Bishops Sports Blog ~ Start
of the Spring 2017
“The Girls Do It Again!”
(Pictured Left to Right: Senior captain
Meg Donovan, Coach Mahoney, Senior captain Mollie Manning)
Congrats to our girls’
basketball team… the Division 3 state champions! This is number 6 in program
history and number 3 in the past five seasons. The Lady Bishops defeated Hoosac
Valley at Springfield College, 62-37 to finish the year with a 22-4 record. While
junior point guard, Asiah Dingle, set the tone with her 15 points along with
great contributions from the two seniors and company, it were freshman Jess
Knight (11 points) and Meg Marcel (7 points) who helped seal the victory for
the girls. Despite losing Donovan and Manning next season, the team returns a
ton of talent in which should be another fantastic season.
“We Have Landed a Coach!”
Our athletic department is
excited to announce Jarrett Hesse as the new Varsity boys’ lacrosse coach.
After a long search to land a new coach, we believe we have found a gem in
Hesse who brings experience and leadership to the program. The new coach has a
strong lacrosse background having played in high school (East Syracuse-Minoa)
and in college (Lycoming College in PA), as well as, coached at the high school
level (Freedom HS in Virginia). We look forward to having Jarrett on the
sidelines for us this season.
Archbishop Williams
Athletics is proud to announce a new partnership with Adidas for our spring
sports season. Adidas – along with its corporate partnering brands – will bring
a new level of quality to all AWHS-branded clothing items. We hope that this
exciting partnership will be a preview of future ventures for next season
(fall/winter seasons). Thanks to our Dean of Student Life, Bill Kinsherf ’89,
who worked diligently with administrators, students, and faculty to make this
partnership happen. Adidas has been around since the mid 1900’s and it has
grown significantly producing over 364 million pieces of quality apparel each year.
*Important
Info: Please Check GOBishops for information on two jackets that have been
APPROVED for next school year’s outerwear.*
“The Dig”
The Dignan Center continues
to be a huge hit for students here at AWHS. Every day after school from 2:30 until
4 p.m., all students are allowed to come and get a nice workout in, using our
top-of-the-line workout equipment. The new facility has drawn rave reviews from
alumni, students, athletes, coaches, and more. Assistant athletic director,
Pete Umbrianna, has been supervising the facility. “Every day after school we
have about 20-30 kids working out which is pretty awesome considering the
number of students we have participating in sports and clubs. I’ve already in
five months seen some significant changes in a lot of our students. We have 7th
graders in here lifting with seniors. It’s pretty awesome to witness that and
I’m excited to expand workouts into the summer.”
Anyone interested in coming
down to get in a workout must register on FamilyID and go through a training
session with Coach U!
Season Previews
Boys
Lacrosse –
The boys’ lacrosse program
opens up their season away on Monday, April 3rd against CCL competitor, Bishop
Fenwick. The Bishops come into this season looking to improve on an 11-9 record.
With a new coach (see above) and a team excited to get back outside on the
turf, expectations are high. Junior defenseman Mark Higgins had this to say
about the upcoming season with a new coach… "He pushes us so much and it
definitely has been hard, but we all know it’s going to pay off in the
end." The Bishops lost a heartbreaker in the first round of playoffs last
season in OT. With four CCL competitors to begin the season, it is vital that
the team gets off to a hot start.
Girls
Lacrosse –
The girls’ lacrosse program
opens up their season away this Thursday at Plymouth South. After finishing the
season 14-7 last year, Coach McClay and company is confident that the team
returning is talented enough to rack up another season of double-digit wins. St.
Anselm commit Mollie Manning and senior Sharon Doherty lead a group that is
hard-working, talented, and experienced. “We are excited to see what this
season brings. We had a tough playoff loss last season which left a bad taste
in our mouths. The past is the past and we are looking to get back to the
playoffs this season… starting with a tough game at Plymouth South to start the
year,” said Doherty.
Tennis
-
Second year coach, Kathryn
Bois is looking forward to the season and is excited about the talent that the
team possesses this season. After going 7-9 in her first year, Bois has raved
about young, new talent mixed with veterans. Freshman Taylor and Brooke Alessi
have already created buzz around the program. Senior star Crystal Zeng said
this about the season "We have more people joining the team this season,
and I saw a couple of really good new players. I'm sure our team would get more
competitive this year and it will be a great season".
Baseball
–
Could this be the year our
baseball team makes a deep run in the playoffs? While that is too far away to
be determined, our baseball program is confident that the team possesses the
pieces to make a deep run in the postseason. After going 13-9 last season, the
Bishops had a heartbreaking loss at Stonehill College to Mashpee (6-5) in the
playoffs. A number of seniors return and a number of talented underclassmen
certainly make the Bishops scary on paper. With plenty of bats in the lineup,
talented fielders, and a veteran coaching staff, the Bishops could reach 13
wins pretty easily. Is pitching going to be key? Freshman Miles McDermott may
be that answer… after all he did reach 80 mph on the gun during tryouts! Senior
Timmy Chase had this to say about the season… “We have the guys to make a
late-season run. Our lineup is dangerous and if our pitching can keep us in
games, we believe we can produce enough runs to win a lot of games this season.
I’m looking forward to ending my athletic career with such an awesome group of
guys.”
Softball
–
The Lady Bishops begin the
2017 season with a tough home game against Hopkinton on Monday, April 3rd.
After winning 13 games last season, the Lady Bishops will rely on Maine commit,
Kyleigh O’Donnell’s arm, as well as, a very talented infield to match last
season’s success. Defensively, the Lady Bishops should be stout… but it is
their bats that could get them to the postseason again. They possess speed and
power, including freshman Meg Marcel who has been raising many eyebrows in
tryouts and practices so far. Coach Bill O’Brien had this to say about his team
this upcoming season… “We know what we are going to get from O’Donnell when she
is on the mound. But we are confident in our girls behind her in the rotation.
This is an experienced group of girls who I know believe that we can make some
noise in the 2017 season.”
Track
& Field –
One of the more frustrating
parts of the spring season is the weather and this year has been no different.
Snow and rain have played an unfortunate role in the start of our Track &
Field season, but the team continues to push through it with a majority of the
athletes maintaining great attendance early on. After an extremely successful winter
season, Coach Bryan Van Dorpe is ready to follow that up with a successful spring.
“The weather has made it tough on our kids, but they continue to work hard in
the workout facility and they are maintaining excellent attendance. We have a
large number of student-athletes participating and I see a lot of talent. We
have a new coach helping us out and despite the tough start weather wise; we
know we got to prepare the best we can for Quincy/North Quincy this Saturday.”
