Month: April 2023

Categories
Mohegan

Shepaug Valley enjoyed magical run to CIAC final at Mohegan Sun

Every high school basketball player hears his or her coach preach a hallowed maxim: “You’ve got to play the whole game.”

Shepaug Valley High School’s Mohegan Sun arrival last weekend for the Division V Championship game heralded a broader view for Head Coach Matt Lefevre and Assistants Ted Bremer and Alan Stinson: “You’ve got to coach the whole season.”

Make that an entire lifetime for Coach Lefevre, who led Shepaug to a state final for the first time since 1983, falling to Windsor Locks 69-58 Saturday.

“I was a 5-foot-7 point guard at East Haven High School when it won a Class L state championship in 1980, then played for Clark University when it went to a Division III National Championship game,” he says.

“My distinction was playing with great players under great coaches who knew how to develop players,” he says.

Their lessons, plus 865 games coaching AAU teams, six years as assistant coach at Northwestern High School and 10 as Shepaug’s head coach brought Lefevre to this season with maxims of his own:

“We’re going to play the players who earn it on the court every day, regardless of age.”

And:

“Winning as a team better be enough reward; if it isn’t, you need to find something else to do.”

The first maxim produced seniors Phil Ostrosky and Kaelan McDonald, junior Liam Pacific, sophomore Reed Woerner and freshman James Kersten in the starting lineup, with freshman Drew Konik the first man off the bench.

Early in the season, at 1-3, the second maxim didn’t yet apply.

“We looked pretty good in pre-season scrimmages against tough teams,” Lefevre said. “With four other seniors, we went eight or nine deep in our lineup so we had depth and flexibility, but we didn’t have a…

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Categories
Nanticoke

The Citizens’ Voice photos of the day: March 26, 2023

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Categories
Lenni Lenape

Poetry: ‘Supernova’

Thea Matthews was born and raised on Ohlone land, San Francisco. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University, and her poetry has appeared in Southern Indiana Review, Interim, Tahoma Literary Review, the New Republic, and other publications. Currently, Matthews lives on the land of the Lenape, Brooklyn, New York.

This poem appears in Issue 23 of Alta Journal.
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I’m on McAllister and Fillmore on another Tuesday.
It’s 8:30 p.m. and clocks have not fallen back yet
when a tote bag full of produce collapses. Apples,
pears, onions, and mangoes rush like a surge of flood
water to the curb. The bike is badly mangled
as a crumpled newspaper tossed to the back of a bus seat.
I stand motionless. “What happened?” a woman asks.
To my left, a concerned cluster of berries jaywalks
to the site of a supernova. I have never seen one
this close before. I walk closer to see her myself.
As the sidewalk begins to pant, wet asphalt spits
blood. The blood streams from the woman’s mouth.
Shock travels through my eyes down to my feet.
An old fuchsia with silver curls has fallen.
I get on one knee, then caress her cheek
with my bare hand as if my soothing could extinguish
the fire below her skin as if I could dim
the vivid lights. I bow in reverence. I am powerless.
The final count of her breath is seen light-years away.
With each exhale, I whisper,
You’re okay.
You’re okay.
You’re okay.
I watch her lips gasp for whatever’s left,
for whatever stardust is left that makes us sentient.
Fish feel pain too. Her jacket is a crimson pond.
With my voice crackling in the fire, I breathe into her,
You’re gonna be alright.
I heard somewhere
death…

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Categories
Mohegan

Valley Girls’ Hoops Falls Valiantly to East Hampton in Class M State Final

Junior Olivia Cunningham was the leading scorer with 10 points for the Warriors’ girls’ basketball squad in its tough 31-29 defeat versus East Hampton in the Class M State Tournament final on March 18 at Mohegan Sun Arena. Photo by Wesley Bunnell/The Courier

Sophomore Regan Grow was a force on the boards by hauling in 13 rebounds in the Valley Regional girls’ basketball team’s close 31-29 loss to East Hampton in the Class M State Tournament final on March 18 at Mohegan Sun Arena. Photo by Wesley Bunnell/The Courier

Even though it held a small roster of 10 individuals this winter and was appearing in its first state championship game of the 21st century against a league rival that had only dropped one contest all season, the Valley Regional girls’ basketball team–much like it has all season–showed no intimidation or trepidation in emerging as a well-respected runner-up.

The Warriors were the No. 3 seed in the Class M State Tournament and earned three victories over Haddam-Killingworth, Granby, and Cromwell to send the team to the program’s first state final since Valley Regional’s last title in 1999.

There, under the bright lights of Mohegan Sun Arena on March 18, the Warriors vied for the top spot with fellow Shoreline Conference school and top-seeded East Hampton. Despite a heroic and hard-fought effort by Valley against the Shoreline Conference-champion Bellringers, the Warriors came up just short in a tight 31-29 defeat.

Valley, who finished its season an impressive 21-5 overall, overcame an early six-point deficit to East Hampton (finishing 26-1) in the first quarter and battled back to lead by one with just under three and a half minutes to go before the Bellringers tabbed five of the game’s final seven…

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