Girls’ Basketball Team Has New Coach, But Familiarity On Court

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team has a bit of a new look this winter. The Nighthawks will be led by a new coach, Jeremy O’Connell, who succeeds Shawn O’Brien, who hung up the clipboard in the offseason.

The changes, in terms of faces, pretty much end there for the Nighthawks, although they’ll have to overcome one significant on-court loss from a year ago: Leading scoring and sharp-shooter Sara Kelley. Everyone else is back with another year of experience and growth under their belts, and the Nighthawks are excited to go after another playoff berth and, they hope, a whole lot more.

So far so good. The Nighthawks won their tip-off tournament in convincing fashion, beating New Fairfield 69-52 and New Milford 62-35 in early December. Following ten days off from game play, the Hawks will get back into action with a December 20 clash with Weston, in their season opener.

O’Connell has been the head coach of the Bunnell of Stratford girls for the past four seasons, while teaching at Newtown High and living in Newtown. He was thrilled to get the opportunity to coach in town.

“It was definitely a big surprise,” O’Connell said. “Teaching in Newtown and living in Newtown, I was hoping to help out with the program for the next few years. And then, out of nowhere, when Coach O’Brien stepped down, it was my opportunity. Dream job, dream come true to be not only, as I said, the teacher in the building, coaching now — but also living in town, to me, is the perfect fit.”

O’Connell notes that Newtown is the only South-West Conference girls’ team to qualify for the conference tournament every year since the inception of the league more than a decade ago, and he wants the tradition to continue.

“Newtown has always been a team that people fear. We have athletes in Newtown, they’re basketball players, they get after it — they have the mental mindset of being tough and physical and the will to win,” O’Connell said. “So having the opportunity to be a part of that was huge for me.”

The coach has had his players running hard in practice and wants his players to click well enough that they can dictate the flow of the game. “We’re going to press and run,” O’Connell said. “Our guard play is very strong — across the board, we have kids that can handle the basketball.”

The team’s captains are senior Taylor Benson and juniors Riley Wurtz and Jess Lynch. Other key players include sophomores Bridget Power, Erin Kenning, and Sam Stemile; juniors Carly Iwanicki and Abbey Doski, and senior Sarah Pettinelli. Rounding out the roster are up-and-coming players: Cassie Ekstrom, a freshman, along with Maddy Good and Kristina Engler, both sophomores.

The Nighthawks, a year ago, went 11-9 and lost early on in both the SWC and state tourneys. “We’re going to win a lot more games this year than we did last year — definitely,” Benson said.

“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of teams. They’re not going to be ready for how in shape we are,” said Wurtz, adding that the team members had plenty left in the tank to pull away from their first two opponents in the late stages of those games.

Tough competition is expected to come from Lauralton Hall of Milford, Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport, Pomperaug of Southbury, and rival Masuk of Monroe.

“The league is up this year, but we can be there,” O’Connell said. “We have the opportunity to be very successful this year.”

“I’m really excited for this year,” Lynch added. “We have some opportunities to do some new things with a new coach.”