vp04.04.13

PRESSSports
Granby senior Dawson Tefft will be back on the mound for the Bears this spring after playing on the school’s basketball team that won
the Class S state championship last month.
Photo by David Heuschkel
Baseball previews: Bears hoping to hoop it up
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
As winter turned to
spring, new coach Todd Shufelt
had noticed a buzz surrounding
the athletic programs at
Granby Memorial High School.
Winning a state title can do
that.
Shufelt hopes the success
of the Class S champion basketball
team translates to the
diamond, where Granby’s only
state title was in 1982.
Senior pitchers Dawson
Tefft and Curt Field, two basketball
players, have swapped
their sneakers for spikes. When
not throwing fastballs or
breaking balls, they’ll be pursuing
fly balls in the outfield.
e Bears, who play in
Class M, will be strong up the
middle with catcher Steve
Blake, Jake Narvesen at short
and Tefft in center. Matt
Holmes, a junior infielder, is
also among the returning players
with varsity experience.
Shufelt, the former coach
at East Granby, said the roster
is deep with players who can
be used in multiple spots. e
biggest question is the pitching
staff.
“We have a number of
good arms, but none that have
Play ball!
had any real varsity experience,”
Shufelt said. “If the pitching
staff is able to step in and
be fairly successful, I feel that
we can have an excellent season.”
Granby went 9-9 last season
and lost to Wolcott, 8-0, in
the first round of the Class M
tournament. e Bears were
scheduled to open the season
April 4 at Avon and play their
home opener April 9 against
Ellington.
“ere seems to be a new
energy around here, which
hopefully becomes contagious,”
Shufelt said. “We all understand
how difficult the
[NCCC] schedule will be but at
the same time are all embracing
the challenge ahead of us.”
Marty ball
Marty deLivron wasn’t the
baseball coach at Avon when
the Falcons won their last state
title in 1968. He took over 10
years later and remains the
face of baseball in town.
Beginning his 35th year in
the dugout, deLivron, who has
446 coaching wins as the Falcons’
baseball coach to go
along with 330 in soccer, said
See BASEBALL on page 31
Softball preview: Granby poised for another title run
By David Heuschkel
Sports Editor
Brian McDermott, who replaces
Vicki Malone as coach at
Granby Memorial, takes over a
team that won the NCCC championship
last season and came
one win away from a state title.
With several returning
starters, including All-State
shortstop Ellie Bourque, Granby
appears to have the bats and
gloves to repeat as conference
champion and make another
deep run in the Class M tourna-
ment.
e question is, do the
Bears have the arms? All-State
pitcher Neve Stearns graduated,
leaving McDermott without any
pitchers who have varsity innings.
He has tabbed sophomore
Jennifer Szilagyi and junior
Courtney Ahrens. Erin Walsh,
the starting right fielder, could
also pitch.
“Right now we don’t have a
true No. 1, but we have plenty of
talent in the circle,” McDermott
said last week.
Granby will also have new
starters on the right side of the
infield. First baseman Haley
Makuch graduated and second
baseman Morgan Malone transferred
to a private school. e
left side is strong with Bourque
and senior third baseman
Megan Nilson. Amy Bilodeau
and Emily Martel join Walsh in
the outfield. Designated player
Leanna Bellmund and catcher
Samantha Groskritz are also
back.
“ese kids want to learn,”
McDermott said. “ey’re already
playing at an above-aver-
age level, but they want to learn.
Come June, the sky’s the limit.”
McDermott has spent the
past decade on softball fields as
a coach, starting in Little
League. He coached All-Star
teams to three straight district
titles (2006-08) and he’s currently
the director of the Northern
Connecticut Girls Softball
League (NCGSL) for Simsbury.
He’s gotten to know a lot of the
players on Granby by coaching
against them.
See SOFTBALL on page 29
Matters
By Scott Gray
e cycle of life begins
anew. Another baseball season is
upon us. As each baseball season
dawns, I am reminded of a team
that, more than any other, represents
my own cycle of life: the
1959 Columbia Rec Council Cardinals.
e Cardinals were one of four Little League
teams sponsored by the rec council in Columbia
(Ct.), then a tiny farm town with a grammar school
that had just eight classrooms for eight grades. e
Cardinals were coached by Jerry Dunnack, who
was best known as the man who built the
stonewall-lined hockey pond in his front yard that
was a winter weekend haven for nighttime skating
parties, complete with a warming fire, and weekend
afternoon hockey games that frequently featured
lineups from young teenagers to adults in
their mid-30s. Jerry, who became a legendary youth
hockey coach in eastern Connecticut, maintained
an inventory of castoff skates that he kept sharpened
and usable for his "skate exchange" program
to insure any kid who wanted to skate had the
chance.
It was with that same feeling that every kid
deserved a chance that Jerry drafted his Little
League players from the annual spring tryouts. e
kids who failed to make one of the Little League
teams would remain on the "farm team" for the
season. Playing Little League baseball was the
dream of every kid who tried out. Jerry made those
dreams come true.
Jerry drafted the kid who, as the result of a
farm machinery accident, had one usable hand.
Jerry drafted the kid with special needs who just
wanted a chance to play baseball, the kid who
couldn't play because his alcoholic father wouldn't
provide transportation to practices and games,
and the kid from the financially struggling family
who so badly wanted to play, but whose lack of
confidence made him feel inferior to the other kids
at the tryout. Jerry had a great second baseman, by
birth. His son, Scott, was the best player on the
team, the player around whom everyone else rallied.
It was with this team of rag-tags none of the
other coaches in the Columbia Rec Little League
wanted that Jerry won the league championship
in 1959, winning 15 of 18 games, losing to each of
the other three teams just once.
ere wasn't one of those kids who wouldn't
run through a brick wall for Jerry, who always encouraged,
never criticized. e farm kid with one
good hand became one of the league's best hitters.
e kid with the alcoholic father, who Jerry drove
to games and practices himself, became one of the
league's best pitchers. e kid with special needs
became a competent shortstop, getting to the ball
and getting the ball to Scott. e kid from the
struggling family with little confidence became an
all-star catcher.
Every year brought a new group of kids who
just wanted a chance to play baseball, and every
See GRAY MATTERS on page 30
April 4, 2013 The Valley Press 27