Alexander “The Paper Raptor” Ganias ‘20

February 2020

This is it. The final season of BHSEC Athletics for 2019-20. Before we get our hands dirty, I’d like to take a moment to congratulate the student-athletes for putting in the work that they do. It is never an easy thing to commit to a sport— adding on to the rigours of the Bard curriculum—but you have done it all in stride. To that, I tip my hat. But enough sentimentality, the winter seasons were the typical brand of Bard Basketball. Here  are their wrap-ups:

Boys Basketball:

This was the best season by far under the Sewell/Schneider regime; at 6-8 (a .429 win percentage) they had just missed qualification for the playoffs by a single game. So there must’ve been one moment that was the tipping point in the season; the difference between the offseason, and extra basketball. Was it the game against I.C.E., where the boys’ comeback was nullified by five turnovers in OT? Was it the game against Chelsea Tech, where a 19-point swing turned a 50-40 lead into a 62-53 deficit? The truth was it wasn’t any one game— in actuality, it was the team. At 5-5 going into the second semester, the Raptors needed to win 2 games to achieve the .500 winning percentage required to qualify for the playoffs. A win against the mediocre University Neighborhood was to be expected, and they capitalized on that opportunity. However, the boys had two winnable games in that stretch. The first was against Lab Museum United, where the Raptors kept it close, but questionable coaching decisions and ineffective shooting never got them over the hump, and the Gators left with a victory. The second was the aforementioned Chelsea Tech game. At NEST+m, the boys scored 9 points in the first half; they were slaughtered 64-34, and just like that the BHSECM Boys Basketball team was eliminated from the playoffs.

What does this have to do with the team? There was a lot of friction between the coaching staff and the players this season, more than I’ve ever noticed before. This friction was primarily rooted in selfishness, with players mainly worrying about minutes or stats, and not how they could help the team succeed. Without going into too much detail, I can safely say that the blame for this season can be shared equally between the players and coaches. And yet, there is still hope for next season. Although there are 3 seniors graduating, the juniors will be seniors, and the team will be full of veterans to aid the up-and-coming underclassmen. The playoffs are in the boys’ sights, but it will have to wait for next year.

Girls Basketball:

It always seems to be the same every year; the girls qualify for the playoffs, leaving the boys to contemplate what went wrong. The girls went 10-2, which was good enough for the 23rd seed in the tournament. The team played their fair share of close games, winning some by as little as 2 points, but they also played a very defensive game. They held the Institute for Collaborative Education (I.C.E.) to 9 points in their lone matchup. It just seemed like the girls knew what they were doing on the floor and off. Their first round playoff game put them up against the 42nd-seeded Dr. Susan McKinney High School in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the girls met defeat at the hands of the school from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, losing by the score of 45-33. 

While the regular season was successful, this playoff loss left a lot more questions than answers, specifically on the 4 seniors that are graduating: “... the returning players are going to have to continue to practice hard.” said Alexis McCoy (Y1) when asked about how next year’s squad would have to perform. She also went on to mention that there are hopes for the team to grow in magnitude and experience. Unlike the boys however, the girls seem to consistently stay at a high level of success. McCoy states that “Practice… helps us get better, and we all learn from each other”. Even though there is hope for the future, it will have to be with a new coach, as Christopher Lanza (the former coach) is stepping down. Nevertheless, the future is bright.

The basketball teams have exciting futures ahead of them, but we’re not there yet. Currently, the spring teams are revving up their metaphorical engines to get ready for one hell of a ride. Here’s how they look as they approach the starting line:

Co-Ed Track:

Track and Field. The biggest conglomeration of individual competitions all under one roof. At BHSECM, the idea of a huge team to compensate for such a huge sport makes sense. As such, there were roughly 35 to 40 students packed in the gym for the interest meeting, quite the number considering all of the other sports at the school cap off at around 15. The interest meeting was informative and concise; the main takeaways were the expectations of the team. Seeing as this was only an interest meeting and the season hasn’t officially started yet, there isn’t a set schedule that I can base future success on. However, there is hope that the team will put out an impressive showing, like they did last year. Manuel Torres (10th) had this to say about the ceiling for the team: “Depending on the roster, the potential is very high”. Man of few words but they ring true, the team is bringing back a lot of returning Y1s and Y2s that can develop leadership roles, and a lot of fresh faces ready to learn under their tutelage. Torres again puts it quite simply, “The commitment is demanding, but it’s worth it”.

Boys Tennis:

The girls tennis team had made the last three semifinals and lost all of them. The Boys saw this, and one-upped them by making it to the B-Division final. At Lehman College, the boys met defeat at the hands of Truman High School, missing out on a chance to bring a championship home to BHSEC. This year, new head coach Trevor Romanzi is determined to get over that hump, and win the B division. Coach Romanzi takes over for former coach Kara Studwell, who stepped down for a prior commitment. 

Like track, there is no way to determine the potential of this team through anything more than the interest meeting; however, there were a lot of seniors at the meeting with a wide range of skills. Returning players, and new players, all eager to play together before the school year ends. The new face at head coach doesn’t seem daunted by the task of coaching a neighboring school (he works and formally coached basketball at Marta Valle on Stanton Street); when asked how the team could succeed this season, he referred to his Triple-C approach. “Communication, Collaboration, Community. If we’re committed to this formula, we can be successful, achieve our goals, and have fun doing it.”, he said. Hopefully he’s right, and the boys can improve on their previous season.

Baseball:

The Bard baseball club has ceased operations after three years of activity. Coaches Michael Scneider, and Charlie Sewell have accepted the positions as co-coaches of Stuyvesant’s JV baseball team. The PSAL was not satisfied with the attempts made by the club to become a full-fledged team, and there wasn’t enough interest in the school to justify keeping said team. This isn’t an obituary, this is the truth. There is no more baseball at this school.

And while this article ends on a rather somber note, the tennis and track teams are still here. They both have intriguing and exciting seasons ahead of them, so let us join hands in prayer: May the wins be plentiful, may the teamwork be exceptional, and may the ball never lie. Amen.