amateur Golf Championship – his first in as many tries – at the Hyannisport Club last month.

The 22-year-old recent UMass Dartmouth graduate beat out Matt Sheran, 5-and-4, to claim the title and become the first Cranberry Valley Golf Course member to win the prestigious title.

Kett, who never trailed in the championship match, won the first hole and took a three-stroke lead heading into the back nine. He began to salt away the win on the 11^th when he made par and Sheran bogied the hole, and clinched the title on the 14^th hole.

Kett advanced to the finals by defeating eight-time Cape Amateur champion Kevin Carey in the semifinals, 4-and-3. He made an eagle on the 421-yard 11th hole to take a two-stroke advantage, and won the 12th and 15th to win the match.

At Harwich, Kett led the Rough Riders to a Division Three South Sectional championship, and as a senior at UMass-Dartmouth, Kett was named to the Ping NCAA Division III All-Northeast Regional Team.

Lastly, former Cape Tech/Harwich standout Calvin Castillias just completed his freshman season as a defensive lineman on the Nichols College football team. The Dudley, Mass. team started 2-1 before dropping its final seven games.

12/11/08