Around Town

Q&A: ‘Raising Athletes for Life’ Panel To Be Held Thursday at New Canaan Library

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New Canaan CARES and the New Canaan Athletic Foundation are presenting a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Thursday at New Canaan Library, featuring standout local athletes talking about creating a healthy sports culture here. Panelists include Dave Inman (played for the New York Rangers), Heather Knight Pech (multi-time division winner of the Boston Marathon among many others), Kendall Patten (Cornell University senior soccer player and NCHS graduate) and Andy Towers (distinguished lacrosse coach and player). We put some questions about the talk to New Canaan CARES Executive Director Judy Phillips. Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: Give us some background on Thursday’s panel discussion at the library.

Bo Hickey

‘That Is a Guy That I Love’: Friends and Colleagues Remember New Canaan’s Bo Hickey

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Jay Egan, New Canaan High School’s athletic director, was about 15 years old when he first got to know fellow Stamford native Bo Hickey. Ten years his senior, Hickey had been a standout multi-sport athlete at Stamford Catholic High School—earning all-county and all-state honors in football his senior year—who would go on to become the starting running back at the University of Maryland and played in the NFL. Hickey was “a larger-than-life sports guy,” Egan recalled. In those days, there weren’t many weight training facilities around, and the only place you could go locally was the Stamford Y, Egan said. One day, after his parents dropped him off—Egan and his pals weren’t yet old enough to drive—the group went to an old-fashioned leg press machine in the corner of the facility.

News

NCHS Senior Shawna Ferraro Breaks School Record in 1600

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Shawna Ferraro knew that the New Canaan High School record in the 1600 meter run was 5:14.40, and that she’d missed it by five one-hundredths of a second during a Feb. 19 qualifier for the New England Indoor Track and Field Championships. “I was incredibly disappointed and upset, because it’s been a goal of mine for so long to break the record, and to be that close was frustrating,” the NCHS senior recalled Monday. 

Immediately after finishing the race, Ferraro said, she thought to herself, “There is no way I’m walking away from my senior season coming that close to breaking it and not breaking it.”

But there was a problem: Finding a sanctioned track-and-field meet where she’d have another chance. Ferraro and NCHS Girls Track and Field Coach Jeffrey Brentson searched for one, and eventually she found a meet to be held Sunday, Feb. 26 at Boston University.

News

‘I Feel Very Blessed’: NCHS ‘16 Grad Lucas Niang Wins Super Bowl with KC Chiefs

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Twenty thousand residents of the town, 40 players on the New Canaan High School Football team. A handful of Rams move on to play football at the college level each year, and just 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL. 

Yet against all odds, the residents of New Canaan on Sunday saw one of their own playing on the sport’s biggest stage. New Canaan High School class of 2016 alumnus Lucas Niang has defied the odds his whole career, and saw his hard work pay off when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII. 

“Playing in the Super Bowl is what I have dreamt of since I was playing PeeWee football in third grade,” Niang told NewCanaanite.com when asked what the Super Bowl means to him. “It is an unbelievable experience and I feel very blessed to get to this point.”

Niang is a 6’6”, 315-pound offensive tackle for Kansas City, and is in his second year playing in the NFL. He was drafted 96th overall in the 2020 draft, yet sat out his first season due to COVID-19.

Danny Melzer

‘We Aren’t Just Teammates, We Are A Family’: A Senior Class Looks To Leave Its Mark

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It’s that time of the year again. Cold winter air and slippery streets. Piles of snow and early sundowns dampening the moods of many. Swirling flakes making every kid’s dream of a snow day come true. 

In this time of hibernation, something beautiful is born: Athletes push into their high school gyms that, no matter their condition, are made magnificent by the game of basketball. 

“The amount of work this team has put in throughout the offseason is incredible,” New Canaan Rams basketball senior captain Jack Hladick said of the team. “Every day we come to work hungry, building bonds and respect through the common goal of victory.