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01/05/2022 11:00 PMAfter recording three wins during its 2020-’21 campaign, the Old Saybrook girls’ basketball team is back with a vengeance in 2022. The Rams are 2-2 overall to start their season and Head Coach Steve Woods is optimistic the team can maintain this level of success throughout the year.
“Being unquestionably the youngest and least experienced team in the conference, this will be a learning experience,” said Coach Woods. “But we’re hoping to improve daily, love and respect the game daily, and be a tough out, regardless of who we play. We want to do it with all our effort and display great sportsmanship being a class act.”
Senior forward Cassie Johnson is the Rams’ lone captain this season and she is one of only five seniors on the team. Along with the five seniors, Coach Woods is highly anticipating freshman Breleigh Cooke to make an immediate impact with Old Saybrook.
“She has started at the point guard position from her first day of practice and has gotten better each day,” says Coach Woods. “She is averaging 15 points per game in our first four games, along with three assists, four rebounds and four steals. Breleigh did not get to play a middle school season last year, so she is off to a solid start. Of course, she has not played against the top guards in the SLC yet and she is still learning our system. With all of our guards gone from last season, she realized she needed to step up. Our next challenge is to develop a solid back up, so we don’t run her into the ground.”
Old Saybrook opened its season at Portland on Dec. 14 and was defeated 43-35. Two days later, the Rams bounced back at home against Hale Ray and came away with a 46-28 win. On Dec. 27, the Rams secured their second victory of the year when they defeated Norwich Tech 44-11 on the road. Two days later, Old Saybrook was defeated at Montville 43-29.
“The thing I’m most looking forward to his team development and maturation as nine of our kids are freshmen are four are sophomores,” said Coach Woods. “Many of these kids are already logging varsity minutes. We had three freshman and two sophomores playing together in the first game of the season versus Portland for lengthy stints in a very competitive game. There will be games we are going to really compete closely and there will be a large number of games versus very strong and veteran teams that will be a very difficult task. This group will learn plenty this season, and fortunately, they are a great group who are very coachable.”
With an uptick in the COVID-19 positivity rate, several schools have been forced to delay their schedules. For Coach Woods, keeping his team healthy is his number one priority.
“I think every school has, or will be affected, but we have great support from our superintendent, high school administration and athletic director, so we as a coaching staff have to be diligent in maintaining mask regulations. We hope we can stay healthy as a team and hope our opponents do as well.”
Senior forward Beldina Feratovic is another player Coach Woods anticipates performing well this season. Coach Woods described Feratovic as one of the most athletic players in the Shoreline Conference.
“She’s only played in two games so far this season and is generally not a big scorer but is one of the best athletes in the SLC in terms of speed, rebounding, blocking shots and defense. She’s also an exceptional passer,” said Coach Woods. “She has been for the past three years and should be again this season. She is a total team player and a wonderful young lady and student-athlete who is our difference maker.”
Coach Woods knows the competition level in the Shoreline Conference is among the best in the state of Connecticut. Facing the likes of Morgan’s Cayley Ayer and Valley’s Abby Bradbury, Coach Woods wants to game plan around the top players in the conference.
“We’re not looking forward to playing against them,” Coach Woods joked. “There are several other players in our conference that are also very talented. But we will certainly see some good teams, as well as outstanding individual players.”
Old Saybrook’s roster for the 2022 season includes seniors Cassie Johnson, Beldina Feratovic, Sophia Barker, and Mackenna Cooke and Ella Hagelston; sophomores Alexandra Ling, Sanai Baker, Nora Kulman and Meghan Wilcox; and freshmen Grace Desmond, Ayla D’Anna, Samantha Hanover, Ellie Pennington, Breleigh Cooke, Kyela McGuire, Fiona McKeown, Kyle Lake and Caroline Ancona.
“We have a great group of student-athletes who are extremely young as a group with only one, three-year starter Beldina Feratovic returning,” said Coach Woods. “We also have some very dependable veterans including captain Cassie Johnson, and seniors Ella Hagelston, Sophia Barker, and MacKenna Cooke. I see the kids getting better every day in practice and each game they do some more good things, and their game is improving. That being said, we have been playing short-handed but hopefully will be close to a full squad by the end of the week.”