The "Wonder Twins," summer basketball, and more

by Steev Riccardo

This past week in our sports travels we made a return visit to Northbridge High School and found an awesome locale to watch three simultaneous sporting events at the same time.

A track meet between Oxford, Auburn, and Northbridge, a softball game between Bartlett and Northbridge and a baseball game between Bartlett and Northbridge were all taking place within viewing distance. It was a high school sports fans dream. 

One minute I could see the Lady Indians’ Megan Dwyer stab a hard grounder at first base, turn to my left and see Luis Caro do the same at shortstop for the baseball diamond for the Bartlett boys, and look right, and lo behold, “The Sweet Assassin” Pirates track star Emily Dawidczyk in mid-air doing the long jump. You might say it doesn’t get much better than this.

At one point the two Indians teams were struggling a little bit so I sought out Pirates girls track star Jordan Orrell before she starting running and we had a good catch-up chat.

“I’d like to have a big ending to my track career. I’m hoping that once Districts come I can be the district champ in the 400”, said the University of Maine-bound senior.

Orrell isn’t sure yet if she will run track at Maine, which is a Division 1 school, but she is sure that she wants to be an athletic trainer and is ready to meet the challenges of a rigorous college schedule.

It was actually track injuries that made her curious and interested in the first place about her career path.  Both she and her “best friend” and fellow Pirate track star Dawidczyk have had to battle back injuries this past season. In fact Dawidczyk was having some issues with her back at this very meet, which slowed her down a bit.

Orrell, in between talking about her plans for Maine, told me that she and Dawidczyk were actually given a nickname by one of the team’s track coaches. “Two years ago when she was a freshmen and I was a sophomore, we both excelled a lot and our coach starting calling us the ‘Wonder Twins,”

Wonder twin number one had high praise for her teammate, “We do everything together, we are best friends, we are a lot alike, and we use each other to get better. Emily is very competitive, she is just naturally good.” 

Speaking of being naturally good, moments after we spoke Orrell competed in the 100-meter dash and came in a respectable second place. 

We also had a chance to see Pirates boys’ stars Senior Izzy Kyei and junior Andrew St. Germain, who have both been making tremendous contributions, do their thing.

Rival Cousins to Anna Maria College: Bartlett three-sport star Lindsay Bond (seen pictured enjoying this column) and her cousin and Shepherd Hill Rams Basketball star Kyle McKissick will both be taking their hoop talents to Anna Maria College in Paxton this fall.

Springfield Bound Kobel Honored: Bartlett three-sport star Nick Kobel, who is heading to Springfield College in the fall, has been awarded the ‘Scholar Athletic Award’ by Channel 3.  Kobel is one of 12 Central Mass athletes to receive this award and will be featured in an upcoming 30-minute segment. 

Webster Basketball League Sign-Ups:  Sign-ups for the Webster Basketball league will take place this Saturday May 12 and Sunday May 13. The league is open to all boys from Grade 3 to Grade 12. Bartlett head basketball coach Tony Paranto runs and operates the league and has been doing so for the past 16 years.

BHS Sweat & Desire Camp:  Coach Paranto is also running his three-day Basketball camp from June 26-29. It’s the thirteenth year that the camp has been running and will take place at Bartlett High School. The camp, which features former high school coaches and college players and coaches, is for boy’s ages 8-17.

Rams Tennis Girls: The Shepherd Hill Rams girls tennis team continued to play inspired tennis, defeating Tantasqua 3-2 last Wednesday in Fiskdale.  Abbie Packard won a key singles match and the doubles teams of Sandy Tarasiak and Bri Borus and Chrissy Chevalier and Steph Gallant both emerged victorious. 

The Rams continued their winning ways on Friday with a 4-1 victory over Auburn.  Callie Mulcahy and Packard each won their singles matches while the double teams of Tarasiak/Borus and Chevalier/Gallant also won.  The teams’ number one singles player Maddie Billis lost a hard fought battle against the Rockets ace Jeanelle Wheeler.

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