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Schools

The Perfect Season City Hill Embraced Change

Middle school athletic merger showed a promising victory this year in basketball.

The merger of Hillside and City Hill, the two middle schools in Naugatuck, left a lot of questions and a little apprehension going into the school year.

One of the questions at hand was how would this merger affect the athletic programs? Well, the first athletic season concluded recently and when the girls and boys basketball teams finished it proved to be a successful journey through unchartered waters.

One of the biggest challenges to overcome was bringing the two schools athletic programs together as one.

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“I was a little apprehensive going into it,” admitted City Hill girls coach Fred Scheithe, who coached the Hillside girls team for the past 27 years. “We were trying to bring the Hillside girls and the City Hill girls together to form a brand new team.”

Since the first day of practice the players seemed to be at ease with one another, Scheithe said.

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“They didn’t separate into two groups,” he said. “Of course by the time basketball season started they already had two months to bond together.”

The girls went 6-5 on the season but the one thing the coach did notice was the never give up attitude that resulted in a couple of thrilling comebacks.

The starting five of Raina Ceryak, Lauren Burns, Taylor Campos, Andrea Mercer and Michaela Pernell gave the Lady Cyclones a spark that produced a few wild finishes.

Nicole Boucher, Megan Warnke, Bailey Messenger and Stefanie Flores added depth to an already talented group. Kayla Carrelo, Kassie Colon, Sarah Hanks and Lindsay Thoren teamed up with Taya Diaz, Madison Jensen and Ally Mezzo to give City Hill a potent bench, along with team managers Olivia Green, Ciara Stella and Amanda Pelosi.

During the season the Lady Cyclones twice stared down the barrel of a double digit deficit and managed to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat with sterling comebacks.

City Hill trailed Westside 29-19 entering the final period when the Cyclones exploded for a 15-5 run down the stretch to pull out a 35-34 win. Mercer nailed a pair of three pointers to get the attention of Westside. Ceryak converted the go ahead shot with 40 seconds left to give City Hill its first lead of the game and then connected on the game winner.

Later in the season City Hill trailed Ansonia 33-23 going into the last period. A 17-4 spurt vaulted the Cyclones to a thrilling 38-37 come from behind victory. Ceryak scored 10 in the final period with Burns adding five points and Pernell adding two providing the spark in the turn around.

The girls team wasn’t the only buzz in the halls of City Hill as the boys team ended the year on a perfect note. The 13-0 Cyclones won the first NVL Greater Waterbury championship in eight years and they did it in grand fashion.

The Cyclones put up a staggering 67 points per game average while holding the opposition to under 40 points nine times. City Hill began the season with an eye popping 86-18 win over Ansonia and went on to top the 80 point mark three times during the season.

“I didn’t see any problems pulling off bringing both teams together as one,” said City Hill head coach Ron Plasky the former Hillside coach. “We talked from day one about becoming one team to represent the town of Naugatuck. The hardest part was trying to find playing time for everyone.”

The Cyclones boasted eight players who broke double-digits in scoring at one point or another during the season. Maleek Brooks led the team with an average of 10.4 per game and had a season high of 23 against Tyrell Middle School. He registered double digits in points six times during the season.

Also breaking double-digits during the season was Dayvon Russell (6 times), Josh Aviles (5), C.J. Wall (4), Jason Bradley (4), Bryan Coney (2), Matt Grillo (1) and Will Paul (1). Adding to the depth of the Cyclones was Tyler Saad and Sean Kennedy at close to 7 points per game along with Ricky DeJesus, Kyle Pyshna, Dan Guerrero, Dashon Russell and Scott Millett. Practice players were Patrick Hughes and Kyle Torok with team managers Brody Hale and Devan Aviles.

City Hill was tested twice during the season as the unbeaten streak came under attack. The Cyclones escaped North End by a 59-51 count with Bradley leading the way to victory throwing down 16 points. Brooks added 13 points and Wall chipped in with 12 to keep the winning streak going.

The Cyclones survived another battle as they pull out a 36-30 win over previously unbeaten Westside. Brooks led the way scoring 9 points with Coney and Aviles adding 7 points in the victory.

“We had a strong team coming into the season,” said Plasky. “We had five returning starters from Hillside and five more from City Hill.”

But it wasn’t like two groups that didn’t know each other, Plasky said.  

“These kids have been friends from playing in Little Pal, Little League and the youth soccer leagues,” he said. “It didn’t take long before they came together as one team and that bodes well for the High School team when they move up a grade next season.”     

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