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THS SPORTS WINTER 2007-08 The Green & White Club April 2008 Girls’ Basketball by Jeff Flanders With four starters returning from the Hillers 2006-07 squad, this year’s girls’ basketball season held a lot of promise for another fabulous season. The team got off to great start by winning the A.I. duPont Tip Off Tournament and ultimately finished with a record of 18-6, earning a number 11 seed in the state tournament and beating a solid Milford team in the first round at home, 44-23. The season featured a 3rd place finish at the Diamond State Classic Christmas tournament and exciting wins over William Penn and tournament teams Red Lion Christian, St. Thomas More and Archmere. Other highlights include a 29-point 1st quarter (with only 1 missed shot!) against Wilmington Christian, a 25-point quarter against Red Lion and a frenzied 24-point 4th quarter run at state semi-finalist Sanford in our last game of the year. In all, THS played 14 of its 24 games against state tournament teams, including a tremendous game against state tournament quarterfinalist St. Mark’s and three exciting games against Sanford.

The team was blessed with outstanding senior leadership from our two co-captains, Caitlin Van Sickle and Hayley Schreppler. Caitlin was voted 2nd team All-State and 1st team All-Conference. During the Diamond State Classic tournament, Caitlin became a member of the prestigious “1,000 point club”, joining alum Kristen Phillips. Caitlin finished the season with over 1,200 points! Hayley provided us with a solid post presence this season, especially defensively, and teamed with freshman forward Brooke Kelly in our state tournament game against Sanford to hold their All-State center to 12 points, about half her season average.

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Swimming and Diving by Sharon Reynolds The swimming and diving team gained a lot of new fresh faces this year with lots of freshmen joining the team. Assistant coach James Erhardt and I were delighted to discover that all our new swimmers were strong and they only grew stronger through the season.

On paper it did not look like we had a strong season, but looking closer at the individual event results showed the real strength of the girls’ team. The girls were delighted with their 2nd place finish at the DISC meet. The addition of divers to our team this year added to our strength. Under the mentorship of Merritt Cooch, Christina Freibott and Betsy Grubbs added valuable points to our scores. The boys fought hard, but our small number of swimmers made it difficult for them to make a significant impact in a meet. They did however take meets as an opportunity to compete against each other. Michael and Mark Aboff each wanted the number one spot in breaststroke while Andrew Seabrook and Wil McKenna each looked to dominate the 50 and 100 freestyle. It kept things interesting for all of us and made the boys stronger. The boys competed in the preliminary rounds of the state meet. Andrew Seabrook competed in the freestyle and butterfly and Wil McKenna in the freestyle. These boys, along with Chris Kane, Michael Aboff, and John Schreppler, swam in the relays. The girls finished the swim season with a 6th place finish at the state meet. The little team that could!

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Swimming and Diving continued from page 1

The results were:

• 200 Medley Relay - Kristen Dornstauder, Meghan Lam, Erica Bickhart, Paige Bennett – 3rd place and new THS record

• 200 Freestyle- Kristen Dornstauder – 5th place • 200 Individual Medley - Meghan Lam - 8th place • Diving - Christina Freibott – 2nd place and new

THS record • 100 Butterfly - Kristen Dornstauder – 3rd place and

new THS record; and Cecily Gordon – 13th place • 100 Freestyle - Paige Bennett – 15th place • 100 Backstroke - Meghan Lam – 3rd place; and

Erica Bickhart – 8th place • 400 Freestyle Relay - Kristen Dornstauder,

Meghan Lam, Callye Phillips, Paige Bennett – 6th place

The leadership provided by senior co-captains Kristen Dornstauder, Erica Bickhart, Alexa Girard, Wil McKenna and Richard Amos will be missed next year.

Kristen holds five school swim records and achieved first team All-Conference and first team All-State for the four years she swam. Erica graduates with her name on the record board twice. All-Conference 1st Team: Kristen Dornstauder

Meghan Lam Christina Freibott 2nd Team: Andrew Seabrook

Erica Bickhart Cecily Gordon All-State 1st Team: Kristen Dornstauder 2nd Team: Meghan Lam Christina Freibott Honorable Mention: Erica Bickhart

Boys’ Basketball by Thom Shumosic While this season was a tough one from the perspective of winning and losing, it was a season of great personal growth and great life lessons. Those lessons included sticking with a team, stepping up when others go down and striving for personal improvement on a daily basis. Despite losing Trip Ashley and Nate McDonald for the entire season as well as Andrue Smith and Tyler Hobbs for a significant number of games, this edition of Hiller Hoop players continued a path of improvement throughout the season. The leading scorer was Justin Hicks, who'll have a shot at reaching the 1000 point plateau next season. Andrue Smith, Evan DeDominicis, Tyler Hobbs, Jon Gabriel and Kyle Anderson were all major contributors from the junior class. Sophomore Max Friedman took full advantage of his increased playing time and a highlight of the late-season was the emergence of freshman post player George Searle. As the lone senior, Chris Wilson may not have had much playing time, but his presence was certainly felt in practices with a great degree of enthusiasm and hustle. Given the number of returning players that received significant playing time this year, the 2008-09 edition of Tower Hill boys’ basketball promises to be an exciting season. Wrestling by Jack Holloway The young grapplers of Tower Hill, comprised of one senior, five juniors, three sophomores, seven freshmen and one eighth grader, exceeded all expectations with an outstanding twelve win and two loss season. Losses to DISC champion Westtown and Sanford were all that marred the Hillers season. The team pulled off several upset wins against favored opponents like Archmere, Charter, Concord and Perryville. Of course, the season highlight was a great come from behind 34 – 29 victory over Friends. The team was trailing 29 – 22 but finished out with pins by A.J. Carter and John Ierardi who was wrestling his first varsity match .

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The team was led by co-captains Sean Snyder and Karim Shafi. Sean’s leadership was influential throughout the season and he wrestled various weight classes, always looking for ways to help the team. Sean finished his career with a second place at the DISC championships. John Edinger led off the team at 103 lbs and posted an

outstanding 18 – 8 record in his second season. John Ierardi was our 112 lbs’er and wrestled very well for an eighth grader on varsity and freshman Mike McCloskey had a solid first season at 119 lbs. Tim Saunders (130 lbs), Ben Keller (135 lbs), Nick DiSabatino (140 lbs), David Melnick (145 lbs) and Demi Murray (152 lbs) gave the Hillers a solid middle of the line-up that never allowed an opponent to go off on a run. Each of these wrestlers pulled off upsets throughout the season that made the 12 – 2 season possible. Junior Andy Esposito along with Sean Snyder and freshmen Wills Morton and Ryan Chenault handled the upper weight classes for the team, often spotting their opponents weight to insure the team didn’t have to forfeit a weight class. Freshmen Critter Stott, Harry Greenberg and Brett Isken rounded out the line-up and gave the Hillers the flexibility they needed to move our line-up around in the dual meets. Karim Shafi (125 lbs) and A.J. Carter (215 lbs) both had tremendous seasons and led the team in most statistical categories. Both wrestlers had 42 takedowns on the year but Karim was taken down only 17 times while A.J. gave up a team low of 8 takedowns. Shafi recorded a team high 14 pins while giving up 2 and Carter was an amazing 13 and 0 in the pin department. Both Karim and A.J. finished 3rd at the Independent Conference Tournament which was hosted by St.Mark’s. Both wrestlers qualified for the state tournament where they each won once. Both A.J. and Karim have a great opportunity to place next year at the state tournament and, with sixteen of seventeen wrestlers returning for the Green and White next year, things are looking very positive for the wrestling team.

Girls’ Basketball continued from page 1 At first glance, our offense appeared to be the key to this season’s success. The team averaged 46 points a game in 2007-08, up from 38 points per game last year, and featured three players averaging in double figures: senior Caitlin Van Sickle (15 points per game), junior Mary Hobbs (12) and freshman Grace Firestone (10). The real driver to our season, though, was our outstanding team defense. The Hillers surrendered a stingy 34 points per game versus 40 points per game in 2006-07, a remarkable turnaround by any standard, but truly incredible for a team with our difficult schedule that consistently matched up against much bigger teams. This production, passion and leadership will be tough to replace next season despite the return of six letter winners, including Mary Hobbs, our 1st team All Conference junior, and Grace Firestone, our 2nd team All Conference freshman. In addition to these two guards, the coaches are particularly excited by the consistent improvement of our underclass post tandem of sophomore Joanna Kelly and freshman Brooke Kelly. Adding injured reserve junior Colleen Egan, freshman point guard Taylor Van Sickle and a very fine cast of JV players to this mix gives us the foundation for another exciting season.

Save The Date: The Tower Hill School Athletics Banquet will be held on Sunday, May 18th from 4 – 6 pm. Details to follow. The Green and White Club is on Tower Hill’s website! Starting at the home page, click on “Parents and Friends” and look for our link on the left. You’ll see photos of our teams in action and learn more about our organization and how you can support our student athletes by becoming a member. Reach us at greenwhite@towerhill.org.

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Track and Field by Tracey Griffith

Senior captains Chris Kalamchi, Lauren Ianni, Lindsay Griffith and Dan Petrillo decided that this year, their last year, was going to be memorable. Their enthusiasm was infectious. In fact, so infectious, I was shocked to see forty athletes crowding the entrance to the field house on the first day of practice. Most of them had been encouraged and cajoled by the “fab four” to join the program. It was the largest turnout in years. I was excited and skeptical. I had watched more gifted teams start strong and fade. After a few demanding practices, excitement would wane, bodies would ache and enthusiasm would turn into complaining about workouts. Individual goals would begin to overshadow team unity. Could Lauren, Dan, Lindsay and Chris sustain their enthusiasm, motivate and inspire their teammates, and keep this large and diverse group bonded through a long winter season? I sat down and talked with them about their goals. After all, this was their SENIOR year, their last hurrah! Together they had earned fifteen varsity letters and many honors. They had won races and titles at state tournaments, earned All- Conference and All-State recognition and competed at the Penn Relays and Nike Indoor Nationals. I assumed that their primary focus would be personal achievement since this was their last opportunity to improve the record books. I was wrong. Above and beyond all else, they wanted to HAVE FUN. More important, they wanted the WHOLE TEAM to have fun. They set out to prove that working hard and having fun is possible, even at the track. It sounded simple enough, but I knew better. Most athletes and coaches associate fun with winning. Coach du Pont once said that “winning is like eating a whole bag of cookies…it tastes good!” He just happened to have a state championship trophy in his hand. I knew, and the kids knew, we didn’t have the talent or experience to win a state championship. Most of the team had never run track before.

Training is rarely fun. Many days it simply hurts. The field house is brutal on the legs and it’s COLD outside. I asked myself: “What could I possibly come up with to make practice fun AND worthwhile?” As I poured through track and field books and searched the internet for “training games”, Chris, Lindsay, Dan and Lauren took the lead and quietly worked their magic. They put together a new attendance system that made even the “quiet people” laugh. Competitive games of capture the flag, metallic running tights, The Great Race, get out of practice passes, The Yankee Swap, Gallucio’s, Tatnall sweats, CHEERS, candy treats, The Red Rockets, Drew’s I-pod, scavenger hunts, hugs and a promise of millions……I could go on but I think you get the picture. Over the years I have had the privilege of working with some very gifted athletes. There have been state championship teams, All-State athletes, school records and state records. But this team and this year was very special and very FUN. The language of track and field is numbers and numbers are important. Please, make no mistake; this team produced some very impressive results. But can numbers really tell the whole story? Is success defined only by numbers on a stop watch or a win/loss record? This team made me believe that there IS success and achievement that trophies simply cannot measure. Individual times, places, and results have been left out of this article for a reason. For this group the TEAM was more important. These young athletes reminded me that you cannot assign numbers to what is most valuable in an athletic experience. Their sportsmanship was outstanding, their camaraderie unwavering. They were funny and generous, supportive and kind .They worked hard, very hard, and rarely complained. They won, they lost, and…… they HAD FUN!! Congratulations to our varsity letter winners and thank you to our captains Lauren, Lindsay, Dan and Chris. You made this year incredibly memorable for me!