Sports Recap: Greeley And Fox Lane Enjoy Success On The Hardwood

Horace Greeley

No. 3 Horace Greeley's season may have not ended the way it was expected, as it was upset in the opening round of the Section 1 Class AA tournament by No. 14 Clarkstown South. Despite that loss though, it can't erase what was a successful campaign for a Quakers squad that went 15-4 overall and won their league championship during the regular season.

Leading the Quakers to that championship was all-section and all-conference honoree, senior forward and four-year varsity player Matt Townsend, who will be playing basketball next year at Yale.

"Matt has a great work ethic," Horace Greeley coach Dave Fernandes said. "He has done everything for me, including off the court. He has handled a lot of the organization of the program, like practice schedules and practice times. I can't tell you how much he has meant to this program."

Townsend also was named to the all-league team as was sophomore forward Harrison Brown.

"Harrison is such an athletic kid, he can do pretty much anything you ask him to do," Fernandes said. "He handles the ball real well, he's very fast. He's can play over the rim, he can dunk. What I am hoping is that he gets in the weight room a little bit and gets stronger over the summer."

In addition, Greeley was able to boast of three all-league honorable mention players in senior guard Stevie Haynes and sophomores, guard Teddy Graves and forward Matt Xie.

"They were great kids that worked together, they were all unselfish," Fernandes said. "The sky is the limit, they are just going to get better and better. Teddy is a very hard worker and so is Matt Xie. Now they are just going to have to step up a little bit more."

While Townsend will be almost impossible to replace on and off the court, Fernandes will have a talented group of players coming back that should give his squad a great chance of winning the league title again next season.

"It's really great because we started three sophomores in Harrison, Teddy and Xie so it's nice to have them back as juniors," Fernandes said. "Also, I will have Justin Ciero coming back. He didn't  play much this year because he broke his foot playing football. And we had a couple of other players, Connor Domershick and Josh Rosen, who played really well for us this season as well. I am looking forward to next year."

Fox Lane

The No. 12 Foxes enjoyed a successful year this winter, as they finished 11-8 and earned a berth in the Section 1 Class AA tournament, where it lost to perennial power No. 5 New Rochelle.

Leading the Foxes into the postseason was junior forward Will Trawick, who was named all-conference. Trawick averaged 13.8 points and 10. 2 rebounds per game.

"The reason why Will had the year he had were a couple of things," Fox Lane coach Chris Violante said. "The first thing was his willingness to come everyday to practice and work hard. He just never took drills off. He came to work every single day. That motivated other kids to work hard as well."

Violante said two other reasons for Trawick's success was the ability of the guards to get him the ball in the right position on the floor and his willingness to buy into the system.

Senior guard Jacob Blau was recognized as part of the Westchester Coaches Association Board of Excellence. Its 10 kids who made great contributions on the court, in the classroom and in the community.

"It's a real big honor," Violante said of Blau's award.

Team wise, Fox Lane was able to garner a winning record and postseason berth because of its ability to do things that don't show up in the boxscore.

"A lot of our kids didn't put up great numbers," Violante said. "The reason why is we played 11, 12 kids a game and there is only one that averaged double digits and that was Will (Trawick). A lot of our kids, unless you saw them play, you couldn't tell how valuable they were to us."

One shining example of this was senior point guard Steve Lamorte.

"You look at Steve's numbers and maybe he scored three points a game," Violante said. "But the fact was he was a human press breaker. He never turned the ball over during the press."

Violante also pointed to the contributions of senior guard Oliver Silzer, whose leadership was invaluable to the Foxes this winter. Violante said that Silzer was the best captain he has had.

"We were really a well-balanced team and that is what made this team so successful, is that they gave such a great team effort," Violante said.

Violante also credited senior forward Matt Swensen, for having a major turnaround from his junior to senior season.