Williston Observer

April 29, 2010

CVU tennis teams resume season Monday

After April vacation week, the Champlain Valley Union High tennis teams will get back on schedule Monday with the girls at home to Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans and the boys travelling to St. Albans and the BFA home courts.

CVU’s girls will be hoping to extend a season-long winning string that reached six matches last Thursday with a 5-2 triumph at Rice Memorial High. The victory marked the Redhawks’ second win this season over the Green Knights.

It was depth that sealed that victory, as the Hawks’ top two singles players, Kylie deGroot and AnnaClare Smith, were nudged by the top two Rice players, Holly Thayer and Akayna Hauke.

Abby Stoner, Colleen McCarthy and Andrea Joseph, however, came through with singles triumphs and the doubles teams of Claire Stoner-Emily Polhemus and Megan Henson-Kristen Donaldson earned victories.

The boys will be hoping to regroup from a 1-5 start to the season.

Rice took a 6-1 victory over the Redhawks last Thursday in Shelburne. The doubles team of David Keyes and Aiden Shumway bagged the lone CVU triumph.

CVU girls lax team to play under lights

It will have been two weeks since its last outing, a 14-3 home loss to a 4-0 Essex High team, but the Champlain Valley Union High girls lacrosse team hopes to light up the Seahorses at Burlington High when they meet there under the lights Wednesday.

The game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

CVU, 1-3 for the young season, got stymied by the strong Hornets, who out shot the Redhawks 29-18. Essex was led by Julie Pearl with three scores and three assists.

Erika Gobeille notched a pair of goals for the Hawks, boosting her total to four in the last two games.

Kelsey Barrett also tallied for the Redhawks and Amanda Kinneston picked up two assists. Goaltender Sophie Steinhoff kicked out 15 shots for CVU.

AAU team having successful season

A pair of young Williston athletes have helped the AAU Vermont Cats basketball team of under-11 players to a strong season.

Amanda Daniels and Laura Durkee play on the team, which has so far won two Vermont tournaments and advanced to the final round of the Empire All-Stars Albany Spring Shootout, held April 17-18 at the University of Albany in New York.

Coached by Ann Durkee of Williston and Ute Otley, the Cats won all of their games on Saturday. By winning their first two games on Sunday, the Cats moved on to the championship game against the Saratoga Sparks. Though the Cats had defeated the Sparks on Saturday, Saratoga took the title on Sunday with a 21-19 win.

By placing second in the Albany Spring Shootout, the team qualified for the Empire State Championships next month.

Rec volleyball finishes season

The Williston Recreational Volleyball League wrapped up its season earlier this month. The spring season playoffs were held April 14, with the team of Don Dempsey, Jon Haftarczuk, Julian Haftarczuk, Chris Herskowitz, Brian Valentine and Mary Winters taking home the title.

With the end of the season, the volleyball program completed its 21st year.

Five CVU athletes in competition for scholarshsips

There are two days left for voting in an H. P. Hood scholarship program, through which $5,000 scholarships will be awarded to three athletes from each New England state.

In each state, the company’s Good Sports Vote program will select the top 15 vote getters for interviews and then award the scholarships to three finalists. The awards can be used for two- or four-year colleges and universities.

Five Champlain Valley Union High senior athletes are on the list for voting which, has an April 30 deadline.

They are Corynn Benoit, Kristen Darby, Erika Gobeille, Matt Long and Emmaleigh Loyer.

Votes can be cast at www.hood.com/promo/goodsportvote0310/default.aspx.

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April 29, 2010

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

With the early week snows forcing an interruption in but not a halt to their 6-0 charge through the early season, the Champlain Valley Union High boys lacrosse Redhawks will return to competition Friday.

Mount Mansfield (2-2 last weekend) comes calling to the hilltop nest for a 4 p.m. game.

Tuesday’s scheduled contest at Middlebury Union High was postponed until May 10 by the big load of white stuff that made a mid-spring appearance this week.

The most recent wins for coach Dave Trevithick and his charges have been via the nervous, come-from-behind method rather than the big early lead variety.

The latest triumph was a 9-8 Saturday win in St. Albans, where the Hawks found themselves trailing 7-4 in the third quarter before they rallied for the victory by scoring five straight goals. Lawrence Dee netted the eventual winner, his 15th tally of the season and second for the day, to go with four assists.

Taylor Gingras had three scores and two assists, including a helping hand in the winner. He hiked his goal total to 16.

CVU outshot the Bobwhites 20-13.

This thriller followed a victory for the ages last Wednesday, when the Redhawks outlasted strong 2-2 Essex High 8-7 in double overtime in Hinesburg.

Gingras tied the game with one second left in regulation, which allowed Nathaniel Wells to bury the game winner 1:25 into the second extra period, assist to Robbie Dobrowski.

Dee had three goals and Gingras a pair while Eric Palmer turned in a mighty performance in the CVU cage, stopping 17 shots by the Hornets. Essex was led by veteran Bill Hennessy’s two goals and an assist.

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April 29, 2010

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

As of Tuesday, it would be at least another day before the Champlain Valley Union High baseball team could get back on track following Saturday’s derailing at Rice Memorial High.

Tuesday’s game at Vergennes Union High (2-1) was postponed until Wednesday, and that date, according to CVU head coach Tim Albertson, was shaky given rain in the forecast.

The Redhawks are then scheduled to visit Mount Abraham Union in Bristol on Friday and to return to their Hinesburg field Tuesday with a strong Essex High contingent paying a 4:30 p.m. visit.

CVU stands at 2-2 for the young season in the wake of a 15-4 loss at 4-0 Rice, which has a lineup of swatters (12 hits) but also took advantage of 11 CVU errors, 10 walks and a hit batter.

Those kinds of defeats can be dispiriting. But as a salty veteran high school baseball coach once observed (and others have probably repeated), “These games happen in the early spring in Vermont high school baseball. It is good to get them out of your system.”

Albertson said the team was working on getting past the debacle as soon as the game was over.

“This team is good about recovering and moving forward,” Albertson said, adding that the seniors spoke up and took leadership at a team meeting in the middle of the field at Rice.

There were positives the Redhawks could take from the outing. The bats pinged for nine hits including Drew Nick’s two RBI singles and a two-run single by Tucker Kohlasch.

Collin Teator whacked two doubles, one a shot off a Rice outfielder’s glove. He also pitched a shutout inning in relief.

CVU starter Curt Echo deserved a better fate. After pitching out of a run-in, bases loaded, no outs situation in the first, Echo got touched up for six runs, five of them unearned, in the third on three hits. That gave the Green Knights a 7-1 edge and control of the contest.

Righty Sean Rugg worked the first four innings for the winners and left in the top of the fifth after Teator, Alec Zullo and Nick whacked three straight hits. Lefty Josh Blow finished up.

Last Thursday, CVU found itself trailing Missisquoi Valley Union 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth at a windblown home nest.

After receiving gifts of two walks and a hit batter from Missisquoi pitching to load the bases with no outs, Zullo singled home two runs. Nick drove in another on a sacrifice fly, and reached base when the ball was misplayed in the outfield. He later scored on a wild pitch as the Redhawks put five runs on the board to clinch their second victory.

Lefty Alex Hopkins picked up the win with four outs of shutout relief.

The Redhawks had gone hitless until Teator singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth and added only singles by Ian Solomon in the fifth and Zullo’s clutch shot in the sixth. However, they made hay from 11 bases on balls.

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Mt. Abe, Essex next for softball team

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

Pending the weather and Wednesday’s possible makeup of Tuesday’s postponed contest in Vergennes, the 2-2 Champlain Valley Union High softball team will play next at Mount Abraham Union at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

The next home contest is Tuesday against a tough Essex High outfit that had a 26-game winning streak come to an end Saturday with a 2-0 loss to visiting St. Johnsbury Academy.

That same day, the Redhawks popped 1-3 Rice Memorial High, 10-2 in South Burlington behind some lusty hitting and the pitching of junior Cayla McCarthy.

“Cayla really pitched very well,” said coach Corrina Hussey.

McCarthy went the seven-inning route and allowed but five hits while whiffing 10 batters.

Solid sockers for the Redhawks were Emily Himberg and Heather McLaughlin. Each knocked out three hits and drove in two runs to fire up the Redhawks’ bats after they got temporarily silenced on Thursday by Missisquoi Valley Union’s Dakota Raleigh.

Raleigh fired a two-hitter and fanned 13 as the Thunderbirds posted a 9-0 zip at the CVU field.

McLaughlin and Cassidy Maglaris had the Redhawks’ hits, both singles.

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April 29, 2010

By Greg Duggan

Observer staff

Decked out in green shirts, students wandered the grounds of Williston Central School on Friday. Many of them had trash bags in hand as they picked garbage out of the woods, grass and wetlands surrounding the school.

The green shirts represented the color of Swift House, which spent the week honoring former teacher Al Myers (photo on page 9), but it made for an appropriate coincidence on the school’s Green Up Day.

For the second straight year, students helped clean the grounds of the school. The idea for a Green Up Day at Williston Central came about a couple years ago, when parent volunteer Nicki Layman went into the school’s courtyard to toss the ball around with her son.

“It was apparent to me that this was a beautiful space, but had been neglected,” Layman said.

Layman worked with Principal Jackie Parks and parent Sarah Hibbeler to organize a crew of parents and school staff to clean up the courtyard. The group raked, pruned and transformed the courtyard into a useable space. Parks then suggested putting together a Green Up Day for the school, and a year ago students helped with the cleanup.

“Last year we started it as a tradition. The day before April break seems to be good timing for us to have it,” Parks said.

Vermont’s Green Up Day — when residents throughout the state roam their towns and clean up trash — happens on Saturday; holding a Williston Central School Green Up Day last week gave students a chance to participate before the April vacation.

“Kids get antsy before they go on break,” Layman said. “It’s a good way to divert them and let them exert some energy and help out the environment and the school.”

Parks said the day also fosters a sense of community within the entire school, rather than just among individual academic houses.

Students enjoyed a sunny day on Friday. Dozens of students toiled in the courtyard. Early in the afternoon, approximately 50 students raked leaves, pulled weeds, planted flowers and otherwise tidied the outdoor space.

But as Parks said, while the courtyard was the focal point and impetus for the cleanup, Green Up Day expanded beyond that area.

Outside the school, small groups of students picked up refuse in the area.

Marsha Drake, a paraprofessional with Swift House, walked with several students as they picked up trash around the school.

“We decided to circle the school to see if anything was left,” Drake said.

Zaza Quatt, Shania Stearns and Zachary Varricchione, after emerging from a swampy area next to the school, said they found a good bit of trash in the woods near U.S. 2. The garbage included candy wrappers and a wine bottle.

“Do you know what’s really a shame?” Quatt said. “That people would even think of polluting.”

ENJOYING THE COURTYARD

The transformation of the courtyard at Williston Central School goes far beyond a simple cleanup during the school’s Green Up Day.

Since parents Nicki Layman, Sarah Hibbeler and others began making the courtyard a useable space last year, the area has become a popular spot in the school. Principal Jackie Parks said students can stroll through the courtyard between classes, and teachers and students often eat lunch in the outdoor area.

Now, the courtyard can also be used as a classroom.

Layman tracked down a large, slate blackboard for the school to purchase, around which benches were installed. Once students return from the April break, Parks said, teachers will be able to sign up to use the space for class.

“It’s an outdoor classroom, complete with an old-fashioned chalkboard and benches,” Parks said.

— Greg Duggan, Observer staff

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