WOODBURY — Students dressed in white flooded the stands at Nonnewaug to watch the boys basketball team win the Berkshire League championship Feb. 9 against Terryville.
The 63-35 win over the Kangaroos gave the Chiefs a piece of the BL title for the first time since 2016. Sophomore point guard Brady Herman believes the team this year worked well together to be deserving of the title, which they won outright for the first time since 2011 by beating Gilbert, 78-43, on Feb. 21.
“The farther into the season we got, we learned that if we work as a team, we play as a team,” said Herman, an All-BL Second Team pick. “We worked together, and hung out outside of school, which helped us play better together, and our record this year has proven that.”
Herman says that having a team that enjoys the sport and puts in the work has led to this season’s outcome.
“I think the difference between this year and last year is that last year they didn’t have a team of guys that wanted to play basketball,” Herman said. “They had a team that played basketball as their side sport or more of a hobby. This year’s team is full of people who love basketball and are actually here to play it as their main sport.”
Senior forward Ben Roden agrees that although the Chiefs got off to a slow start – 2-2 in their first four games – they came together when they had to, winning 15 of their final 16 regular-season games, including the last 11 in a row.
“We’re a pretty young team; I’m the only starting senior, so it took us a little bit to get going,” Roden said. “However, towards the end of the season, when everyone learned to play together, we started to have a better season with better results.”
Roden, who was selected along with Matt Shupenis as an All-BL First Team player, says that improvement from last season has come from working together and having the same goal.
“As a team, I would say we were more talented last year, but we didn’t play as a team,” Roden said, “while this year, we all just want to win and we don’t care about the lead scorer.”
Sophomore Derek Chung also believes that the team this year has strong chemistry, which helped lead them to their consecutive winning streak.
“At the beginning, we weren’t that close,” said Chung. “We all knew each other from other sports like football but were not that close, but now we hang outside of practice and we’re all super close and friends.”
The postseason started Feb. 26 with the BL tournament quarterfinals. Nonnewaug, the No.1 seed, beat No. 8 Housatonic, 74-50. The Chiefs will face No. 5 Thomaston in the semifinals Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Thomaston with the final to be played Friday at 7 p.m. at Thomaston.
Chung and Herman said the team has spent the last few weeks preparing for the postseason. Nonnewaug will be the top seed in the Division V state tournament and will host a second-round game March 7.
“To prepare for the postseason, we have been having weekend practices, but now we are also having shootarounds on Sundays,” said Chung. “We just gotta practice and be giving 100% between every game.”
“We’re preparing for the postseason by doing what Coach [Tim Fitzpatrick] tells us each practice, which is to elevate and get 10% better every single day,” said Herman. “If we do that, we will be ready for the upcoming games.”
