Ex-Canaanites

‘Something Really Beautiful and Energizing’: NCHS ’09 Grad Valk Hitting All the Right Notes

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On the evening of Nov. 7, 2014, Laura Valk took to Stage One of the Rockwood Music Hall, a venue located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, to perform with her band Skout. And to perform music from her debut EP, set for a worldwide release the very next day, titled ‘Again Anew,’ to a live audience for the first time. A musician typically would have days—if not weeks—to prepare with her bandmates for such a pivotal moment. Yet as a result of crazy, hectic schedules, Valk only got to rehearse with them the night before. So with just one night’s practice and the band playing on a corner stage so small that its drummer had to play off to the side, Valk walked up to the mic, looked out at the about 70 people who filled the intimate, standing-room-only venue to capacity, and played the first note of her musical career.

Sports

Girls Just Wanna Run: 2016 New Canaan Girls Cross Country Preview

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With just two seniors on a team of 48 girls, New Canaan girls cross country head coach Art Brown felt uncertain of what exactly to expect from his 2015 squad. His positive attitude had him optimistic the girls would have a good season, but a year ago, with so little experience under their belts, it was impossible to predict. After navigating the regular season with a record of 9-7, the Rams pulled off an impressive sixth-place finish at the 2015 FCIAC Championships. And now, with so many girls coming back to run again for the team in 2016 with that accomplishment to its name, the head coach knows there’s the potential to achieve even more. “We have some pretty experienced kids now coming back for this year and I’m pretty optimistic because of that,” Brown told NewCanaanite.com.

News

Back on Course: 2016 New Canaan Boys Cross Country Preview

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One year ago, New Canaan boys cross country head coach Bill Martin entered the preseason optimistic that his group of boys were in for a season full of promise. Yet after injuries plagued much of the team from preseason all the way through to the postseason contests, that promise never materialized. “Our strength last year was in a couple of sophomores, Max Koschnitske and Alex Urbahn,” Martin told NewCanaanite.com. “But both Koschnitske (broken collarbone) and Urbahn (wrist) suffered debilitating injuries at the start of the year in separate mountain biking accidents, which set us back as a team. We finished 10th in the FCIAC’s, which was very disappointing. We had one of our near guys race toward the back of the pack [in FCIACs] and as a result we had to rely on a guy who should’ve been our eighth guy but instead was our seventh.

News

Getting Off on the Right Foot: 2016 New Canaan Girls Soccer Preview

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After being hired away from Brien McMahon’s program back in April, Rich Hickson knew exactly the type of program he was taking over—one that’s been competitive in the FCIAC on a yearly basis for a long time. And the opportunity to lead such a program had the new coach just itching for the fall season to arrive. On Saturday, Sept. 10, it finally does. Hickson inherits a team that, while finishing the regular season 8-8 and on the outside of the FCIAC tournament, reeled off an impressive string of victories in the CIAC Class LL tournament as the #23 seed—knocking off higher seeded Amity, Middletown and FCIAC foe Wilton before eventually being eliminated by another FCIAC opponent, Ridgefield, in the semifinals.

News

‘See Games All the Way Through’: 2016 New Canaan Boys Soccer Preview

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After finishing the 2015 season with a 3-8-5 record, the New Canaan boys soccer was reminded that it’s difficult to make the playoffs when you play your entire schedule in the vaunted FCIAC. And that’s not just limited to the conference’s playoffs. With three games remaining on their schedule last year, the Rams needed to win just one of them to clinch a berth in the CIAC Class L state tournament—but that win would not come. And so the team fell short of one of its goals. Chief among those disappointed with the outcome of how last season went was the team’s head coach, Rich Sutherland.