Basketball Team Suffering Some Growing Pains
By Matthew Cannata | Sports Correspondent at January 23, 2024 | 8:30 am | Print
In 2014, the New Britain High School Boys’ Basketball team had a highly successful season. They were the CCC West Champions and advanced to the semi-final round of the state tournament. Heading into the 2015 season, head coach Todd Stigliano knew that it was going to be different and it was going to be a challenge to match the success the 2014 team had.
That’s because they lost every starter along with their sixth man. Now, with a group of players that didn’t see much varsity action prior to this season, the team experienced some growing pains early in the season, losing their first three of four games. Since then though, the team has only lost one and has won the past three. What has changed for Stigliano and his team since the beginning of the season? He said it’s all about working together.
“It took some time for us to realize that we could not ride the coattails of last year’s team. This is an entirely new group and at the beginning, we were not collectively working as hard as we needed to be in order to create success. We were in search of an identity and I think we are ‘beginning’ to figure out who we are and what it will take to be successful.”
Stigliano said there was no panic after starting the season 1-3. Instead, he understood that there needed to be a significant self-assessment within the coaching staff. He noted that they made some adjustments to their practices, the team’s mentality and even changed the lineup and rotation to get the best results possible. That has all led to greater balance on the court and of course, wins.
“As of late we have actually had a great balance on the court,” he said. “It has been a great team effort. We are getting great contributions from Donavon Lighty, Takari Menyfield, and Flavian Laporte in terms of scoring. However we are also getting positive minutes from the other starters, Andrew Walker and Hector Gonzalez. I do think the biggest difference though has been the solid contribution off the bench from Tyree Burns and Jonathan McCoy. Both seniors are really embracing their roles and finding ways to help the team.”
As of press time, the team is 5-1 in the CCC West. Stigliano called this a huge accomplishment and is something that they are going to keep building on throughout the remainder of the season.
“During the regular season, you want to make the division the most important thing. And considering how we started, being tied for first in the division right now is a very positive accomplishment. Because you play everyone twice, there is a need for constant improvement. However, it is also important to put yourself in a good position once round two comes along. We have a chance Friday against Southington to establish ourselves as a contender in the division, which is a good confidence booster for our program.”
While the majority of the team might be comprised of seniors, they are young in the sense that they have not had a lot of varsity action and haven’t had a chance to go through an entire season against the best competition in the region. Therefore, it might be easy for the kids to let this success get to their head. However, Stigliano and his staff are very aware of this and working hard to keep their mentality at an even level so they can continue their great play.
“Despite our recent success, we make sure everyone understands that we are still a long ways away from our ultimate goals. We have merely laid the groundwork but there is a great deal of work to be done. Every game in the regular season is one that will give us that much more experience heading into the post-season.”
The team is currently 5-4 and have a month remaining before they wrap up the regular season. There is no doubt that they’ll face stiff competition over that time, including teams in the CCC West who are looking for revenge the second time around. With Stigliano at the helm though, fans can be assured that this team will keep on improving and make the necessary adjustments to compete down the home stretch.
