December 4, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Sports

GA and Mount meet in hoops tune-up
by TOM UTESCHER

GA’s Monica Schacker (right) tries to pry the ball away from the Mount’s Mary Jo Horgan. GA’s Jesse Carey is in the background.

An early season basketball scrimmage last Tuesday afternoon featured a pair of defending league champions whose circumstances differed as they entered the 2008-2009 campaign.

The host of last week’s practice bout, Germantown Academy, has won the Girls’ Inter-Ac League championship for 10 years in a row, and the Patriots have almost everyone from last year’s roster back this season.

By contrast, Mount St. Joseph Academy, two-time titlist in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies and the defending PIAA Class AAA State Champion, graduated five of its top seven players. Three of them were starters: forward Sarah McGorry (Lafayette College) and guards Ryann Gallagher (Catholic University), and Laura Johnson (Princeton).

With the Patriots also having started practice a week earlier than the Magic (GA is not a member of the PIAA, which pushed back the starting date for winter sports activity by one week this year), it wasn’t a surprise when Germantown felled the Mount, 70-47, in a scrimmage consisting of five eight-minute periods (with some on-court coaching interludes).

CHA squash boasts a veteran varsity
by TOM UTESCHER

Steve Wetherill and Chip Culp, the top two squash players for  Chestnut Hill Academy last season, have moved on to the college ranks, and this year’s lineup lists no seniors at all. Still, the Blue Devils return a lot of younger players who now have several years of varsity experience, and while the team may lack a lights-out No. 1 such as Episcopal Academy senior Todd Harrity (the top junior-level player in the nation), the Devils’ depth should allow them to stay with most opponents this winter.

Young GFS squash squad felled by Fords
by TOM UTESCHER

In an unusually early squash season opener, the racquetmen of Germantown Friends hosted Haverford School last Monday (Nov. 24) at the Germantown Cricket Club.

The experienced Haverford squad, which is expected to be a strong contender for the Inter-Ac League title this winter, posted a 7-0 victory over a young GFS franchise that is starting the season in a rebuilding mode after losing a good group of seniors from the 2007-2008 team.

Major turnover for CHA wrestling
by TOM UTESCHER

Just in from a preseason training run, Chestnut Hill Academy wrestling co-captains Nick Varallo (left) and Justin Heller (right) flank head coach Charlie Neely.  (Photo by Tom Utescher)

There were only two senior starters in the Chestnut Hill Academy wrestling team lineup last winter, so you’d expect the Blue Devils’ roster this season to consist mainly of seasoned varsity veterans.

That would’ve been the case if no fewer than seven grapplers out of last year’s crop of underclassmen hadn’t decided they wouldn’t be returning to the mat this season.

Fortunately, head coach Charlie Neely picked up seven other upper school athletes to fill the void, and there are a couple of eighth-graders who may do some varsity wrestling as well. This should leave the Blue Devils with the capability to fill almost every weight class in most contests and give up a minimum of forfeit points to fully staffed foes.