Many Positive Signs/Mid Winter Recap of Varsity Teams

When the fencing team returned from a quad match this Saturday afternoon, Portledge Upper School Athletics shut down for an exam period break. There will be no Upper School games or practices for the three days preceding the start of the exam period. The ice hockey teams will have short optional skates on Monday, Jan 28th (Girls 3:30-4:30, Boys 4:30-5:30) and will resume full practices on Tuesday afternoon, Jan 29th ( Mandatory for both teams 4:45-6:15). The Upper School Basketball teams will resume practicing on Tuesday, Jan 29th once the gym floor has been cleared of exam desks. We plan to have Varsity Girls on the court from 3:30-5:00, JV Boys will go from 5:00-6:00 and the Varsity Boys from 6:00-7:30. Hopefully there will be time for open shooting before the Varsity Girls practice, but that will depend on how quick the clean up takes place. Fencing will start up on Wednesday, Jan 30th with a practice for all boys from 3:00-4:30 followed by a girls match v. Marymount @ 4:30. Varsity Squash will resume on Thursday, Jan 31st with an away match at Friends Seminary (Dismissal of 1:55), and JV Squash will start practicing again on Tuesday, Feb 5th at Piping Rock.

So as we take this short break from athletics to prepare for our mid year academic evaluations it gives us a chance to get caught up on the developments with some of the principle winter sports.
Last week was certainly an exciting one for the Panthers with both Varsity Ice Hockey teams winning their Wednesday away contests, the Varsity Girls Basketball team winning v. Valley Stream Christian in impressive fashion, and the Varsity Boys Basketball team sweeping a pair of games from Knox and Solomon Schechter. All of these events set up an interesting second half of the winter season for Portledge athletics.

The top story so far this winter has to be the amazing run of the Varsity Girls Ice Hockey team. The Lady Panther skaters have been on fire recently, recording post holidays wins over Millbrook, Lawrenceville, Shaddy Side Academy of Pittsburgh, PA, Holten Arms of Bethesda, MD and Princeton High School. When added to the team's three straight wins to close out 2007, it makes eight straight, and an overall mark of nine wins and two losses. The team also has a WIHLMA League mark of six wins and one loss, good for second place, and only percentage points behind league leader Morristown Beard. Everyone is looking forward to the
Portledge-Mo' Beard rematch game on Wed, Feb 6th in Morristown, NJ. The outcome of this game will determine the top team for the WIHLMA regular season and set the top seeds for the championship tournament a week later in Pittsburgh, PA. There have been many highlights during this amazing streak, but nothing was as impressive as the seven (yes, I said seven) goals scored by Junior captain Siena Falino v. Lawrenceville on Wed, Jan 9th. The Lady Panthers had never beaten L'Ville, and as recently as two years ago had lost by double digits to this perennial prep school power. The entire game, and the effort by all the Portledge girls, was incredible, but the play and determination of Falino on this night was something that was truly amazing. She scored in every way possible, added a beautiful assist on Alyssa Parke's goal, and simply refused to let Portledge lose. When the Big Red scored with 1.2 seconds in regulation to send the game into overtime, the team rallied around Coach Schwam and somehow everyone knew that Siena could not be stopped. Sure enough, two minutes into the OT, Falino got a nice pass in the neutral zone from Senior captain Kelly Alefeld and wound her way into the Lawrenceville end. Seconds later she let go yet another powerful wrister that beat the Big Red keeper and sent the Portledge girls on a happy bus ride back to the Island. If you didn't get to see this remarkable performance, it is hard to imagine how exceptional it truly was. Even more noteworthy though, is the great dynamic that exists between all the girls on the team. They constantly support each other, on and off the ice, and it's just really neat to see a group of athletes come together like this. Good luck down the stretch girls and against Mo' Beard when you meet them again.

The Varsity Boys Ice Hockey team has also been playing some great puck, but they have not been able to get the same positive results as the girls team. This is understandable in that the VBIH team plays what is arguably the most difficult schedule of any Varsity team at Portledge.
Every game is a battle, and any win is something to really celebrate. So when one considers the actual game scores that go along with their overall record of two wins and seven losses, and keeps in perspective who they are playing against and the level of competition they are experiencing, the team's results become much more impressive. The team's last game before the exam break, a huge 5-2 win over a Bergen Catholic squad that had beat Portledge by a score of 3-1 earlier this winter, illustrates some of the development that is taking place in Portledge boys hockey. The sweetest goal of the game came when talented Freshman winger Tom Parisi corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone and threw a beautiful behind the back pass to Sophomore defensemen David Wilson. Wilson went in alone and beat the BC keeper with a eloquent move to the backhand to put the Panthers ahead to stay. Parisi added a goal of his own later in the game, and we also saw rookie Brendan McGovern notch his first ever Varsity goal for the Panthers. When you look at the attacking talent of a Tom Parisi and you see the fine play of other young forwards such as Stephen DiBartolomeo, Ryan Murray, Brendan McGovern and Matt Crockett you can't help but be excited about the prospects for the future of this team. Add to that the solid defense being played by the Freshmen duo of Pat Condon and Ryan Gottfreid, and the steady play of Sophomores David Wilson and Sal Magliocco ( extraordinary goalie), you can really see something that could become quite extraordinary as time goes by. It wouldn't be fair though to not mention, or diminish in any way, the contributions of some really great veteran leaders. So hats off to the Seniors, captain Zach Lombardi, linemate "Big Al" Vitsentzos, and forwards Austin Prey and Dan Leavey. Two other major contributors who are between the seniors and the youngsters are Juniors Renny Kraft and Tim Morrison. Both these guys give Portledge a great effort every time they take the ice. Good luck against PDS guys, and have a great all around second half of the season.

Varsity Boys Basketball improved its IPPSAL mark to 4 wins and 4 losses with back to back wins over Knox and Solomon Schechter last week. Five players scored in double figures in the victory over Schechter and Coach Sandoval is very happy with the team's overall development. If the boys could be a bit more consistent, they could definitely make a run all the way to the IPPSAL championship game. Portledge's play off participation and position will be determined by the results of upcoming home games against Lake Grove, Knox and Schechter. Having beaten all these teams on the road already, it will be critical for the Panthers to control their own floor and propel themselves into the play offs on a bit of a run. The inside play of Seniors Kai Stoll and Ray Weinmann will be the key to the second half of the Portledge season. If these two can really put it together, then the Panthers could make some noise down the stretch.

The Varsity Girls Basketball team was able to end a mini three game losing streak by defeating the girls from Valley Stream Christian last week. While Senior captain Yola Yu continues to provide very strong inside play and great leadership, it is the development of Sophomores Monique Kelly, Akanksha Trivedi, Robyn Worrall, Lindsey Krause, Toni Paterson and Marian Juste that everyone is watching. I think what people see is a core of fine players that will be able to grow into a very strong team. The girls finish off their regular season with games against LWA, Martin Luther and Solomon Schechter. A win over SSDS will be necessary for the girls to have any chance at post season play. This is a really fun team to watch. They have a lot of youthful enthusiasm and a great deal of potential, so try to get out to their final home game v. Solomon Schechter on Tuesday, Feb 5th @ 5:00 in the Wellington Gym.

On a sad note, the Portledge community and Portledge Athletics lost a great supporter when Mrs. Pat Wellington past away over the holidays. One of the school's original founders and always a major presence in the development of this institution, Mrs. Wellington will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing this extraordinary woman. The Athletic Department sends their belated condolences and prayers to the Wellington family.