As winter approaches the West Hartford community, the fall sports season has concluded. The 11 fall sports include football, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, field hockey, girls’ cross country, boys’ cross country, girls’ swim and dive, esports, golf, cheer, and girl’s volleyball. Each sport successfully finished off its season, this article recaps some of the highlights from several fall sports. 

The boy’s soccer team finished their season with a record of 10-3-3 and punched their ticket into the state tournament as the 5th seed. Hall went on to win five rounds of the Class LL state tournament and advance to the state finals. The boys lead an impressive win over Stamford, earning themselves a state title. Diego Lemes De Souza won player of the game and scored the only goal leading them to a 1-0 win. Not only did the team manage to win the championship, but they also managed to deny several teams with many goals only letting up 13 all season. 

“I can’t believe it, we worked so hard for this, everyone was doubting us this year and we just grinded every single day,” said senior captain Tommy Nash. “We knew what we were coming from last year and here we are with this gold medal.”

 The team is represented by the captains of Tommy Nash, Luis Bravo, Gabe Sisk, and Eli Rotter. They were coached by coach Zeke Seguro, coach Smedberg, and coach Eric. 

Hall Football finished their season successfully in head coach Frank Robinson’s final season, even with a loss at the beginning of their season.

Hall Football’s star defensive lineman, and senior captain, Jack O’Neil, went down with a torn ACL within one quarter of the season.  Yet this was devastating, the team pitched no excuses, “although this is a huge negative for our team… we had the mindset that it would be ‘next guy up’ and we would support everyone” as said by Colin McGann, another senior captain.  Other senior captains included Bode Smith, Simon Levy, Declan Kerr, and Nick Xavier.

This “next man up” mentality allowed the team to conclude the season with a 7-3 record, tallying notable wins against the Southington Knights and the Conard Red Wolves.  Colin McGann believes this a successful season, “I think this season has gone well, we’ve upset multiple teams this year and maintained a winning record all year”.

One of the two notable wins this season was against Southington High School.  On a cold and rainy night, the defense took over, and Hall beat the then-9th-ranked Southington Knights.  Another of the two notable wins was against the cross-town rivals, the Conard Red Wolves.  The stands were packed with parents, students, and alumni, and this fired the players up, “I think the team’s performance is always elevated when there’s a student section at our games”, said Colin McGann.  This elevation of play led to a game where the Titans defeated the Red Wolves 40-0.

This season will conclude coach Robinson’s 33-year coaching tenure.  Additionally, some notable statistics for standout players include Bode Smith’s (QB) phenomenal season recording 2,032 total yards and 28 total touchdowns, Jordan Brice’s (WR/DB) 668 total yards, and 7 total touchdowns, Tyler Redden’s (OLB/WR) and Michael Griffin-Prado’s (S) 64 total tackles, and Cooper Griffin’s (K/WR) 90% PAT conversion.

The boys’ cross country team finished the year with an undefeated season winning all their dual meets and coming in second place for the CCC meet. The varsity team including captain Isaac Mahler, Ben Lewis, Nathan Yingling, Donovan Connole, Diego Acker Candella, Tommy Boulter, and Jacob Szawlewicz also finished 6th at the Class LL State Championships. 

Senior Isaac Mahler was the returning CCC champion, second place at States, third at state opens and second at the New England meet. Mahler also hopes to qualify for the Cross Country Nationals on November 25th. 

“I’m super stoked to be able to race with a group of talented guys. For some of them, this is their first year being a part of a varsity team, however, I think there is a lot of potential for these guys to come later in the postseason.” Said Mahler.  “I can’t wait to continue working with these guys.”

Mahler highlighted sophomore Fox Mace who was described as “ dedicated and mature,” “He’s really stepping up as an underclassman.” 

The boy’s cross-country team was led by coach Billing, coach Lage, coach Taylor, Coach Hackett, and Coach Sampietro. The captains this season were Isaac Mahler, Matt Zeman, Howie Lam, Jonathan Pincus, Jon York, Britt Housum, and Sean Scully. 

Mahler said, “[P]eople are really impressed in a ‘weak’ year what we were still able to achieve, we now have amazing strength in numbers and want to keep that culture for the future.” 

The girls’ soccer team played an impressive season, finishing their regular season with a 6-5-4 record giving them their ticket to the playoffs. Some highlights from the season include a comeback win against highly ranked Avon High School. They managed to beat their cross-town rivals Conard twice during the regular season.

Entering the state tournament, the girls were matched against Brien McMahon for the second year in a row. Hall won in a double overtime win and advanced to the second round of states where they were defeated by Staples High School. 

The girl’s soccer team is coached by Scott Ferguson. Their captains are Maddie Maxwell, Talia Sortman, and Sarah Punt.

The girl’s field hockey team, led by captains Kathleen Culmo, Ellie Goldstein, Grace Ganey, and Claire Sweeney,  finished with an 11 and 5 record. The captains and other star players including Ashley Carlson, Molly Mchugh, and Elise Biondi played very important roles throughout the season and helped lead the team to success.

The girl’s field hockey team had many standout games throughout the season. They beat Simsbury 6-1, South Windsor 6-1, and Winsor 7-0 in a complete shutout game. One large accomplishment was winning the CCC’s tournament. Captain Ashley Carlson said “In order to win CCC’s, we had to beat Conard – which we won last year in overtime. So it was a high-energy game. We came in and played as a team with three separate goal-scorers. We shut them out to win our last season game and become the CCC champs.”

Ellie Goldstein, a Maryland commit, hit the 100-goal mark in her high school career and was the main goal scorer on the team. Ashley Carlson had the second-most goals during the season. The season concluded after being knocked out of the first round of states and the team ranked 8th in Class L. Although the team is losing many their key seniors, they plan to continue succeeding in the upcoming year’s seasons. The team was coached by Jenna Behan.

The girls cross country team “worked hard on compacting their pack this season” said senior captain Rylan Priest. “This is what has made us the most successful”. The varsity girls including; Julia Zydanowicz, Maddy Peterson, Lauren Moskal, Rylan Priest, Katie Moskal, and Harper Clancy finished first at the Ocean State varsity meet. The varsity team also finished second at the Central Connecticut Conference (CCC), and fourth at the State L meet. The pack of varsity girls finished with the shortest team time at the CCC conference. Additionally, the freshman girls finished first at the Freshman CCC conference with Claire Furia finishing second and Lucy Vargas finishing third in that race. 

Priest said part of what made this season successful is “that lots of underclassmen were able to bond and become teammates to friends” creating “an amazing team environment.” 

Two athletes that Priest highlighted were Arati Awasthi and Kate Greden. She noted their hard work and dedication not only during the season but outside of the season as well. The cross country team had four foreign exchange students join the team this season which included; Angelica Violani, Nolianga Amer, Salma Nouioua, and Carmen Molina Plaza. “They were such an amazing addition to our team and we loved getting to know them and their culture,”  Priest said. 

The cross country season began in the summer where the team trained every morning during the summer at 7 am and has recently wrapped up as of November 6th. The team was coached by coach Remi, coach Knapp, and coach Gangi. The team captains included Rylan Priest, Maddie Makarewicz, and Julia Zydanowicz. 

At the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Championships, the Hall girls varsity swim and dive team placed 9th in the state. The swimmers finished the swim meet scoring a total of 270 points. Miriam Youel placed second in both the 200-meter freestyle and 500-meter freestyle. Miriam earned all-state honors for her accomplishments. The 200-meter freestyle relay (Mindy Zhao, Zigy Edney, Claire Culmo, Miriam Youel) placed 5th. Their final time was 1:55.40, earning them 34 points. 

Swim captain Kaitlyn Chaletsky said her team is very enthusiastic when it comes to school spirit:  “[W]e pride ourselves on our spirit and sportsmanship. We go all out for each dress-up day, no matter the humiliation, and spend lots of time together as a team outside of school and practice. At meets, we always cheer for one another and are supportive of everyone.” 

Individually, it was a successful season. However, the team lost many seniors who were assets to the team. The girls still held their own in the conference this season and finished with a record of 3 wins and 5 losses. The Captains of the swim team are Gwen Bye, Alyssa Puskarz, Jarah Teitler, and Katie Chaletsky. Hall Girls Swim and Dive is coached by John McClure and Jessica Lazor.