Image
Mariners Hockey: The Mariners hockey team poses together for a team picture, January 18, 2022. Photo Courtesy: Lily Kovacs
By: James D'Angelo and Cian Carroll, Staff Writers October 28, 2022
Winter sports are right around the corner, and preseason conditioning and preparation has begun. Basketball, hockey, wrestling, indoor track, and boys swimming are some of the teams preparing for the upcoming season. The road to success for these sports begins as the preseason kicks off.
Basketball
Boys basketball, led by head coach Ian Kirkpatrick, will start their season soon. Preseason conditioning for basketball begins later this fall and is focused on running/ getting in better shape before the season starts.
Kirkpatrick says, “We can start practicing on December 1, and during the season the way we prepare will change because our student-athletes will then be able to focus on basketball specific drills.”
Similar to Coach Kirkpatrick, girls basketball head coach Robert Asmussen has also been focusing on offseason preparations before the season gets underway.
Asmussen states, “We have started workouts in the weight room. Most of the girls playing that aren’t doing a fall sport have been training three times a week for an hour in the weight room. We will continue to do weight room work, however a few less days a week during the season in order to maintain strength and endurance.”
Asmussen hopes that this conditioning can prepare the team for their first game and many more to come.
He later stated, “We lost a good amount of seniors but return a lot of players who got significant playing experience last season and I am always looking for a new group of leaders to step up.”
Hockey
Boys hockey’s first game is on December 14, and new head coach Shaun Malay is eager to start the year off right.
Malay says, “I’m excited for the hard work, the wins, the losses, the ups and the downs that hockey brings. Most importantly though…I look forward to developing the team and the many personal relationships with the town of Milford and our fantastic hockey community.”
As a new head coach, he explains he wants to come in and make a good impression on all of the players. Malay hopes his team will be able to go out on the ice, do their best, and get the win.
Wrestling
The wrestling team isn’t allowed to do any wrestling-based preseason activities. However, they’re currently holding conditioning workouts on Mondays and Thursdays after school and will start their official practices on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
This hard work is likely to pay off and Coach Dave Esposito shares, “I expect them to get better every day. If they do that, my expectation is that we will be one of the best teams in the state of Connecticut.”
These high hopes reflect how much effort is put into each team’s preparation for the season, as well as how winter workouts help athletes get better every day.
Track
Indoor track coach Pete Jambor will be holding pre-season conditioning two times a week a month before the season begins.
Jambor says, “This will help the athletes start the track season in somewhat decent shape and then there on out the expectation is for all the athletes to improve from the start to the end of the season.”
This year’s indoor track team will be young and a bit inexperienced, but Jambor still expects a group of motivated and hard working athletes who will perform to the best of their abilities.
Swim
Finally, the assistant coach of the girls and the head coach of the boys swim team Mr. Brian Dooling explains how he has been preparing for the boys season.
“As the assistant coach to the girls swim team, I have been keeping note of drills and practices that have worked for the girls and plan on applying it to boys swimming,” explains Dooling.
Dooling hopes to take what’s worked well in girls swimming and bring it over to the boys team so that they have the best opportunity to win their meets and stay as competitive as possible.
Be sure to follow along throughout the season for all of these sports and support these hard working teams.
