Coming off a tough two-point road loss at St. Joseph on Tuesday night, the Westhill boys basketball team’s schedule gets no easier.
The Vikings make the trip over Long Ridge and High Ridge Roads Friday night to face Trinity Catholic for the Stamford city title.
Westhill will again be led by its dynamic duo: small forward Chris Walters (22.5 points, 8 rebunds, 4 steals) and point guard Tony Dobbinson (15.7 points, 7 assists, 4 steals).
Walters and Dobbinson are at the top of every opposing coach’s gameplan. But are the two Viking players the best 1-2 punch in the league. Would you take them over St. Joseph’s James Jennings and Timajh Parker? How about Demetrius Thomas and any other Bassick player? Trinity’s Schadrac Casimir and Kevin Leumene? Or Ridgefield’s Kurt Steidl and Seth von Kuhn?
It is an interesting question, one we are going to let you readers weigh in on. If you were a coach, which two players would you most want to build your team around? We will give you until noon on Sunday to cast your vote.
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Put Wilton’s Marko and Payton Piedmont in a lineup and it is doubtful they would be picked out as brother and sister.
Marko is 6-foot-1 and 240 pounds. Payton is 5-1 and 105 pounds
“My mom always jokes that we are a year and a half apart but it is hard to compare,” Payton said. “We are close and spend a lot of time together.”
The siblings also share an excellence in their sports, and overcoming ankle injuries to help reach their goals.
Marko, a defensive lineman, signed up for a number of college camps last summer. The first one he attended was at Bryant College, where he tore the tendons in his right ankle during the last five minutes of the camp, requiring surgery.
“It was kind of weird, but I ended up on crutches all summer,” Marko said.
Marko, a senior, missed his first game for the Warriors, but things worked out well for him. He made enough of an impression at his one camp that he will be playing at Bryant next season.
“I’m excited for the opportunity, Marko said.
Payton, a sophomore, is a member of the Wilton gymnastics team, which is the heavy favorite to win the FCIAC title on Saturday.
“I started out doing cheerleading, but I couldn’t remember the cheers,” she said with a laugh. “Then I tried softball, but that didn’t work. My older sister did gymnastics so I followed what she did.”
Between competing for the Warriors and the Wilton YMCA team, Payton often has two practices a day that can last nearly five hours.
She suffered a high ankle sprain at a Y practice last year and missed most of the season. She has come back strong this year, competing in all four events and the all-around.
“Last year was awful not being able to compete,” she said. “I wanted to be out there. It’s nice being back.”
Marko is a member of the Wilton track team, competing in the field events, but said he makes as many of his sister’s meets as possible.
“Gymnastics is harder than football,” he said. “I know I couldn’t do anything.”
And would Payton, with a little more size, make a good football player?
“I don’t have good hand-eye coordination, I’m more dance,” she said. “It’s cool being a gymnast.”
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Trinity Catholic's Schadrac Casimir drives against Bassick Tuesday night.
The technical term is Dissociative Identity Disorder, better known as multiple personality disorder.
For an example, we offer the Trinity Catholic boys basketball team, easily the most difficult to get a clear gauge on in the FCIAC.
Case in point: On Tuesday afternoon, about six hours before the tipoff of the Crusaders’ game with Bassick, I spoke to someone close with the Trinity program. The team was coming off a lethargic upset loss to Fairfield Warde on Friday night.
What was Trinity’s problem? We decided it could be broken down to one word that was probably uttered by the Mustangs’ fans.
The Crusaders were overrated.
Think about it. This was pretty much the same cast that finished as the No. 8 seed for the FCIAC Tournament a year ago, had a stunning first-round upset of St. Joseph before losing in the semifinals, then had an easy road to the state semifinals, which led to two more very impressive wins.
Trinity has been on a roller-coaster ride this season, losing to Greenwich, then beating Ridgefield, playing St. Joseph close and winning at Danbury, then losing to Warde.
And then, Tuesday night, coming back to play its best game of the year, toppling a good Bassick team, 91-56. The Crusaders scored the first nine points and the game was essentially over.
Demetrius Thomas, the Lions’ outstanding center, showed he can score inside and out, but given the decisiveness of the outcome his 18 points were about as quiet as they come.
So, what to make of the Crusaders? They obviously have the talent to win a championship, but they also have the maddening tendency to play to the level of the opposition, something championship teams rarely do.
It is a team right now with a multiple personality disorder. Coach Mike Walsh is going to have to hope the team with the right personality shows up for the postseason.
The Starting 5
1. ST. JOSEPH (15-0): Another impressive win for the Cadets against a very good Westhill team.
2. RIDGEFIELD (13-2): The Tigers are hoping to be in a position to need just a split in their final two games, against St. Joseph and Westhill, to stay in the No. 2 position.
3. TRINITY CATHOLIC (12-4): Given their up again, down again nature, it probably makes sense to stick the Crusaders right in the middle of the Starting 5.
4. BASSICK (12-4): One really bad loss does not a drop out of the 5 make.
5. WESTHILL (10-5): If there were still any doubters, a last-second loss on the road at St. Joseph proved the Vikings are legitimate contenders.
Around the league
How much parity is there this season? Just three games in the loss department separate the teams that currently occupy the fourth- and 10th-best records in the league standings. There are five teams with six losses. Many of the schools battling for one of the lower seeds have difficult remaining schedules. … Friday night’s game for the Stamford city title between Trinity Catholic and Westhill figures to live up to the hype. The Vikings have the better 1-2 punch in Tony Dobbinson and Chris Walters, the Crusaders have the better overall starting lineup.
The Staples boys indoor track team held off a spirited charge from the Fairfield cheerleading team and is the Overtime FCIAC Team of the Week.
The Wreckers will receive T-shirts courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering, Karl Chevrolet, Innovative Health & Rehabilitation, Chelsea Piers, New Balance of New Canaan and the Stamford Advocate.
Staples finished with 3,391 votes to hold off Ludlowe (3,188 votes) and defeat the Greenwich girls track, Ridgefield boys hockey, Fairfield Warde boys basketball and Norwalk girls basketball teams.
We will pick a new set of finalists for this week’s award, with the vote starting Sunday.
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After all the back and forth talk between different school fan bases on Twitter, a vote on this blog and two failed attempts, we finally have all the parts in place to announce the first (and hopefully not last) Overtime Fan Showdown. We will have four schools involved in the team competition as well as a contest for the best fan.
The four finalists — fans had to get permission from their schools to participate; New Canaan was given late approval but had to pull out because of school vacation next week — are the Westhill Purple Pack, Ridgefield Tigers Lair, Norwalk Bear Pack and St. Joseph Howell’s Hood Bomb Squad.
Each fan base will have until a week from Monday to shoot a video of their fans at a basketball game (St. Joseph has chosen its game with Ridgefield a week from Monday, Westhill is using its girls Senior Night with Norwalk next Wednesday, we are awaiting confirmation from the other two.) Each video should be no longer than 90 seconds, and should provide a good reflection of the size of the crowd and the cleverness of cheers. We will run each video on the blog. We will have a fan vote for the fun of it, and then three of our sponsors — Matt Cole from BlueStreak Sports Training, Leo Karl from Karl Chevrolet and Ron Rosenfeld from New Balance in New Canaan — will select the winner.
The winning fans will get $500 for their athletic department from our sponsors: Garden Catering, BlueStreak Sports Training, Karl Chevrolet, Innovative Health & Rehabilitation, Varsityletterframes.com and New Balance of New Canaan. The second place team will get $200.
In addition, each school can submit a photo of its best fan. The winner will get a framed school varsity letter, like the one on the right, from Varsityletterframes.com.
We will start working with each of the schools to arrange the process for shooting and delivering the videos.
And next week we will begin previewing them for you as we decide the winner of the Overtime Fan Showdown.
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Your team has advanced to the FCIAC championship game. You are allowed to choose any coach in the league to try and lead the team to the title.
Who would you select?
It is an interesting question given the dynamic of the coaching network this season. With the retirements last season of Jeff Bussey and Charlie Bentley, there is a good mix of veterans and young coaches.
Relative newcomers like Staples’ Colin Devine, Warde’s Ryan Swaller and Norwalk’s Thomas Keyes have made strong impressions.
And then there are the long-time veterans, like St. Joseph’s Vito Montelli, Stamford’s Jim Moriarty and Trinity Catholic’s Mike Walsh.
To find a line of demarcation, we are going to single out the five coaches who have won FCIAC titles: Montelli, Moriarty, Walsh, Bassick’s Harrison Taylor and Bridgeport Central’s Barry McLeod. We will also leave an option to pick an “Other” and send in a comment on which other coach you would go with and why.
We will keep the vote open until noon on Friday.
So, which boys basketball coach would you choose? Cast your vote.
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Mauricio Xocoy of the Fairfield Ludlowe wrestling team, Abby Markowitz of the Greenwich girls track team and Audra Whitmore of the Fairfield Ludlowe cheerleading team are this week’s BlueStreak-Overtime FCIAC Players of the Week.
Xocoy, Markowitz and Whitmore will each receive T-shirts and plaques from BlueStreak Sports Training.
Xocoy, a 145-pound captain, went 4-0 with three pins last week, including a 16-6 win over town rival Casey Stopa of Warde, who had defeated him earlier this year.
Markowitz, in a dominant performance, won the 1,000-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs at the FCIAC Indoor Track Championships.
Whitmore was part of first place teams in the Partner Stunt and Grand Champion competitions at the FCIAC championships and was voted to the All-FCIAC and All-State teams.
Nominations are open now until Tuesday at 10 a.m. for this week’s winners.
To nominate an athlete, click on this linkand email in the name of the person you are nominating.
Please include all of the player’s statistics for the week as well as the team results.
The award will be judged on games/matches/meets played Monday through Saturday of each week. Please wait until an athlete is done competing for the week to submit your nomination.
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(Eye On is a new series profiling a cross section of FCIAC athletes, both in story and video interview form.)
If it seems like Casey Smith is in her sixth season playing for the Danbury High School girls basketball team, well, you are not the only one.
“I was the sixth man as a freshman, so even for me I feel like I have been playing longer than four years,” the easygoing 6-foot-2 center said.
There is not much that Smith has not accomplished during her career. Right now she is averaging 18.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.2 steals for the FCIAC’s lone unbeaten team. She will be playing next year at St. Joseph’s.
About the only void for Smith is the same one for her school: the Hatters have never won a league championship. Though they will enter the postseason as the favorites, there are a number of talented teams capable of derailing them.
“Obviously there’s a little pressure (being seeded) No. 1, so we just have to keep getting better and not let a little pressure beat us,” Smith said.
Smith seemingly has been an early bloomer in all areas of her life. “In 2nd and 3rd grade I was the same height as everybody else,” she said. “Then they stopped growing and I kept growing.”
Smith made the same kind of early progress on the basketball court.
“Freshman year I wasn’t very polished; I was a little out of control,” she said. “Sophomore year I started learning how to play.”
Smith’s numbers this season are even more impressive because there are more talented post players in the conference than at any time in recent memory.
“In past years there wasn’t as much of a post presence in the league,” Smith said. “This year there’s a lot. There are so many of them.”
One is Trinity Catholic’s 6-foot center, Mackenzie Griffin, who was Smith’s teammate on the Exodus AAU team.
“I always knew she was a great player and I wanted to play with her,” Griffin said. “Once we met each other we became good friends right away. She helped me get better with my game too.”
Smith said her game against the Crusaders and Griffin earlier this season was one of the toughest.
“I have a lot of respect for her,” Smith said. “A lot of teams play different defenses, but Mackenzie plays straight up and she’s really good too.”
Smith was heavily recruited, but picked St. Joseph’s over Drexel, Rhode Island, James Madison and Fairfield.
“It just felt like home the first time I was there,” Smith said. “It felt right.”
Smith said right now she is most focused on the present and doing a little remodeling to the Danbury gymnasium.
“As a freshman we really wanted to win the FCIAC title,” she said. “Now as seniors, we really want to put the banner on the wall. To say that we are No. 1. We’ve really worked hard for it.”
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#ctbb Based on early reports out of Ridgefield tonight, the other 3 schools in Showdown are going to have to bring their A games next week. #10 hours ago
#ctbb Chris Walters tonight on the @PurplePack2012 : "They are something else. They were great. We can't thank them enough." #10 hours ago
@PurplePack2012 Just based on seeing @RHSTigersLair once—you couldn't get everyone in tonight—U will have to step it up big for Showdown. #10 hours ago
