News

New Canaan High School Celebrates Senior Athletes

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Graduating senior athletes and their families gathered Monday at New Canaan High School for the 36th Annual Varsity Senior Athletes’ Picnic & Athletic Awards. The event, which celebrates the achievements of seniors who participated in a varsity sport during their time at the high school, traditionally is held outdoors at Waveny, but was moved to the NCHS gymnasium this year due to weather concerns. With family members and coaches present, each senior athlete was awarded a plaque in recognition of his or her contribution. A handful of students received special honors, as follows:

Firstly, the Vin Iovino Scholarship Award was granted to field hockey star Mariana Ferreira, diving captain Katie Kushner, and football player Chris White. Named for former NCHS coach Vin Iovino, the scholarship is granted to senior athletes who exemplify the qualities of leadership, loyalty, and humility.

News

PHOTOS: 13 NCHS Seniors Sign Early Letters of Intent To Play Sports in College

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Thirteen New Canaan High School student-athletes signed early Letters of Intent on Wednesday to play sports in college starting next year. The gallery above includes photos from a signing ceremony overseen by NCHS Athletic Director Jay Egan, held at in the auxiliary gym at New Canaan High School. We also asked each student about how their experience doing youth and/or high school and varsity-level sports in town helped prepare them for college. (The Ivy League-bound seniors’ letters could be called “likely letters” in that those schools, though they offer no athletics scholarships per se, can issue an agreements signifying that they’re committed to admitting a recruited athlete.)

The tally of 13 marks the largest ever group of NCHS student-athletes signing the early letters, Egan said.

News

Champions Once Again: NC Boys Lax Defeats Daniel Hand for 2nd Consecutive Year to Defend CIAC Class M Title

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Going into this season, New Canaan head coach Chip Buzzeo knew that despite graduating an incredibly talented class of 23 seniors the prior year—a class whose final victory as Rams was a Class M state championship—that his squad, led by its 15 seniors, could put together a repeat performance and cap its season off with another title win. And on Saturday afternoon at Jack Casagrande Field in Norwalk, the top-seeded Rams (17-4) made their coach’s belief in them come to fruition when they defeated the No. 6 seed Daniel Hand Tigers (10-6 regular season) for the second consecutive year in the finals, 13-2, to retain the Class M title. “This is my fourth year with this senior class,” Buzzeo told NewCanaanite.com. “It’s the first time that I’ve had four years with a group.

Sports

NC Boys Lax Falls at Rival Darien in Battle of Unbeatens

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As if New Canaan and Darien residents need any more incentive to go see their respective high school boys lacrosse teams square off, Saturday afternoon’s contest pitted the longtime rivals up against one another with both squads coming in undefeated. And the stadium field at Darien High School was packed because of it. While New Canaan’s senior attacker Clayton Burt recorded four second-half goals in the hopes of sparking a late New Canaan (9-1, 4-1 FCIAC) rally, a pair of Darien (9-0, 5-0 FCIAC) hat tricks from senior Jack Kniffin and junior Kevin Lindley and—coupled with untimely turnovers and penalties—proved too much for the Rams to overcome, as they fell to their rival for their first defeat of the season, 10-7. “They [Darien] rode us really well,” New Canaan head coach Chip Buzzeo told NewCanaanite.com. “We probably were in the double digits when it comes to failed clears, and hats off to them for forcing those mistakes. We can’t give Darien extra possessions, especially when we were winning faceoffs. We should’ve dominated that game, and we didn’t.

News

Reloaded and Ready: 2016 New Canaan Boys Lax Preview

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It was a season that many of those who either were part of, or witnessed, the 2015 New Canaan Boys Lacrosse team (13-3, 10-1 FCIAC) will not soon forget—a year that culminated in a Class M State Championship. On a team that had 23 seniors, including All-American attackmen Michael Kraus and Justin Meichner; outstanding defensemen in Frank Cognetta, Logan Hart, Sterling O’Hara, Liam Harris, and Chris Keeffe; midfielders Owen Toland and Max Begoon, as well as face-off specialist, Teddy Dumbauld, the 2015 Rams were blessed with some of the finest senior talent in the history of the boys lacrosse program. But while those guys will be missed by their former coaches and teammates, Rams Head Coach Chip Buzzeo has his 2016 roster reloaded and ready to repeat. “It was great to end last year with a state championship,” Buzzeo told NewCanaanite.com. “We’re going to miss those guys.