The Greenwich High School girls’ basketball team would like another crack at Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship.
While it certainly won’t be easy, as Big Red lost five seniors to graduation and have some big shoes to fill, head coach Chrys Hernandez and the rest of the Lady Cardinals are up for the challenge.
“I am expecting that the returners come out and pick up, hopefully, where my five seniors who graduated left off,” Hernandez said. “Although we graduated a lot of key players, the people who were on the bench were around for a lot of the building, so I am expecting good things this year.”
Big Red’s last season was one to remember, advancing to the FCIAC title game for the first time since 1992 and coming up one point short in its quest for the crown, falling to Ridgefield High School, 48-47.
“I see a lot of potential,” GHS senior tri-captain Abbie Wolf said. “We have two returning starters, but we have a lot of girls with talent. Goals are FCIAC and States. We lost by one point last year in the championship, and we are going to keep that in our minds when we play every game.”
In their state tournament run last season, the Lady Cardinals exacted revenge on Ridgefield in the second round, 60-55, before falling to top-seeded South Windsor in the CIAC class LL quarterfinals, 69-66.
“I would love to repeat last year,” Hernandez said. “I still think that, regardless of numbers, that we still are a contender in the FCIAC. Any given day. They lace their sneakers the same as us.”
Despite losing talented seniors Emily Hunt, Leigh Galletta, Colleen Bennett, Alexa Moses and Jamie Kockenmeister to graduation, a lot of the starters on this year’s squad are no strangers to style of play at the varsity level.
“I tried to get as many players in as possible, so that they are not coming off cold,” Hernandez said. “We knew we were going to graduate a large class last year and the players that we have returning got some good minutes last season. It’s not like they are going to have inexperience, which is a good thing.”
Leading this year’s team will be captains Wolf, Caroline Beneville and Emily Anderson.
“This feels really good, and I’m excited to help everybody and be a part of a winning team this year,” Beneville said. “We definitely want to win FCIACs and States. We came so close last year, so we want to finish the job this year and get it done. We did a lot of work in the offseason, a lot of offseason workouts and games. That is translating into the practice now.”
For the team to be successful this season, Hernandez needs all three captains to be vocal leaders, both on and off the court.
“They need to lead by example,” Hernandez said. “Because we are so small, and although varsity doesn’t have a lot of numbers, we have a lot of younger players on JV. This year we brought up six or seven freshmen, so we definitely have to lead by example, not just by our play.”
While Greenwich has some holes to fill, it’s comforting to know that Wolf will be returning for her senior season.
“It’s my fourth year here, and finally I’m going to have a different perspective on things,” Wolf said. “I’m not going to be so nervous. It’s really exciting this season and what this team can accomplish. I have done a lot of weight lifting and played fall ball. We played some games already and got familiar with the team.”
Wolf, who will be playing college basketball at Northwestern University, had a breakout season last year and her dominating presence, both offensively and defensively, made her an ESPN Top 100 high school players in the country.
“Abbie is a special kid and we knew that right from the beginning,” Hernandez said. “She’s definitely grown and blossomed into the player that we always knew she could be. We are really proud of how she developed and the fact that she’s obtained all these goals that she set for herself definitely is a key factor in everything that we do.”
While Wolf will gain the majority of attention on the court from the opposition, Hernandez said that the team won’t be relying on just her ability.
“One of our strengths has always been our well-rounded game,” Hernandez said. “Abbie is great, but we need everybody to get the job done. Although she’s a big center, she has help around her.”
Helping Wolf with the inside game will be fellow captain Anderson, who is another strong athlete that will make her presence felt under the basket.
“I am really excited to have a great season,” Anderson said. “I think we are going to do pretty well. We are a pretty young team, but I still believe in everybody on this team. We have pretty high expectations coming off a great season last season. We lost five seniors, but we still think we could have the same outcome as last season.”
Along the perimeter will be Beneville, who Hernandez said has consistently given Big Red some big points from the outside during her career with the team.
Junior Jayla Faison has been on the varsity team since her freshman season and will be an outside threat for Big Red this season as the team’s starting point guard.
Kim Kockenmeister and Shaye Galletta will be back this year and they know what it takes to be successful, as both are younger sisters to recent graduates.
One change from Greenwich teams in the past will be easy to see: this year’s squad will be the smallest in Hernandez’s tenure with the program. GHS will only carry eight athletes on the varsity team.
“Five of them are returners and three people have been on the bench,” Hernandez said. “We are definitely going to have game skills into our conditioning, and conditioning is going to be a huge factor. We like to say that we are going to be four quarters plus ready. When everybody else is reaching their peak, we are ready to go beyond that.”
This year, Hernandez believes that the team’s strength is the balanced attack, however she knows there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“I would love to see us reach our full potential and really believe that that is what we have the capability of doing,” the head coach said. “We’ve seen it in spurts, and when it’s all put together, it’s a beautiful thing.”
The quest for another deep postseason run for Big Red starts Monday at 7, when the Cardinals tip off the season against Darien High School.
