Bronko, Mezzo win primaries in landslides

Incumbent Republican Mayor Mike Bronko (right) and Democratic candidate Bob Mezzo congratulate one another after their victories in Monday's primaries. Bronko defeated former Mayor Ron San Angelo, and Mezzo beat former state Rep. Kevin Knowles. Bronko and Mezzo will meet in the May 4 general election.

  

By Callum Borchers, Editor, and Paul Singley, Special to Citizen’s News

 

NAUGATUCK — Turns out the borough’s political town committees aren’t very good odds-makers. Republican incumbent Mayor Mike Bronko and Democrat Bob Mezzo — neither of whom was endorsed at his party’s January caucus — won their respective primaries Monday and will meet in the general election May 4.

 

Bronko’s victory was a veritable landslide. He claimed 62 percent of the GOP vote, defeating his predecessor, 633-393. Mezzo’s was almost equally decisive. The former deputy mayor earned 58 percent of his party’s votes for a final count of 1,090-776. Approximately 30 percent of registered voters in both parties cast their ballots.

 

“I’m glad we let the entire Republican party vote, and I’m very happy with the results,” Bronko said.

 

Bronko’s first term in office hasn’t been much of a honeymoon. The mayor presided over a tax increase on the heels of a property revaluation and watched the economic recession slow progress on the borough’s downtown revitalization project, which he supported in the 2007 mayoral election. And for the second time in Bronko’s young political career, unpaid taxes made headlines just weeks before voters went to the polls.

 

Despite these challenges, Bronko became the first Naugatuck mayor in 38 years to lose the town committee’s nomination but rally to win the primary.

San Angelo, who served as mayor from 2003-07 before accepting a job as a research assistant with the state Department of Information Technology, took criticism from Bronko throughout the campaign for “abandoning” the party before the last election. He did enough to patch up any hard feelings among members of the Republican Town Committee, but not enough voters were willing to overlook his departure.

 

“I’m surprised after 20 years of working on behalf of the town,” San Angelo said. “This comes down to me taking a state job. People were upset after I left.”

 

Still a member of the Naugatuck Economic Development Corporation, San Angelo said he will continue to work on behalf of the borough.

 

Mezzo, who has been absent from local politics since he lost to San Angelo in 2003, rode the momentum of solid debate performances to his win in the Democratic primary. At Cross Street Intermediate School and other polling locations, hearty supporters bundled up and waved signs for the 37-year-old local attorney.

 

Later surrounded by more than 100 people — many who donned blue “Team Mezzo” baseball caps — in his campaign headquarters on Church Street, Mezzo thanked his followers and vowed to work hard through the general election on May 4.

 

“I’m so happy and proud to have worked with such fantastic people who made it fun from the day we started the campaign and kept it that way through tonight,” Mezzo said. “I am grateful that the Naugatuck Democratic Party can put on a positive campaign based on the issues. This is one victory in what I hope will lead to a larger victory in May.”

 

He said Bronko will be a formidable opponent, and Mezzo believes he, too, will stick to the issues.

 

Bronko and Mezzo look to lead a community facing uphill battles over issues such as high property taxes, a downtown revitalization project, Renaissance Place, that is quickly losing momentum and six municipal unions whose contracts are set to expire.

 

Mezzo says he wants to reform local government and run it like a business. He wants to conduct a professional analysis of government to find ways to make it more efficient.

 

He also plans to create a “My First Teacher” program to allow parents the opportunity to interact with teachers and administrators, and conduct a seven-year plan to convert the high school football and soccer fields, and the three fields in the Rotary/Breen fields complex, to artificial turf by 2015.

 

Bronko, who never served in political office before being elected mayor in May 2007, believes he has done a good job so far. He discusses his “Mayor’s Home Work” project through which he and volunteers made upgrades at the homes of seniors, and other community-based initiatives, as his major successes.

 

Recently, unions representing the Visiting Nurses Association and administrators agreed to take pay freezes for a year in exchange for Bronko not laying off employees and extending their current contracts for a year. Several department heads, including Bronko, have also agreed to forgo pay increases for a year, and the police union has tentatively agreed to a one-year pay freeze.

 

Bronko, who earns $74,500 as mayor, not including benefits, has been criticized many times by burgesses throughout his tenure. He blames some of his blunders on freshman mistakes and says he’s learned from them.

 

Neither San Angelo nor Knowles plans to petition for a spot on the general election ballot. Knowles said he will take a break before thinking about his political future but did say, “I’ve been in politics since my 20s, and I’ve been in public life for 25 years. I think part of me would die if I didn’t do that.”

 

After the votes were tallied, workers from the Knowles camp made their way to Mezzo’s headquarters and vowed to unite the party.

 

“We were never divided, we just had differences of opinion,” Democratic Town Committee chairman M. Leonard Caine III said. “We had two solid candidates, and we will work together through May.”

Even before new contract, borough teachers highly paid

By Callum Borchers, Editor

 

NAUGATUCK — An arbitration panel was to announce its decision on the proposed Naugatuck teachers’ contract Wednesday, but regardless of the outcome, borough educators are already in elite financial company.

 

A Citizen’s News examination of salary data provided by the state Department of Education reveals during the 2007-08 school year, the average Naugatuck teacher earned $66,774 — slightly more than the average teacher in affluent communities like Cheshire, Farmington, Glastonbury, Simsbury and South Windsor.

 

The Department of Education uses a classification system, known as district reference groups, to categorize public school systems by their students’ socioeconomic statuses. DRGs take into account such factors as family income, parental education and occupation, and poverty rates. The groups range from A (most affluent) to I.

 

Each of the five towns listed above is a member of DRG B, in which the median family income is $97,210, 59.5 percent of parents hold a college degree, and 3.7 percent of children live in poverty. Naugatuck is a member of DRG G, in which the median family income is $53,931, 20.6 percent of parents hold a college degree, and 31 percent of children live in poverty.

 

Does it make sense that the borough pays its teachers as well or better than these wealthier districts?

 

“That’s a tough question,” Naugatuck Mayor Mike Bronko said. “I just have to say that Naugatuck’s teachers are some of the finest in the state.”

 

“I’m a little surprised [by the numbers],” admitted Naugatuck Board of Education Chair Kathleen Donovan. “But those salaries have allowed us to recruit better teachers.”

 

Among neighboring public school districts in the Naugatuck Valley League, the borough’s average salary in 2007-08 was $5,643 more than the second-highest-paid district, Watertown, and $7,258 more than the NVL average. And of the 17 school systems in DRG G, Naugatuck paid more than all but three; its average salary was $4,162 more than the group G average.

 

One reason Naugatuck’s average salary is comparably high is that 57 percent of its teachers are at the maximum step, meaning they are at the top of the pay scale because of their education and experience levels.

 

“You can’t really go by the average salary because Naugatuck has a lot of teachers on the max step,” said attorney Roseann Padula, who was the borough’s chief legal counsel during contract arbitration. “That skews the data.”

 

Donovan echoed Padula’s analysis, adding “I don’t think we generally pay higher than other [nearby] towns.”

 

Education officials in those nearby towns were reluctant to comment on Naugatuck’s teacher spending. Torrington Board of Education Chairman Paul Cavagnero, whose town is a member of both the NVL and DRG G, gave a diplomatic, “You won’t get me on the record throwing mud at another BOE.”

 

Torrington’s average teacher salary was $7,188 less than Naugatuck’s in 2007-08.

 

Wolcott Board of Education business manager Todd Bendtsen, who negotiated that town’s four-year teachers’ contract two years ago, didn’t share an opinion of Naugatuck’s spending either. But he did discuss the numbers on which Wolcott’s salaries are based.

 

“Typically, we look at averages for the area and the state,” Bendtsen said. “We also look at DRG F [of which Wolcott is a member] and use that as a barometer.”

 

Wolcott paid its teachers an average of $57,853 in 2007-08.

 

Bendtsen added there are some numbers that do not factor in to teacher salaries — namely, standardized test scores. Bronko said he agrees it would be unfair to pay teachers according to student performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test.

 

“I can’t say they should be paid on scores, no,” Bronko said.

 

That’s a good thing for borough educators, since the district failed to meet federal No Child Left Behind goals in six straight academic years from 2001-02 to 2006-07. Naugatuck Public Schools did satisfy NCLB requirements in 2007-08, but five of the district’s 11 schools remain on the state Department of Education’s “in need of improvement list.”

 

No matter what other towns pay or how borough students fare on standardized tests, Naugatuck High School Principal Fran Serratore believes teachers’ wages are well-earned.

 

“Let me tell you something, our teachers deserve every penny,” he said.

 

Burgess Robert Neth, who voted against the proposed teachers’ contract in January, says that may be true, but taxpayers can’t afford a penny more.

 

“You’ve got to be out of your mind to want a raise right now,” Neth said. “I’ve been either on the finance board or a burgess for 20 years, and I don’t ever recall teachers taking a zero [increase]….I’m not saying teachers don’t deserve a raise, but now is not the time.”

Borough baker creates ‘Edible Dreams’

Ed Hughes works a ball of red fondant that will be used to cover a Corvette cake at Edible Dreams Custom Cake Shop and Bakery in Naugatuck.

By Jenna Gaillard, Staff Writer

 

Ed Hughes pauses, looks up from the half-complete, edible sculpture in front of him and studies the photograph on his laptop screen. His muse is a classic Corvette. And as he carves the car’s features with a special tool, the Corvette’s body parts begin to take shape.

 

Hughes is the owner of Edible Dreams Custom Cake Shop and Bakery in Naugatuck, which provides customers with some of the most unique and detail-oriented cakes in the area.

 

Continuing his family’s tradition of baking cakes, Hughes decided in December 2007 to start his own business and chose the Spring Street location, formerly occupied by Rita’s Bakery.

 

“I just started doing this as a hobby, and it turned into this whole bakery…” Hughes said. “I figured I’d take a chance.”

 

Hughes said he came up with the name Edible Dreams when he was writing an e-mail to a customer who asked what made him decide to enter his line of work.

 

“I wrote back it wasn’t about the money, it was about making people’s dreams edible,” Hughes said. “And then it just came out that way, Edible Dreams, out of conversation. Plus it’s the initials of my name, so I just went with it.”

 

The Edible Dreams team consists of Hughes and Andrea Wiggins. Both bake cakes and other pastries and decorate them in great detail. Hughes said he advertised his business on the social networking Web site MySpace, and that’s where he met Wiggins.

 

Hughes said Wiggins does most of the baking and once the layers are out of the oven, he stacks them in what he calls “a square block of cake.” He then starts carving the cake into one of his creations.

 

Edible Dreams sells a wide variety of pastries, including pies, cookies, danishes, breads and cupcakes. According to the bakery’s Web site, Edible Dreams specializes in wedding cakes, birthday cakes and civil union cakes. But Hughes said his favorite cakes to make are custom car or truck cakes.

 

“Anything with a challenge,” Hughes said. “Anything that’s difficult, that takes planning and engineering. The harder it is the more fun it is.”

 

Hughes said he has had some unusual requests: toilets, wrestling rings, even female torsos.

 

“People ask for some strange cakes,” Hughes said.

 

He said most people provide specific directions but others give him a theme and “let me go with it.”

 

Hughes has a well-developed routine when making custom cakes. Last Friday, he was making a small Corvette cake that needed to feed 30 to 40 people.

 

“I stacked [the cake], filled it and started to shave away at what it should look like,” Hughes said.

 

Throughout the decorating process, Hughes looked back and forth at pictures of Corvettes — each from a different angle — which he uses as guidelines when molding the cake.

 

Other times Hughes can “do it by eye.”

 

“…Some of the cakes I don’t even look at a picture because I have a picture of it in my head…” he said. “I just have the gift that I can recreate it without looking at it.”

 

According to Hughes, wedding cakes actually take less time to make than custom car or truck cakes because — however elegant — they are less complex.

 

“It’s not like an engineering process where a lot of times [with the car cakes] I have to stack the cake, and then cut the cake, shape the cake and then mold the fenders or any kind of body part the cars are known for,” Hughes said.

Hughes said most of the wedding cakes he makes take five to six hours, and some take even less. He said car cakes typically require 10 or 11 hours, from start to finish. Sometimes the decorating process alone lasts eight hours.

 

A few weeks ago, one of Hughes’ wedding cakes won first place in a competition. He made the cake in his bakery and presented it to judges for evaluation.

 

Even more testing was a recent live cake challenge in front of an audience. Five contestants, each with one assistant, had 3 ½ hours to create a cake, based on the theme “wonders of the world.” Contestants could choose man-made or natural wonders.

 

According to Hughes, the other contestants stuck to one wonder each, while he took on nine different subjects, including the Statue of Liberty, Easter Island sculptures and the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Hughes said the live competition was “a little nerve-racking” at first, but he got used to it and won a silver medal. He plans to enter more competitions in the future.

 

Hughes said cake requests are a bit low at the moment, but he hopes to have about 30 orders per week during the summer because it will be wedding season.

 

According to Hughes, the price of a cake depends on the “complexity of the cake and how many people you need to feed.” He said custom cakes cost at least $125 “due to the time that’s involved with the decorating process.”

Edible Dreams Custom Cake Shop and Bakery is located at 51 Spring Street in Naugatuck. For more information, visit the bakery’s Web site at http://www.edibledreamscakes.com or call the bakery at 729-0662.

St. Patty’s Day dinner packs Naugatuck Senior Center

More than 200 people celebrated an early St. Patrick’s Day at the Naugatuck Senior Center’s annual corned beef and cabbage dinner last Thursday. Helping out in the kitchen were, from left: Marge Pierce, Sandra Clark, Carole Mancini and Jim Goggin.

By Callum Borchers, Editor

 

NAUGATUCK — St. Patrick’s Day came early to the Naugatuck Senior Center. More than 200 people — including all four mayoral candidates, newly-elected state Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, state Rep. David Labriola and several burgesses — flocked to 300 Meadow Street last Thursday for the annual corned beef and cabbage dinner. The menu also feature buttered potatoes, boiled carrots, Irish soda bread and appropriately shamrock-colored pudding for dessert.

 

Borough tax collector Jim Goggin assumed the role of executive chef, carving a senior-center-record 300 pounds of his famous corned beef.

 

“He’s done an amazing job,” senior center director Harvey Leon Frydman said. “He’s been here since 8 a.m.”

 

What’s the secret to Goggin’s signature dish?

 

“Twenty-one years at the Old Corner Café,” he explained.

 

This might have been just another corned beef dinner — albeit a very big one — for a man with that much experience. But a missing pair of hands in the kitchen made it sentimental.

 

“This year is special because we’re without Frank Sousa,” Goggin said. “Before Frank died in September, he fixed our meat slicer. When I turned it on this morning, typical Frank didn’t use a lot of electrical tape to cover the wires, and I got lit up like a Christmas tree.”

 

“I told him, ‘That’s Frank saying hi,’” said Carole Mancini, who helped prepare the meal.

 

Frank Sousa was a former senior center men’s club vice president and house chairman of American Legion Post 17. He died of cancer Sept. 1 at age 77.

Local representatives divided on death penalty

 

Dr. William Petit, Jr. speaks at a 2007 memorial for his wife and two daughters, who were murdered during a home invasion in Cheshire. Dr. Petit argued in favor of the death penalty last week before the House Judiciary Committee.

 

 By Callum Borchers, Editor

 

State Rep. David Labriola (R-Oxford) sat through an eight-hour hearing about Connecticut’s death penalty last Wednesday and emerged with the same conclusion he’s drawn for many years.

 

“I’ve always been a strong supporter of the death penalty,” said Labriola, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee. “I believe there are some crimes so heinous, the only justice is the death penalty.”

 

For now, that’s the state’s position too. But new legislation proposed last week could change it.

 

 

 

The judiciary committee discussed two bills last week: One would abolish the death penalty altogether; the other would raise the burden of proof in capital punishment cases from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “absolute certainty.”

According to Labriola, the second bill, proposed by retired Superior Court Judge Harold Dean, is virtually out of consideration.

 

“I think both sides came to the conclusion that ‘absolute certainty’ was unworkable,’” Labriola said. “There’s no absolute certainty in life. It would basically be an abolishment.”

 

Not that Connecticut is in the habit of executing criminals on a regular basis anyway. When serial killer Michael Ross received a lethal injection four years ago, it marked the state’s first execution in 45 years.

 

Almost two thirds of Constitution state residents favor the death penalty, or at least that’s what a Quinnipiac University poll revealed several months after a triple murder in Cheshire in 2007. Dr. William Petit, Jr.’s wife and two daughters were killed during a home invasion. During last Wednesday’s hearing, Dr. Petit urged legislators to preserve the death penalty, saying “My family got the death penalty, and you want to give life to murderers. That is not justice.”

 

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, the two men charged with the murders, will likely face the death penalty when their trials begin next year, unless the law is changed.

 

Democratic state Rep. Theresa Conroy, who represents Beacon Falls in the 105^th District, said she is leaning toward supporting the bill that would ban the death penalty.

 

“I try to put my personal feelings aside and listen to my constituents,” she said. “My feeling is we’re not for the death penalty….I am a representative of the people in my district and their views.”

 

Conroy added she will research the bill to a greater extent before taking a firm position and is open to changing her mind, depending on feedback she receives from district voters.

 

Newly-elected state Rep. Rosa Rebimbas (R-Naugatuck), who was sworn in Friday, also said she will have to review the bill in detail but expressed qualms about the death penalty.

 

“The idea is that the death penalty is a deterrent [to crime],” Rebimbas said. “But the statistics don’t back that up.”

 

Another argument against capital punishment is the cost of trials and appeals, which often take many years. The state’s chief public defender, Susan Storey, estimates her office will spend $2.5 million of public money this fiscal year defending people facing the death penalty.

 

Several legislators suggested at the hearing that the state could save money by eliminating the death penalty. Rebimbas, who ran a successful campaign on her reputation as a fiscal conservative, said “I do buy that argument because research backs it up.”

 

Labriola disagrees.

 

“That argument is faulty,” he said. “If the maximum penalty were life in prison with no chance of parole, those cases would be defended just as vigorously and would end up costing just as much money [as death penalty cases].”

 

Labriola said he plans to use the reopened death penalty debate to push for reform of the appeals process — specifically, to speed it up. He cited the fact that among Connecticut’s 10 members of death row, three committed their crimes in the 1980s. One of them is Sedrick “Ricky” Cobb of Naugatuck, who was convicted of the 1989 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a 23-year-old Watertown woman.

 

“We can’t have people there for decades,” Labriola said. “We need to streamline the appeals process so that there is a reasonable time that victims’ families can expect to have the case closed. Something like three to five years.”

 

Labriola called Connecticut’s capital defenders some of the best in the country and said he believes the judicial system provides adequate protection to people facing the death penalty. Conroy isn’t so sure.

 

“Even if we put one person to death who’s innocent, it’s not right,” she said.

Region 16 BOE hopes to pass 2009-10 budget on first try

By Jenna Gaillard, Staff Writer

 

 

BEACON FALLS — The Region 16 Board of Education kicked of 2009-10 budget talks last Wednesday at Laurel Ledge Elementary School. Many topics were discussed at the first budget workshop session on the proposed $36.5 million budget, which is up 1.46 percent from the current year’s budget.

 

According to Region 16 Superintendent of Schools James Agostine, the proposed budget is a “collective effort” between himself and business manager William Stowell.

 

School administrators submitted budget requests to Agostine and Stowell between October and December. Agostine said he and Stowell examined the requests, asked questions and “whittled away at things” during January and February.

 

According to Agostine, they “peeled away about $1.2 million worth of budget requests” to get to get the proposed increase down to 1.46 percent. Stowell called the 1.46 percent increase “a good thing to go forward with.”

 

During the budget workshop session, Agostine suggested the board not replace three teachers who are retiring this year (two from Laurel Ledge and one from Community School). Leaving these positions vacant could mean cutting some elective classes. Agostine said the retirement of one of the teachers may result in the elimination of a language arts elective.

 

“Because we’ve taken the $1.2 million and gone to the next tier of cuts, [we] have to go to program eliminations,” Agostine said.

 

According to BOE member Priscilla Cretella, the board doesn’t want this to happen because class sizes will increase, and some English writing classes will have to be eliminated.

 

At the budget workshop session, Beacon Falls Selectman Michael A. Krenesky urged the BOE to “look at today’s budget and begin your cutbacks now.”

 

“There are nickels and dimes in multiple places you can cut…” Krenesky said. “I know how hard it hurts and how difficult it is to make that decision…it is time for bold action, not just sitting back and letting the status quo go on.”

 

At one point, the board considered a zero percent increase for the new budget, but a vote soon removed that possibility. One BOE member said he would like to see a zero percent increase but such a move is not “realistic.”

According to Cretella, the board has only four weeks to finalize the budget.

 

“We need to pass this budget on the first try; we’re under a timeline,” Cretella advised the board.

 

Last year voters in Prospect and Beacon Falls finally passed a $35.94 million school budget on the third referendum.

 

After much discussion at last Wednesday’s budget workshop session, the board decided Agostine will draft a letter to the teachers, administrators and support staff unions to “formally request and seek contractual concessions to assist in reducing the budget.”

 

Cretella said each of the three unions will decide if it is willing to make unspecified concessions to help reduce the proposed budget.

 

“[We’re] actually asking them that we’re looking for some monetary giveback without hurting classrooms or reduce teachers’ class sizes,” Cretella said.

 

Agostine added the motion directed him to “ask for contractual concessions” from union leaders and to meet with them to “fill them in on what the board was thinking when they passed the resolution.” According to Agostine, the requested contractual concessions could be pay freezes or any type of concession that has a monetary impact.

 

Agostine’s letter to the three union leaders was sent out last Thursday.

Naugatuck survives Fairfield-Warde; season ends in Stratford

Even a double-team couldn't stop Anthony Mariano from scoring 29 points in Naugatuck's 53-45 win over Fairfield-Ludlowe in the opening round of the Class L state tournament.

 

By Ken Morse, Citizen’s News

 

NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck boys got out to a big lead then held on for a 53-45 win over Fairfield-Ludlowe in the qualifying round of the CIAC Class L state tournament Friday.

 

The victory advanced Naugatuck to Tuesday’s first-round matchup against No. 2 seed Stratford (21-1), where the Garnet and Grey’s season ended with a 64-46 loss. Friday’s win was the 150^th in head coach Kevin Wesche’s career.

 

Wesche didn’t really want to talk about the milestone stating, “I don’t keep track of records. All I know is I got 160-something loses, and those are mine. The wins belong to those kids in the other room.

 

“Now we go back to work and get ready for Stratford, and we are looking forward to the challenge. I think we can match up well with them. We may give up a little in height, but if we come out with the same kind of heart we had tonight, anything can happen.”

 

The Greyhounds not only came out with heart against the Falcons — they seemed to be in overdrive as they ran the floor with high energy. They pushed the ball up the floor after every rebound, leading to numerous fast break opportunities. Four minutes into the contest, the Greyhounds were on top by a 9-3 margin.

 

Anthony Mariano scored 10 of his 29 points in the opening period, and his three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Greyhounds a comfortable, 18-8 cushion.

Fairfield-Ludlowe battled back, scoring on three straight possessions and sending Naugatuck into a timeout at the 6:02 mark protecting an 18-14 advantage.

 

Joe Ianotti and Greg Rice began to close off the paint and force the Falcons outside. Kevin Hancock (nine rebounds, seven assists) and Pat Gibson (14 points, nine rebounds) led a 13-0 run that put an end to the Fairfield comeback attempt.

 

Gibson took an inbound pass from Hancock and put it in off the window, and on the next possession the duo again worked it down on the baseline for a 24-14 lead with 2:05 left in the half.

 

Mariano leaned in with a shot down the lane, drawing the foul, and Warren Buerkle (six points) took it coast-to-coast off a steal by Tyler Krupa as Naugatuck headed to the locker room in complete control, holding a 31-14 advantage.

 

“We came out and really ran with a lot of energy,” Wesche said. “If we didn’t have to break for halftime, who knows what the final score might have been?”

The Falcons came out and made a game of it outscoring Naugatuck by a 14-5 margin in the third period. But it didn’t slow down the Greyhounds’ effort: In one sequence, Hancock was stripped of the ball but chased down the thief at the other end and blocked the shot.

 

Naugatuck took a 36-28 lead into the final period, and the presence of Dan Lima — and his back-to-back steals — ignited a 10-0 run to virtually seal the deal.

 

Fairfield Ludlowe got within 50-45 with less than a minute to play only to have Gibson and Mariano finish it up at the foul line, hitting three of four, to post the 53-45 final margin.

 

“I thought Fairfield-Ludlowe did a nice job in the second half doubling the ball, and we just didn’t find the open shooter,” Wesche said. “But our guys didn’t buckle under the pressure, and they didn’t look rattled during the timeouts. We weathered the storm.”

Greyhounds pull off shocker in T-town

By Ken Morse, Citizen’s News

 

TORRINGTON — Let’s face it. No one who made the trek up Route 8 to Torrington really gave Naugatuck much of a chance against the 19-1 Red Raiders. The only ones who thought they had a shot were the Naugatuck girls and their coaches.

 

Just before the start of the CIAC Class L first round matchup, Naugatuck assistant coach Josh Ruccio made his way over to me and said, “So, are you here for the biggest upset of the season?”

 

I laughed it off, thinking, “Well that’s a good attitude to bring into this game.” After all, Torrington won the teams’ two regular-season meetings by wide margins of 70-38 and 73-24.

 

I don’t know what head coach Jodie Ruccio said to her team during the 30-minute bus ride to Torrington, but the girls took it to heart and pulled off the shocker of the century, knocking off the Red Raiders 58-54.

 

“I’m just so happy for the girls right now. I just want to run outside and jump in a snow bank,” said the emotionally exhausted Jodie Ruccio, who watched her team outscore Torrington 41-26 in the second half to pull off the improbable victory.

 

After putting just four points on the scoreboard in the second quarter, Naugatuck was teetering on the edge of another blowout, trailing 28-17 at halftime. But the Greyhounds were not about to head for the bus just yet.

A tenacious defensive effort pulled the Hounds back into the game. They held Torrington scoreless for the first four minutes of the third period. Center Debbie DaSliva fended off two and three Red Raiders at a time, battling her way to 13 rebounds.

 

That was huge. Then Danielle Charette (nine points) started to knock down crucial shots to give Naugatuck some hope.

 

Her success also opened up shooting lanes for Jessica Webber (32 points) and Julie Longo (13 points). They hit a pair of threes, and the Greyhounds were back in the game, trailing, 43-36, heading into the final period.

This game wasn’t won in the third period — although Naugatuck did outscore Torrington, 19-15, after putting up only 17 points in the first half. It was won after the Garnet and Grey fell behind by nine at the outset of the fourth period. 

Renee Augustine came on to help DaSilva out under the boards, and Samantha Bisson turned in a key defensive effort as Naugatuck held Torrington without a basket for almost seven minutes.

Naugatuck tied the game three times down the stretch but couldn’t take over the lead until the 2:48 mark, when Webber charged down the lane and buried a running one-hander off the glass.

 

Webber put Naugatuck on top for good with another coast-to-coast drive, making it 52-48. Any notion of a Torrington comeback and a Naugatuck collapse was quickly erased when Alexis Granahan (five assists) spotted Lauren Piroscafo (four points) wide open on the blocks.

 

The freshman guard took it to the rack on the back-door feed, and the Naugatuck bench erupted with a 54-48 lead with only 1:35 left. Torrington scored its first basket of the final period at the 1:33 mark, when Kaylee Cerruto buried a three.

 

Down the stretch, Webber came up with three steals, and Longo hauled down two huge rebounds to make the unthinkable to happen. With less than 20 seconds to play, Naugatuck had a seven-point advantage and they were already cheering in the stands — the Greyhounds had pulled off the biggest upset of the season.

 

“I told the girls if we can get it down to five going into the last period, we could win this game,” Jodie Ruccio said. “They believed they could do it and went out and made the plays they had to down the stretch.”

 

The Greyhounds’ post season run came to an end Friday when they were upended by No. 12 seed Northwest Catholic (16-5) by a 59-19 margin. With just three seniors leaving and the bulk of the team returning, NHS has a lot to look forward to next season, especially on the heels of the thrilling victory in Torrington.

Hounds have prolific scorer, consumate leader in Jessica Webber

Jessica Webber will enter her senior season just 76 points shy of 1,000 for her career.

By Ernie Bertothy, Citizen’s News

 

It was a brief conversation that went a long way.

 

Naugatuck’s standout junior guard Jessica Webber didn’t need to say much to her coach. Shortly after injuring her thumb early in the fourth quarter of a last week’s state tournament game, Webber looked at her coach and made her point in succinct fashion.

 

“I looked at her, she looked at me,” Naugatuck head coach Jodi Ruccio said of this short interaction with Webber. “She said, ‘I’m going back in the game.’ And I said, ‘You won’t get an argument from me.’”

 

Webber finished the game with 32 points and led Naugatuck to a 58-54 win over Torrington in the Class L state tournament Mar. 4. The Greyhounds entered the game as the 28^th seed in the bracket, but it was the No. 5 Red Raiders who were sent packing.

 

“The game was too close, and sitting out wasn’t an option,” Webber said.

That win culminated a six-game, end-of-the-season stretch, in which Webber averaged 27.2 points against Torrington (two meetings), Crosby, Watertown, Holy Cross and Woodland. 

 

“Those are huge numbers against good teams,” Ruccio said.

 

The key to Webber’s offensive success may be from a change in her on-court demeanor. In short, she became more aggressive after the coaching staff kept telling her to take the ball to the hoop.

 

“I guess she didn’t want to hear it from us anymore,” Ruccio said.

 

But Webber’s influence transcends her scoring ability. She was named captain as a sophomore.

 

This season, she earned first-team All-Naugatuck Valley League and first-team All-Suburban honors.

 

Her coach points out she does more than score. In fact, Ruccio said Webber typically wants to pass.

 

“Jess finds the open girl,” Ruccio said.

 

The numbers tell the story:  5.7 rebounds per game, 3.7 steals per game and three assists a game.

 

Webber also shot 74 percent from the free throw line and racked up 163 points from the charity stripe this season.

 

Her well-rounded game mixes well with her work ethic. She’s willing to go the extra mile and because of that, she expects the same of her teammates.

 

“I have to do things a certain way and give it my all,” Webber said. “So I can expect my teammates to give it their all.”

 

This spring and summer, Webber will play AAU basketball, Ruccio said. There she will have the opportunity to play against good competition and work on the finer points of her game.

 

And even though the season has just ended, she’s already eager for her senior season at Naugy. Webber will begin the season just 76 points shy of 1,000 for her career.

 

“I’m all ready for it. I’m excited,” Webber said.

Ruccio’s compliments of Webber go beyond her time on the court and in the locker room. 

 

“She has just done a tremendous job, and on top of that, she’s a great kid,” Ruccio said.

Greyhounds repeat as NVL champs

By Callum Borchers, Editor

 

 

WATERBURY — Make room for another banner at the Naugatuck High School pool. The Greyhounds boys’ swim team repeated as Naugatuck Valley League champion Friday at Kennedy High School, collecting 506.5 points — 30.5 more than second-place Sacred Heart and a whopping 101.5 more than rival Torrington. Woodland was fifth with 242 points.

 

Last year, the league title was decided by Naugy’s dramatic, 0.2-second victory over the Red Raiders in the 200-yard freestyle relay. This year’s win was a little more comfortable.

 

Torrington swimmers won each of the first three swimming events and six of 11 overall, but the Hounds’ showed off their depth in handing head coach Jim McKee the 23^rd league championship of his legendary career.

 

Naugatuck grabbed the top two spots in the 500-yard freestyle. Senior Kyle Doy won in five minutes, 6.50 seconds, ahead of freshman teammate Chris Branco’s 5:10.71. NHS’s only other win came in that 200 free relay — this time it was a 0.5-second besting of the Hearts. Doy, sophomore Kyle Conrad, and juniors Trevor Heller and Dalton Fennell comprised the team.

 

Fennell also anchored the 200-yard medley relay team that took third place. Doy was second and Conrad fourth in the 200 free. Heller claimed third in the 200-yard individual medley, one spot ahead of Woodland’s Chris Wright, and was second in the 100 butterfly. Wright also was the runner-up in the 100-yard breastroke.

 

NHS Junior T. J. Warren took fourth in the 100 fly, and senior Mark Wilson finished third in the 100-yard backstroke.

 

Naugy’s best divers were two freshmen girls. Isabelle Moody finished sixth while Caitlin Carter was ninth. Sophomore Lindsay Boland posted an eighth-place finish for the Hawks.