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

NC Baseball Falls To New Fairfield, 6-0, in Possible Season Finale

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After a convincing 7-1 victory Wednesday at Greenwich, ranked second in the FCIAC, the New Canaan Rams took to the field at Mead Park on Thursday afternoon needing a win over New Fairfield to clinch a spot in this year’s CIAC Class L Tournament field. It would not come. Though the Rams (7-13, 6-10 FCIAC) had one of their more reliable arms starting on the mound in Zach Lopez, who just last Wednesday notched a complete game victory, two three-run innings from New Fairfield (11-9) combined with the New Canaan bats just not coming alive proved to be too much for them to overcome as they were defeated, 6-0. When head coach Mitch Hoffman took his team out to left field after the game for possibly the final time this season, the seventh-year coach did so with a distinct message in mind. “I said to them that I learned as much about coaching and myself that they could ever imagine,” Hoffman told NewCanaanite.com.

News

Lopez’s Complete Game Propels NC Baseball to 6-1 Victory over Central

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Coming into Wednesday’s contest against the Bridgeport Central Hilltoppers, New Canaan baseball had been struggling to find any offense. In their most recent four games, the team was only able to score two runs, combined. So a well-pitched game from starting pitcher Zach Lopez was needed to give the offense a chance to rediscover their punch—and Lopez delivered. The junior threw a complete-game, allowing just one run and striking out six in seven innings of work on the mound, while the offense provided him with more than enough support by plating six runs on nine hits to propel the Rams (6-10, 5-8 FCIAC) to victory over Bridgeport Central (1-14, 0-13 FCIAC), 6-1. “Zach’s been doing a great job all year,” head coach Mitch Hoffman told NewCanaanite.com.

Sports

Same Bases, New Faces: 2016 New Canaan Rams Baseball Preview

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In 2015, New Canaan Rams Baseball had a crop of senior talent that could be argued as the best in the program’s past decade, with the possible exception of 2007’s class headlined by now Tampa Bay Rays catcher, Curt Casali and the 2013 state championship-winning team led by Andrew Casali and Casey Ouellette. 11 seniors suited up for the Rams last year (15-5, 14-4 FCIAC; made FCIAC and CIAC Class L Playoffs), including regular starters Alex LaPolice (OF/P), David Giusti (P/OF), Brandon Abate (SS), Zack Smith (C), Kyle Levasseur (3B), and Kane Curtin (RF), as well as the oft-called-upon-pitcher, Clark Newlove. And having that amount of veteran leadership allowed the Rams to erase late-game deficits on several occasions, pulling out classic win after classic win — certainly making the 2015 squad one of the more thrilling baseball teams of recent memory. Even so, the byproduct of having such a large, vital senior class one year is that it means the next year will be filled with a lot of fresh faces. Enter the 2016 Rams of New Canaan Baseball.

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The Boys of Mead: 2015 New Canaan Rams Baseball Preview

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The snack shack got back to business at Mead Park a couple weeks ago. Now the boys of the New Canaan Rams baseball program are getting ready to do the same. After a 2013 season that culminated in the program winning its first state championship since 1950, it was going to be tough for the 2014 Rams to follow such an act. But while 2014 didn’t include any championships (14-6, 12-6 FCIAC) it did feature continued development of some top talent and leaders that are ready to create their own story in 2015. That story begins with the team’s four senior co-captains: outfielder/pitcher Alex LaPolice, pitcher/outfielder David Giusti, shortstop Brandon Abate, and All-State catcher Zack Smith.