WOODBURY — Nonnewaug has had abundant team success athletically, dating back to the opening of the school. Twenty-two state championships, 19 state runner-up placements, and copious Berkshire League titles across all sports fill the gym walls, proudly displaying the years the Tribe swept the competition.
While the team honors are exhibited, there are few individual honors recognized in our home gym. Basketball’s 1,000-point scorers, wrestling’s 100-match winners, and volleyball’s 500-statistic earners acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of athletes on each banner had during their four years at Nonnewaug.
But there are other accomplishments not announced. Where are the All-State honorees?
Of course, reaching 1,000 points or 100 wins is a remarkable accomplishment. But these awards depend heavily on the environment, the teammates, the coaches, and even opposing teams in those four years.
Nonnewaug girls basketball head coach Rebecca Pope was an unbelievable player for Nonnewaug during the 2000s. After high school, she went on to play in college, earning All-American Second Team honors as a sophomore, NJCAA WBCA All-American Honorable Mention, and All-New England First Team, along with numerous other accolades. She was also a walk-on at UConn under the famous Geno Auriemma.
But as a high school player, she fell short of the 1,000-point milestone. Although she was celebrated with All-State and Academic All-State honors as a senior, her career isn’t commemorated by a banner.
“We had a very strong basketball program when I was in high school,” said Pope. “I scored only two varsity points my freshman year; I never saw the floor. That year we went 20-0, and Anna Baldwin [a 1,000-point scorer] was on the team. I wasn’t given the chance to score any varsity points.”
Having a vigorous team and strong class of upperclassmen as a young player restrain the amount of opportunities one has to reach the 1,000-point mark. For most, players need the ability to be an indispensable player for all four years to have a shot to score that many points. If there already is a pivotal class of athletes ahead of you, the capacity of time left to reach that accolade slips away from your fingertips.
“The 1,000-point recognition is awesome and should definitely be kept, but All-State acknowledgement recognizes more people, and most importantly, their growth over time,” said Pope. “It’s possible to have not a great freshman [or] sophomore year but blossom senior year and receive All-State, but no one would know the work you got to get there because you just never reached the 1,000 points.”
The basketball banner also relies upon the idea that scoring is the only facet of a player that matters.
“The other thing about the 1,000 points is that it’s based on a single skill: shooting,” Pope continued. “To be All-State, other factors of your game come into consideration — 1,000 points doesn’t define if you play defense or not. There’s so many other keys to being a good player in basketball other than points.”
Some may remember Jack Wendel, a 2023 Nonnewaug graduate who was a two-time All-State wrestler, wrestled in the New England championships, and earned a Class S Most Outstanding Wrestler award along with Academic All-State honors. Wendel, who now wrestles at York College, could have effortlessly reached the 100-win milestone. However, Covid-19 canceled his sophomore season, and a couple of injuries later in his career sidelined him from reaching this accolade.
“I had close to 90 wins in the span of three years, and there are roughly 35 matches per year. If I was able to compete in one more season, I would have definitely had 100,” said Wendel. “But I also had torn my meniscus and was unable to complete in two tournaments, as well as New Englands, so that came into play with not reaching this achievement.”
Athletes like Wendel feel similarly. There are so many other environmental factors out of one’s control that are not factored into individual accolades like these.
Nonnewaug athletic director Declan Curtin feels that it is significant to honor All-State athletes, even if they may have fallen short to the sport-specific statistical milestones.
“I would love for someone to take an [Mastery-Based Learnign Experience] initiative and get all the names from the past of the All-State athletes [and] All-New England athletes to recognize and honor them,” he said. “I’m a history guy; it means a lot to me to preserve history, especially Nonnewaug athletic history. It would take a lot of digging to find all these athletes, but it would be great to find a junior in the Athletes Council or outside of this council who would talk to the community and leave their mark on athletic history on our walls.”
The names of All-State honorees, whether honored outside the gym or inside, could be something that would be memorialized inside the gym for years to come.
“It would be nice to have this for when grads come back 20, 30 years later with their kids,” Curtin said. “Graduates can walk through the gym hallway and see their name and say to their kids, ‘Look, that was me. I did that.'”
This is the opinion of Chief Advocate senior editor Juliette Nichols, a three-sport athlete at Nonnewaug.
