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Local Sports
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SK football won’t let move to D-I slow them down |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
To say the South Kingstown football team was set up for a Hollywood movie-type ending last season is an understatement.
After back-to-back Division II Championships, last year’s Rebel football squad returned 16 seniors and, all told, had veteran starters in 20 of the team’s 22 positions.
All signs pointed to a fairy-tale finish for the Rebels, one last title push for a group of senior stars that had already accomplished so much over their high school careers.
And, for a while, SK stuck to the script. The Rebels won all but one of their regular season games, and the one loss they did have came by a single point in double overtime.
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Having taken their lumps, Mariner football ready to win |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
There was a moment last fall when Narragansett football coach Dick Fossa just couldn’t handle his team’s losing anymore.
Having just been annihilated by Mount Pleasant, 45-0, Fossa let loose on a tirade criticizing his team for everything from their lack of effort to execution to their generally poor attitude.
It was the very definition of frustration from a coach who can usually keep his composure and find positives in even the worst moments.
It was also a necessary outburst.
From that moment on, the Mariners played like a team again. Sure, they didn’t win much–in fact, they finished the season 1-7 overall–but they never played that poorly again and it’s the memories of games like that loss to the Kilties that are fueling the Mariners this year.
A year older and a year wiser, the 2010 Narragansett football team suddenly finds itself with a wealth of knowledge and a couple of grudges to settle.
And as one of the most promising teams in Division III, there’s no doubt the Mariners are likely to see their fair share of blowouts this year.
Only, this time, they’ll be the team doing the frustrating and not the other way around.
Narragansett junior Mark Griffith leads a suddenly grown up Mariner squad this season and with him in the backfield and a wealth of options on the ground, the Mariners are poised and ready to bust their way out of the D-III cellar and back into title contention.
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Rebels' girls volleyball roll by EG |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By BRANDEN MELLO
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EAST GREENWICH — South Kingstown High girls’ volleyball coach Chris Fagan believes his team can be one of the top two teams in Division I-South along with defending undefeated state champion The Prout School.
Wednesday night, against a very inexperienced East Greenwich team that is trying to recover from a difficult season last year, the Rebels showed glimpses of the team they could be while playing consistently like a team just figuring out how to play together.
South Kingstown committed an excessive amount of service errors (12) and made a number of communication errors, but the Rebels, behind the play of senior captain Alyssa LeValley, still found a way to pound the Avengers 25-19, 25-21, 25-20 in both teams season opener.
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Friday night lights back in ’Gansett |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By PAUL J. SPETRINI
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NARRAGANSETT—It was an experience few players on the Narragansett football team will ever forget.
Last November, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Mariners and the preparation of their coach Dick Fossa, the Narragansett football team hosted its first-ever Friday night football game under rented portable lights placed on the Narragansett High School field.
To say the event was a success would be an understatement.
In addition to an exciting pregame firework display, the Mariners boasted one of their biggest crowds in recent memory, creating a buzz around the 20-14 nonleague loss to Classical that had simply never been there before.
It was football under the Friday Night Lights, football the way it was meant to be played.
That buzz was so intense, in fact, that talks about permanently installing lights at the high school and making Friday night football a regular occurrence have actually picked up steam.
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Crusaders' girls volleyball sweeps North in opener |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By ERIC RUEB
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NORTH KINGSTOWN – Tory Kern was sitting in class Wednesday afternoon when she took a peek at an attendance sheet and noticed Elise Walsh wasn’t in school.
Kids miss school every day, but this stood out because Kern backs up the all-state setter for the Prout girls volleyball team and Wednesday was the season opener.
When she arrived at North Kingstown, she heard the news she was prepared for the moment her eyes glanced at the sheet. Kern was starting in place of Walsh.
“I had an idea,” Kern said.
After struggling a bit in the first game, Kern found her groove midway through the second and by the third looked like a setter any team would like to have as Prout cruised through some nerves and took care of North Kingstown, 25-19, 25-22, 25-14.
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Skippers' football looking for a victory |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
After going 0-11 last season, it’s not hard to figure out the goal for this year’s North Kingstown football team.
“We want to win this year,” senior captain Ian Morander says, “and I think we have that urgency.”
After graduating a slew of senior players from their 2008 team, the Skippers were playing with a very inexperienced team last fall.
It was no surprise NK struggled - most of the team had JV experience and with a team built of mainly underclassmen, the Skippers were overpowered by everyone they played.
But with one year of varsity experience under their belts, North Kingstown knows what it takes to win in Division I.
Now the question is how can the Skippers bounce back from such a tough year and earn a couple notches in the win column.
“It’s tough to go 0-11,” NK coach John Horsman says. “We don’t really dwell on it, but we do talk about it if we’re doing the wrong things at practice, bu we don’t dwell on it. We tray and stay positive and the kids work really hard.
“We’re young and even our veteran guys are inexperienced, but we’re hoping to grow by leaps and bounds every week this season.”
“We know we can win and we know we’re going to win,” senior captain Eric Holtzman said. “I guarantee you.”
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Third title would mean the most for Exeter football |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
The Exeter-West Greenwich football team is playing for a lot more this season than its third straight Division IV football title.
It’s going to be impossible for the Knights to forget the death of coach Mike Messier, the man who always found a way to get the team ready for every game, highlighted by last winter’s incredible Super Bowl win over Middletown.
How the team reacts without Messier is something the team will have to deal with.
“I think they’re OK,” EWG coach Jimmy Alves says. “I think they’re anxious to play because of everything that’s happened. The best thing for a kid is to try and get back to normal life and be a kid against and I think this affords them the opportunity.”
For Alves, there is no pressure taking over the job as head coach.
He and brother Steve – who is back as an assistant coach – were lifelong friends of Messier and for them, the pressure of football doesn’t compare to the loss of a friend.
“I just feel more sad about Mike’s loss than anything else,” Alves says. “It really weights on me on game days, coming in and out of the locker room. Mike was always there and the fact that he’s not is very bothersome.”
But playing football is the best thing for the Knights, a way to honor their coach and right now, it looks like they have the capability to do the same thing the school’s softball team did last spring when it won a Division II title in honor of their fallen coach.
“The softball team paved the way for them and gave them direction on how to deal with the loss of Mike and we’re holding the bar real high for the kids,” Alves says. “They have been anxious to get out there because they’ve been holding feelings inside and football is a game to run around and get some of the frustration out out there.”
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Skippers' girls tennis wants to improve in a big way |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By ERIC RUEB
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NORTH KINGSTOWN – It’s not a big secret that the North Kingstown girls tennis team hasn’t been extremely successful since its move to Division I following its D-II title in 2005.
In the last four years, the Skippers have gone a combined 10-42 and haven’t come close to sniffing the playoffs and seemed like the perfect team to move down with the new realignment.
But they stayed in Division I and coach Jacques Faulise wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You say as yourself as a coach, it’d be really great to win 10 matches and be in a playoff, but if you’re not playing the best teams in your state it’s kind of a shallow victory,” Faulise said. “By playing those teams, it should make our players better and shoot for them to make them better at some point in the future.”
North won three matches last season, two coming to teams – South Kingstown and East Greenwich – that have since moved to Division II and with the addition of La Salle and Barrington – who moved over from D-I North with Cumberland and Moses Brown coming up to DI-North – it could be a long season for the Skippers.
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North boys soccer going with youth movement |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By ERIC RUEB
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NORTH KINGSTOWN – North Kingstown boys soccer coach Kyle Froberg has always made it a point to carry a big varsity roster, usually big enough to have a first team, second team and a couple of just-in-casers.
And if anyone’s ever wondered why the Skippers needed so many players when most weren’t seeing action, this year answers that question.
While NK has 11 seniors and eight juniors on the roster, the experience isn’t what you think because the Skippers lost 11 players to graduation.
But while they weren’t playing South Kingstown, Chariho or Hendricken, the most of the players were still practicing against one of the best teams in the state on a day-in, day-out basis.
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Knights' girls tennis hopes to rebuild in a hurry |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
By ERIC RUEB
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After being eliminated in the semifinals by eventual champion Portsmouth in the semifinals of the Division IV playoffs, graduating senior Georgia Ward felt good about her team’s chances in the future.
“I want to see them finish No. 1 next year,” she said after the team’s loss. “I know that they can do it. They’ve got the girls, they’ve got the drive, they’ve got the coach.”
It wasn’t a bold prediction from a player who enjoyed her time at the school. EWG had two of its top four singles players coming back and would be a strong contender in Division III.
Then the summer happened.
Realignment saw the state’s four divisions consolidated into three and if that wasn’t enough, the Knights’ top returning player moved to Massachusetts, leaving EWG with a young lineup that will have a lot to prove this season.
“There’s a lot of new faces on the varsity,” coach Anne Sullivan said. “Most of these girls were playing exhibition last year.”
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EG football ready to get back on the right track |
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 |
They’ve got a new coach, a new quarterback, a new offensive system, a new defensive system and a new field yet there’s something oddly familiar about this year’s East Greenwich High School football team.
Maybe it’s the powerful arm of junior Daniel Minor, maybe it’s the bruising rushing attack of Max Palmer, Ian Dolan and Kevin Mason. Either way, there’s something about the 2010 Avengers that screams deja vu.
Oh, that’s what it is: this year’s Avengers sport the same look and feel of the 2006 squad. You know, the one that rolled through league play and knocked off Moses Brown for the Division III championship.
These Avenger boys have a long way to go before reaching the achievements of the Sean Donlon and Ryan DePasquale led 2006 squad but, one thing’s for sure, they’ve got the pieces in place to get there.
Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together.
That and protection.
East Greenwich head coach John George, a former Avenger assistant and long time assistant coach around Rhode Island, has been tasked with getting the Avs back on track and, so far, he feels they’ve made strides towards returning to the winning traditions the small school program has set for itself over the last decade.
“We’ve got to work hard and improve,” George said. “But our goal is to make it to the playoffs and win the Super Bowl.”
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