UPdate

Last week we talked about the pillar of community service as it relates to educational athletics (by the way Whitman-Hanson won't the great sneaker challenge with Hingham 1832 pair to 1350 pair); this week I would like to touch on the wellness pillar.  On Friday, 14 members of the captains council joined me at a terrific conference sponsored by the MIAA.  The captains attended seminars on various topics from substance abuse prevention, to hazing to social media safety.  In all, there were 16 different presentations we took in by breaking up into smaller groups.  Our plan is for these students leaders to present what they learned to the entire captains council and from there develop some action points for our captains to take back to their teams and to our school as a whole.

And now to our weekly update:
1) There have been more talented football teams in Whitman Hanson history, but it's been a long time since we have seen such a group who refused to give in to adversity.  Despite a series of injuries to key players, the coaches and players have continued to fight and it paid of Friday night when they qualified for the playoffs by beating Hingham on the road, 13-7.  The defense and special teams played a huge role in the win led by Lucas Reale and Captain Nick Villanueva.  Nick Smith ran for a touchdown and threw for another (to Dylan Thomas) but it was his punting that was critical to the win.  He launched 3 50 yard punts including one that was downed at the 2 which set up the winning score and another with 40 seconds left in the game despite a bad snapped which sailed over his head.  The Panthers are the 8th seed in the division 3 southeast bracket and will travel to Somerset Halloween night at 7pm.

2) The Whitman Hanson girls soccer team defeated Pembroke 4-2 in a Patriot League matchup on Saturday and shutout Quincy 5-0 Thursday. In the Pembroke win,  Alexis Fruzzetti paced the Panthers offensively with two second half goals while Lauren Bonavita got WH on the board in the first half. Rachel Kelly took a Kelsey Gilbert cross ( 2 assists) and finished a header to account for all the Whitman Hanson goals. The Panthers wrap up the regular season Tuesday in Duxbury.

3) The boys soccer team didn't fare as well this week as they still chase their post season ticket.  Their game on Thursday with Quincy was rained out while Saturday they dropped a 3-1 decision at Pembroke.  Pembroke got on the board at the 28th minute of the 1st half on a goal by Jacob Higgins but the Panthers tied the game at the 39th minute on a goal by Brian McGahan assisted by Ryan Kelly.  Unfortunately, the Titans scored the next two to is in the game. The Panthers are now 5 – 6 – 4 overall and need 2 more wins out of 3 remaining games to make the tournament.  They play Monday (Quincy) and Wednesday (Duxbury) at home and Tuesday at Rockland.

4) The Patriot League Meet was held Saturday at Silver Lake Regional High School. The Boys Varsity race was won by Pembroke High School. Plymouth North took the Girls Division.

The Whitman-Hanson Girls placed 2nd with the Boys taking 3rd place. Scoring for Whitman-Hanson in the Girls race were Samantha Coletti, who finished 2nd overall in a time of 18:42, Followed by Kelsey Tierney (5th, 19:48), Abbie Newman (10th, 20:06), Nicole Norve (16th, 20:44) and Julia Cosgrave (54th, 23:30.)

For the Boys it was Sam Evans leading the Panthers finishing 5th overall in a time of 16:53. Also scoring for W-H were Patrick Brett (11th, 17:19), Lukas Moscoso (14th, 17:23), Jack Ryan (16th, 17:34) and Alex Uva (45th, 19:00.)

5) The volleyball season came to an end on Friday at Rockland High School with a 3-2 loss.  The girls improved from a year ago and are looking forward to continuing the building process.

6) What is believed to be the best golf season in school history came to an end at the south regionals on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, no one from the team qualified for the next round.

Two other quick notes....the field hockey season comes to an end tomorrow in Cohasset at 3:30pm at Deer Hill Elementary school.  Also, our cheerleaders will be hosting the Patriot League championship here at WH on Saturday 11/8 at 3pm.