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"A Winter Full of Memories"
By: Seniors Liam Barnicle & Abby McCulloch
Girls Hockey
What a year it was for the Girl's Hockey program. The Lady Bishops finished the season with their best record in the history of the program at 16-5-2. The team stormed through the regular season, recording 9 games where they held their opponent scoreless... large in part to the great play in net from junior Allison Delmonte and the strong defense. On the the opposite side of the ice, the Lady Bishops were led by a three headed monster offensively with Hannah Bell, Mackenzie Heath, and Chelsea Taxter who combined to score an unbelievable 51 goals on the season. The strong regular season play led to the Lady Bishops landing a #3 seed in the Division 2 Girls Hockey MIAA Tournament.
Excitement was brewing throughout the girls hockey program as they entered the tournament with a certain buzz they had never felt before. They drew a second round match up against a very good King Philip team (Had a bye round 1). Behind a loud and cheerful crowd, the Bishops struck early and often jumping out to a lead to start the game. K.P. battled back and made it a one goal game late in the 3rd period, but Delmonte did what she had done all year long and closed the door in net, despite KP putting a lot of pressure late. The Lady Bishops held on 3-2 and saw a date with Natick in the Quarterfinals. In the next round, the Lady Bishops again weathered the storm in Woburn to defeat Natick, 2-0.
Next up.. State Semi-finals match up with #2 seeded Canton at the Warrior Arena. Winner heading to the Garden. After a scoreless first period, Canton snuck one in the back of the net to make it a 1-0 game. The Lady Bishops pushed and pushed, but struggled to find many opportunities offensively. The third period came and behind a large and loud crowd of Bishops fans, the girls started picking up some momentum. However, that momentum was halted by the goal keeper of Canton who shut the door on the Lady Bishops... game ended 1-0. While disappointment set in and a trip to the TD Garden was held short, the Lady Bishops had a season to remember!
(Pictured below: The Girls Hockey team receive the MIAA James F. Mulloy Sportsman award at the TD Garden)
Boys Hockey
The Boys Hockey program had another tough finish to their season, missing the tournament by one point. Similar to last season, the Bishops had to deliver significant results in the Buddy Ferreira tournament down in Falmouth. The tournament, featuring many of the top teams in the state, proved to be just a little too much for the boys hockey program as they came up just short once again after losing to a Super-8 contender, Hingham High School.
Despite another tough finish to the season, the Bishops could look back on many positives that came from this past winter season. First and foremost, the Boy's Hockey team got a plethora of contributions from young players which does mean their future is still bright. They will lose some very good seniors, but will also return a majority of their team who will all be a year improved. The Bishops landed many outstanding wins throughout the season, including a 9-4 victory over Matignon. Their biggest win of the season may have came against CCL competitor, St. Mary's, who ended up making it to the Super 8.
The difference of the season may have came from their 6 ties on the year. If those ties could have gone on the positive side, the Bishops would have landed a spot in the tournament. However, it certainly doesn't take away from the season that the boys hockey program had put together. As senior Brendan Foley stated, "I've had the time of my life playing for this school and the fans of AWHS. When you walk out that door, it's forever... you can never get that back." It's quotes like that, that define a program and we look forward to the Boys Hockey team contending again next season.
(Pictured below: Senior Nick Glass fires one past the goalie of King Philip during the 2017-2018 season.
Swimming
It was another fantastic season for the swim team here at AWHS. The Bishops finished with a 7-2 record on the season, which is their second straight season with at least 7 wins. Throughout the season, the Bishops found themselves breaking many school records and competing at a very high level. Every meet they seemed to get better and better which brought us to a "cliffhanger" type of performance at the CCL's. The Bishops struck gold in three different races during the CCL's, but the effort placed the swimmers in 3rd place for a second straight season, but just 2 total points behind the 2nd place finisher.
Before this year, the Bishops had never won an event in the competition. However, this year was different. Nicole Miller '21 cruised to victory, winning gold in the 100 Butterfly. Sam Rossini '21 struck gold in the 100 Freestyle, beating out 17 other swimmers and knocking off the school record in the process. The 200 Relay team of Nicole Miller, Liz Galicki '21, Teddy Rossini '20, and Sam Rossini also clinched gold in the competition. Many other school records were broken throughout the event, which goes to show the work and effort the swimmers put into this season.
6 different swimmers were invited to the MIAA South Sectionals at MIT, which shattered the number of invitations we had last season. Liz Galicki shined, finishing 14th overall in the 100 backstroke, which is an incredible feat given the fact that she is only a Freshman. It was an overall record-breaking season for the Bishops, who will return a ton of young talent next season.
(Pictured below: The Bishops prepare for a mid-season meet against Bishop Connolly. The Bishops swam to victory 94-71.)
Winter Cheerleading
The cheerleaders had another very successful winter season behind the leadership of coaches Ali Fareri and Al Grasso. The girls' practiced on a weekly basis, perfecting many routines ad could often be seen at many home basketball games, flipping their way through timeouts. The girls' had a long layover until the CCL competition, but remained confident that their effort in practice was going to carry over the the performance... and they were right.
The girls' finished 2nd at the CCL's with an outstanding routine. This qualified them again for Regionals. Despite limited gym time and space, Cheer had another outstanding season, which featured a lot of newcomers and young talent.
Senior, Julia Galvin, had this to say about the season: "Overall, I think this season was a success. Our main goal was to bring back the greatness of this program, and I think we took a great step in doing so. We worked hard all season long and got stronger each week. I am confident in the younger girls to keep it going for the next couple of years!"
(Pictured below: The Cheerleaders huddle up before their routine at the CCL's. The girls' finished 2nd)
Track & Field
What a winter season for the Track team here at AWHS! Both the Boys & Girls' track teams finished above .500 with a 4-3 record, but some can argue that the overall records don't do justice for just how successful this season was for the Bishops. Similar to the Swim team... many personal bests were achieved. Many school records were broken. A large number of members placed at the TCL Championship Meet. We had runners invited to the State Class Meet. We would be here all day if we counted the number of track and field athletes that contributed somehow to the success of the season. This is a testament of how hard the student-athletes worked all season, despite having to battle the weather on a daily basis.
While it would be tough to highlight every athlete who achieved a personal best (Check GOBishops as Coach Van Dorpe has highlighted a bunch of them), we did want to highlight some of the school records that were broken. In the final meet of the season, Senior Chigozie Sumani broke a school record, which was previously set by herself earlier in the season, in the 55 meter hurdles, where she finished 4th in the State Class Meet. In the same meet, both the boys & girls' 4 x 200 relays broke school records! The team of William Hua, Jared Kennedy, Sean McA'Nulty, and Vijay Blair finished in 1:38.28 and the team of Anna Romaine, Kristen Burke, Ashley Tran, and Chigozie Sumani finished in 1:54.71.
While it wasn't a school record, we must also give a shout-out to Julia McRoberts who finished with her 2nd straight undefeated season in the Shot Put, as well as, her 6th invitation to the State Class Meet (out of 7 seasons!). A big thanks has to be given to Coach Van Dorpe who once again put together another outstanding season.
(Pictured below: The seniors, with their posters, at the Reggie Lewis Center on Senior Day)
Boys Basketball
It was another tough season for the Boys Basketball team here at AWHS, as the Bishops finished with just 3 wins on the season. However, similar to last season which only managed 4 wins, there were many positives that came out of this season. The first positive that must be highlighted occurred before the season even got a start. The participation numbers were at an all-time high during tryouts, which is a testament of the job that Coach Dolan, Coach Bloomer, and Coach Curley are doing with the program. The second positive that came out of this season was how the Bishops battled in a lot of games this season. They took three tournament bound teams (Canton, Scituate, and Abington) to the final seconds in games that could have gone either way. Finally, the Bishops stayed motivated throughout tough times. As senior David Liddell said, "Although it was a tough season, it was very enjoyable. My teammates and the coaching staff gave me many memories that I will never forget."
So what's next for the Boys Basketball program? Despite only having 7 wins the past two seasons, the future remains very bright for the Bishops. The JV and Freshman teams combined with 13 wins on the season, including wins over Cardinal Spellman, St. Mary's, and Cathedral's sub-varsity teams. Also, we can not forget about the year that the Middle School basketball team had! The very young future of the program happened to win their league's championship, with an outstanding win over Cathedral in the final game. We are very excited to see what is going to come over the next year or two with the boys basketball program.
(Pictured below: The senior basketball players & cheerleaders on what was an amazing Senior night)
Girls Basketball
"Yeah, I'm going back to back!" Drake's rap song titled "Back to Back" could very well become the theme song of the Girl's Basketball program, as the girl's varsity team won another State Championship, defeating Hampshire Regional 77-42 in the final game at Springfield College. While this season, and especially the playoff run, may have seemed like a "breeze" for any outsider, the Lady Bishops put a season and a run together, that will be tough to duplicate. Throughout the season, the Lady Bishops battled injury and life difficulties that really battle-tested the program. At one point of the season, the varsity team had 8 girls dressed, and 5 that were injured, including senior captain Shannon Kelley, who broke her foot that ended her season. However, the girls took the challenge and ran away with it, as it made them closer and stronger. They knocked off Dedham, East Bridgewater, Norwell, Fontbonne, and Bishop Fenwick (3rd time in the season) in their playoff run, before defeating Hampshire.
Similar to last season's postseason run, the Lady Bishops got a significant amount of help from their bench... especially in moments when they needed them most. We could spend hours talking about different moments where a bench player contributed in some way. In the end, the depth and talent deemed to be too much for opponents. Kent State commit, Asiah Dingle, averaged well over 20 points per game in the playoffs. Erica Silvia, who did an sensational job stepping in for Kelley, lead the team by a large margin in charges taken. Jess Knight had a team high 22 points in the biggest game of the season. Monica Spain was all-around magnificent throughout the run. Bridgette O'Reilly hit key shots when they were needed the most. It was just an overall season to remember for the girls and the coaching staff.
Can the program keep their State Championship streak alive? It certainly won't be easy, losing 5 seniors (three who will be playing at the collegiate level), but the team will bring back boatloads of talent. Oh and the JV and Freshman teams combined for 22 wins and only 6 loses. Great season girls!
(Pictured below: The Girl's Varsity team, Coaching Staff, and President Duggan after their huge State Championship victory)
Look Back at an Amazing Winter Season:
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