9-3 Wildcats Clawing Their Way to the Top

Rene Williams has coached basketball at Wolcott Tech since 1978.  A Torrington High graduate, he has been varsity coach for the past seven years.  This year has been a very different experience for him than the past few decades.  Williams’s team is winning consistently and headed, at least, for the state tournament.  “I’m the same coach I was last year and the years before,” he said recently.  “All the hard work is starting to pay off.  There’s no new offense or defense, just a different team concept, attitude, and effort from the players.”

 The 2009-10 Wildcats are lead by a group of 8 seniors.  “This has been a special group for four years,” said Willliams.  “We took our lumps last year, but managed to win 6 games.  That gave these guys the spark to come back and do better this year.  Shoot, we lost 4 of our last 6 by a total of 7 points.”  

So far, the boys have lost two to Nonnewaug which remains undefeated at the top of the Berkshire League.  After a 3-1 start, they followed up a loss to Litchfield with wins over Gilbert, Housatonic, Lewis Mills, Thomaston, and Terryville.  A split of their last two games leaves their record at a sparkling 9-3. 

Coach Williams indicated that the best varsity record he remembers is when his brother Murray, who starred at the University of Connecticut, was the head coach in 1994 and the team was 10-10.  

Senior Tri-Captain Torian Ralph said the difference this year is their desire and belief that they can win.  “We knew that if we stayed together we’d eventually be successful,” he said.  “For me, it’s just the excitement of playing.  There’s an adrenalin rush when you’re focused on just one thing- trying to get the win.”  Another Tri-Captain, Tom Notchick, agreed.  “We’ve worked hard for four years and now it’s all coming together.”  Mark Ellis added, “We’re different this year.  All of us just seem like we have more confidence in each other.  We don’t make the same mistakes that we did before.  It’s a lot more fun when you’re winning.” 

Coach Williams indicated that he’s had lots of help.  “Mike Petroro (JV) and Ray Tanguay (Fr) are assistant coaches who bring a strong presence and have really helped keep the players together.  It also helps that the guys played in summer leagues and that they play other sports together.”  Coach Petroro said that the boys are “really motivated as a team” and have bought into the concept of working together.  “Torian has become a mature point guard and is distributing the ball much better which has filtered down to the rest of the team.“

Speaking to a group of players in the school library, it was clear that expectations are high. “We’ve been playing these Berkshire League teams for years,” said Lance Pepper.  Robby Albreda said, “We stuck it out here for four years, but we’ve been playing them since Middle School, and also on the travel team in the Route 44 league.” Aaron Johnson added that he thought the team could also do well in the state tournament. 

“It’s easy with guys like Tom, Lance, and Robby who are always highly ranked in their class,” said Coach Williams.  Last year we’d have 6 or 7 guys at a Sunday practice.  This year we have 19 guys every Sunday.  These guys want to play ball.” 

The Wildcats are tied with Litchfield for second place in the league and have a showdown with them, at home, on Tuesday night. 

Williams summed it up with the following: “You know, a reporter, referring to all the down years, asked me why I still do it.  I told him ‘Well, I can’t sing or dance so I figured I’d stick to coaching.’ ”  

Like the players said, the hard work is paying off.