The Morgan spring season kicks off on March 21 and teams first games/matches take place between April 2nd and 4th. With so little time in between the first practice and first games, teams in the spring must do a lot of off season preparation so they do not fall behind other schools. Each team starts preparing differently and at different times but it seems like everyone began their preparation at least a few weeks before the start of the season.
Senior captain of the boys tennis team Nick Vetrano said, “ while our first team practice is on the 22nd, we have already begun hitting on the courts after school as a group, to make sure everyone is ready for the start of the season. A few of us also play indoor year round in preparation for the season, so I think it’s safe to say we will be ready by our first match.” Vetrano has spent almost his entire life on the tennis court, and this may be his last season of organized tennis, so the team is hoping to make the most of it. After losing in the State Quarterfinals to eventual runners up Northwest Catholic they are looking to make another deep run this year especially after returning 8/10 of their starters from last year.
The boys baseball team has decided to take a different approach to team leadership this year. There have been no captains named for the team, so instead senior Nathan Levy talked about the preparation they had been doing in the offseason. “Besides the beginning of the season for pitchers and catchers, we all try to practice a few times per week during the offseason at the Shoreline breakers facility in Old Lyme as well as the majority of us who play on travel teams like the Connecticut Baseball Club where the 16u team that competed in the National championship for PBRTournaments during the summer, so we are definitely in a great spot to start the year.” The baseball team is returning more than half of their starters from last year, with standout players including juniors Benji Brown, Trevor Powell, Jack-Henry Palazzo.
For girls lacrosse, senior captain Maddy Caruso said, “the girls lacrosse team has been participating in a winter league since November. This has helped keep us in shape and also helped us grow our sportsmanship. It also allows us to team bond and get more comfortable playing with new players. With the extra time together girls lacrosse is sure to have a little extra team chemistry on the field this year.” Last year the girls finished with an overall record of 8-8, while the girls don’t remember their full record from their winter league they said they had finished with an above .500 record which already shows improvement. Similarly for boys lacrosse, senior captain Declan Shortt said, “ The extra practice we got from winter league was a huge help to build our team chemistry and to get us ready for a successful year.”
Last but certainly not least, junior track captain Colton Landino talked about the difficulties the team faced this offseason without having a coach. During the Indoor season they had Spanish teacher Jordan Bean as a coach, however he was not able to coach Outdoor as well, which left the team coachless. He said that without knowing if they would have a coach for the season it was hard to prepare, however, many members of the team would go to the track as soon as it was warm out and start running before the season started. He also discussed the preparation the team gets from indoor track during the winter. “A lot of our team members run track in the winter as well, that definitely helps them stay prepared for the outdoor season, as well as any other people who play other sports during the winter, those sports make sure they have good endurance for our track season.” Recently Jamie Strunjo was hired to be the head coach for the track season and the teams first practice is on March 23rd.
At The Morgan School, students participating in spring sports are all looking forward to the start of their season and working on preparing for their upcoming games. For some of the seniors they are getting ready for maybe their last chance to play organized sports for the rest of their lives which is a huge part of what makes spring sports so important.
