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Taking on the Tough Ruck challenge: Panther alum DeMinico takes on a unique marathon-length march

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Former Panther and Nittany Lion Brody DeMinico, seen in front of the Penn State mascot statue, will march 26.2 miles with a 40-pound pack to raise funds for veterans on April 14. / Courtesy photo

Whitman-Hanson Regional High alum Brody DeMinico (’13), a four-year high school wrestler and boys’ lacrosse player, is marching for a cause Saturday, April 14.

Over the Old North Bridge, onto the roads of Concord and through the Minutemen Trail, Hanson resident Brody DeMinico will carry an immense weight on his shoulders.

DeMinico will participate in this year’s Tough Ruck on Saturday, April 14. The course, which commences at the historic Old Manse, is a 26.2-mile march along the Battle Road Trail in Concord. “Ruckers” also carry a rucksack, weighing a minimum of 15 pounds along the marathon, and ribbons in memory of fallen service members.

For DeMinico, his rucksack will weigh 40 pounds and he will carry a yellow ribbon to remember Army veteran, Sgt. Ryan Patrick Goggin, who lost a battle with leukemia March 31, 2017. Goggin is the late cousin of Hanson resident Robert Goggin, who reached out to DeMinico on his fundraiser page for the event in early April to wear Ryan’s name.

“It’s a huge honor to know that someone sacrificed their life so that I could do this,” DeMinico said. “It’s a huge weight on my shoulders to honor someone that fought and died for this country.”

While the Tough Ruck’s main mission is to honor fallen service members, fundraising is a key component of the event. Each “rucker” must raise up to a certain benchmark, depending on what rucksack they strive to wear, to compete in the event. DeMinico has raised just shy of $1,000 for The Wounded Warrior Project.

DeMinico himself has been a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard since 2013.

“My grandfather was in the military, so I just followed in his footsteps,” DeMinico, a 2013 Whitman-Hanson Regional High graduate, said.

It was in Pennsylvania, while studying at Penn State, and participating in its ROTC program, that DeMinico grasped the true understanding of how tough it is to lose someone in the line of duty.

“I’ve known instructors that have seen people die in front of them, and it’s just been a heavy weight knowing there are soldiers that have gotten the chance to go across the ocean in other countries and have fought for our freedom and died,” DeMinico said. “I want to deploy so I can feel the honor that they’ve had.”

The Tough Ruck will begin at 7:20 a.m. and “ruckers” have nine hours to complete the trek.

“I’m doing this for everyone that’s had a family member that’s fallen or is wounded,” DeMinico said. “I’m doing this for everyone in the Whitman-Hanson area.”

Season Preview: Boys’ lacrosse ready to rebound

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Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ lacrosse team is ready to put a tough 2017 behind it.

Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ lacrosse head coach Rob White strongly believes last season was an outlier.

Due to a whole host of different reasons the Panthers were down key pieces throughout the course of the campaign, resulting in a 5-14 record. It was the first time they had missed the tournament since White took the position in 2014.

“We lost Jake Long, one of our top players, like the fourth game in for the season – that really handicapped us,” White said. “We had a number of boys, for reasons beyond our control, were not available during games. It was a tough year last year.”

But, last season is a thing of the past. As for this spring, W-H returns a strong core of starters across the field, led by its senior captain and midfielder Kyle Nehiley, who has started since he was a freshman. Nehiley, as a captain, helped engineer the boys’ soccer team’s turnaround in the fall as well.

“I’ve spoken to him numerous times that we hope he saved some of that magic to spread here,” White said. “He’s a great kid, I’ve known Kyle and have coached Kyle since he was like 8 and I’ve seen him grow up and he’s a tribute to his parents. As good of a lacrosse player [he is], he’s an even nicer kid.”

Juniors Ryan Downing (midfielder), Mason Gorman (attack) and Sean Joanis (attack) have also been peened into the starting lineup since they joined the team.

Long’s return will also provide the Panthers with an immense boost at midfielder.

“You’re getting a league all-star back,” White said of Long. “And he was on his way to a bang up season last year when he had [about] 20 goals and he was on fire and he blew out his knee and he was done for the year. Having him back is tremendous.”

Junior defensemen Ryan Trongone and Jacob Nixon and sophomore defenseman Declan Meehan will also be relied upon heavily in front of what will be a platoon in net to replace outgoing goalie Quinn Sweeney.

“We’ve got an open competition this year between freshman Nathan Morse and junior Mario Troiani,” White explained. “We’re gonna go with the hot hand this year.”

White added that Morse has been a pleasant surprise thus far.

“[It was his] first time picking up the stick and for anybody that’s ever played lacrosse knows goaltending requires an extra gear and Nathan’s shown a fearlessness and a confidence that you need to play goalie in boys’ lacrosse,” White explained. “That ball’s coming at you 90 miles an hour and you’ve got very little protection.”

As for goals – White is cautious to set them.

“We have a one-game season,” White said. “Every game is different; every game is important. We don’t even look to the tournament.”

The Panthers, who opened the season with a 17-2 loss to defensing Division 1 state champion Hingham yesterday, will resume play Tuesday, April 10 at 4 p.m. at home against Scituate.

“We always talk about you wanna play like a man does,” White said. “You might not come out on the winning end, but you want to be able to look them in the eyes at the end of the game and he knows he played a worthy opponent regardless of the score.”

Season Preview: Boys’, Girls’ outdoor track teams sprinting into spring

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Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

Both Whitman-Hanson Regional High track teams will rely on their legs this spring.

There is no secret as to what will power the Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ and girls’ outdoor track teams this season. It’s their running.

BOYS’ TEAM

Seniors Jack Ryan (grey) and Alex Uva (black). Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

As Stephen Schilicting enters his first season at the helm of the boys’ outdoor track team, he’s excited by what he’s seen.

“We have some very talented boys,” Schilicting, who takes over the team that finished 2-4 under Mike Driscoll last spring, said. “Our running program, I think, is going to do very, very well. Our distance runners are excellent. Jack Ryan, Andrew Newman – they’re really, really great runners.”

Newman and Ryan, who are both seniors, are about as good as it gets. Newman has taken his game to a whole new level this season, racing to first-place finishes in his first five meets during the fall in cross country while garnering Patriot League All-Star recognition. He was also a league all-star in the winter as well. As a junior, Ryan was a three-season Patriot League All-Star in cross country, indoor track and winter track.

Ryan captains the team alongside classmate Alex Uva and junior Billy Martell.

“I’m very comfortable with them,” Schilicting, who served as an assistant coach at W-H during the cross country and indoor track season, said. “I’ve seen Jack up close and Alex up close and I had Billy in winter track working with him in the sprints so I’m sure he’s going to do a great job.”

Martell is going to play a key role in what Schilicting coined the strength of the team – distance running.

“Billy Martell is a very good sprinter, he’ll be doing the 100 [and] the 200,” Schilicting explained. “(Senior) Scott Mateus will be running in the 100 and the 4×1. They’re kind of my experienced veterans coming back.”

Schilicting has some pretty good hurdlers as well, led by a pair of juniors.

“I’ve got Dan Kline, who qualified in high hurdles last year, he’s coming back,” Schilicting explained. “He’s going to be doing high and low hurdles and Shane Schraut, who did cross country for the first time this year and he did indoor track, and he’s getting better and better in the hurdles.”

The Panthers, who opened the season with a 125-10 victory over North Quincy yesterday, will be back in action Tuesday, April 10 at 3:35 p.m. on the road against Hingham.

“I’m really excited,” Schlicting said. “There’s over 50 boys on this team. We’re up as far as numbers are concerned [from the winter season].”

GIRLS’ TEAM

As for the girls’ outdoor track team, its seen a participation increase as well – up from 34 athletes last season to 42 this spring. Fifteen freshmen and 15 sophomores will account for roughly 70 percent of its roster.

“We’re still trying to find our way right now,” fourth-year W-H head coach Steve George said. “… we’ve got a lot of kids who are inexperienced.”

Freshman Isabelle Amado. / Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

Freshman Gabrielle Coste is one of those newcomers.

“She has high jumped 5 feet as a middle school student so I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do at this level,” George, whose team finished 2-4 last season, said.

While Coste may headline the first-year participants, senior captains Nicole Norve and Lilly Perkins lead the returnees. Norve, an Adams State University commit, has been a league all-star three times in cross country, twice in indoor track and once for outdoor track. Perkins will anchor the 400-meter dash and long jump – two events she excels in.

“They’re multi-sport captains and they’ve had some experience at it and performed well in the past as captains and they continue to do that, despite the fact that they have less than 60 days of school left,” George said.

Juniors Ally Bartlett and Dorothy DiMascio-Donohue, sophomores Anika Floeck and Samantha Perkins, and freshman Isabelle Amado will also give the Panthers a boost this season.

“I think we’re strong in the distance events,” George said. “We have three to five girls who are very talented in multiple events so we will be good in the jumps.”

The Panthers, who opened the season yesterday with a 76-58 loss to North Quincy, will be back in action Tuesday, April 10 at 3:45 p.m. on the road against Hingham.

“A winning record [is our goal],” George said. “We have five dual meets scheduled and three of the teams are some of the top teams in the state in Hingham, Duxbury and Plymouth North High School, so they’re very difficult opponents but we hope to maybe steal one of those meets.”

Sister act on the diamond: Colleen Hughes to join sister Caitlin at Westfield State

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Colleen Hughes attended accepted students day at Westfield State on Tuesday, April 3. / Courtesy photo: Michelle Hughes

Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior Colleen Hughes will play softball with her sister Caitlin next season at Westfield State University.

Colleen Hughes could not pass up the opportunity to play with her sister for one more season.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior will join her sister Caitlin on the diamond as a member of the Westfield State University softball team next year.

“She played a pretty big part in me going there,” Colleen said of the elder Hughes who is one of the Owls catchers. “She plays softball as well so I thought it gave me a great opportunity to play with her. She’s a great role model to look up to and it will be a good transition into college just to start out.”

This will not be the first time the two siblings will share the same field together. They were starters on the W-H softball team in 2015 that stunned defending state champion Bridgewater-Raynham, 4-1, in the opening round of the Division 1 South Sectional tournament. Caitlin, a then-senior captain, caught the entire game and had a key RBI. Colleen, a freshman at the time, roamed left field.

“She was a very good role model to look up to,” Colleen said. “She had a really big impact on the team, so it was awesome to play with her.”

Caitlin concluded her Panthers career as a four-year letter winner, and Colleen is in line to reach that feat as well. The younger Hughes has started every game since her freshman campaign. Last season Colleen led W-H by hitting at a .486 clip with four home runs and 25 runs batted in en route to being tabbed the team MVP and a Patriot League All-Star for the second straight year. In Caitlin’s final season with the Panthers, she hit .446 and knocked in 26 runs.

Fifth-year W-H head coach Jenna Olem sees the similarity with their approach at the plate. “The way they attack the ball in the box is really something special,” Olem said. “Colleen is such a strong, powerful hitter, so that’s nice to have in the lineup. It seems almost every time she gets up, she’s gonna have a big hit for us.”

Not only does Colleen power the Panthers with her bat, but she leads with her arm as well. Last season she took over as their ace and hurled 106 of their 133.2 innings. She collected eight wins in the process to help guide W-H back to the tournament for the first time since that 2015 season. Colleen, despite all the frames tossed, is still fairly new to the position.

“She just took up pitching a few years ago and that’s just a testament to her ability as an athlete, as a competitor, to do whatever she can to help the team,” Olem said.

Colleen added that it was a difficult adjustment to begin with, but rewarding in the end.

“It was hard at first,” Colleen, who boasts a 4.3 GPA and is a member of the Science National Honor Society and National Honor Society, explained. “I did pitching lessons all summer and fall so it was a hard work up to it but it’s definitely worth it.”

This season Colleen will also captain the Panthers — a role she served in for the field hockey team during the fall and the girls’ hockey team in the winter.

“She has always had this tremendous work ethic,” Olem said. “She takes every drill seriously and competes as hard as possible no matter the circumstance. Colleen really showed her ability to lead last year just with her calmness at the plate and her ability to come through with a big hit. Also, regardless of how her pitching outing was going she was always standing, cheering, and letting her teammates know she had their backs. Everyone looks to Colleen as sort of a role model because of her approach to the game and her understanding of the game.”

Colleen’s senior season will get underway Monday, April 9 at 4 p.m. when the Panthers travel to Pembroke.

“My goal this year is to just improve as a player and improve my hitting before I take my next step to college,” Colleen said.

Season Preview: Hayes looks for stability on the court: A new boys’ tennis coach takes the helm

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New boys’ tennis coach Alyssa Hayes poses with her team after a recent practice. / Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

Alyssa Hayes is the fourth Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ tennis head coach in as many seasons. That’s a trend she hopes to end.

New Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ tennis head coach Alyssa Hayes is looking to establish stability to the program.

Hayes, a 2012 W-H graduate who played tennis all four years in high school and was a captain her senior season, marks the team’s fourth head coach in as many seasons.

“I really just want to see some consistency and kind of give them the confidence that this year, hopefully they can make tourney and go a little bit further than they have in the past,” Hayes said. “We have some key returning players and some decent new players that I think will start to carry the team as well.

“I think consistency is so important in any sport, in any classroom, so if I can give them that consistency and kind of just make sure that they know practice is important, matches are important, being here is important, that it’ll kind of carry forward into their matches.”

Hayes inherits a veteran core of eight players back in the fold from last season’s team that finished 7-11 under T.J. Ostrander.

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“I came in and with everyone returning, it was nice to see the friendship and the teamwork that they have,” Hayes said. “I think strengthening that is going to be important and just kind of watching them grow together as a team. I know tennis is sometimes considered a singles sport, but if they can put that teamwork there and play together as well then I think they’ll do well.”

Sophomore Brian Fox and senior captain Tyler Rice (2017 Patriot League All-Star) will both compete in No. 1 and 2 singles while senior captain Eric Muha will likely be getting the nod for third singles.

The doubles teams will be seniors Sean Leahy and Jason Bannon at first and then junior Matt Hickey (2017 Patriot League All-Star) and freshman Brendan Nehiley at second.

The Panthers will begin play Thursday, April 5 when they play host to Silver Lake at 3 p.m.

“I want to see some growth,” Hayes said. “It’s nice to see some younger kids come out and see where we’ll be at. We’ve got five seniors so kind of training the younger kids that next year we’re not going to have those seniors anymore so we have to see where they can go and then of course to make the tournament. I know the boys want to work really hard to get into the tournament this year.”

Season Preview: Good position: Girls’ lacrosse sees reason for optimism as season begins

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The Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ lacrosse team gathers around head coach Dave Rowell. / Photo by: Brian McLoughlin

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ lacrosse team is aiming to reach the tournament this season.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ lacrosse team is down some significant firepower from last spring, but fifth-year head coach Dave Rowell is confident in the group he has this season. 

The Panthers are tasked with replacing their top offensive threats from 2017 – Ali Joanis (67 goals, 21 assists), Mel McAleer (38 goals, 55 assists) and Taylor McVeigh (37 goals, 27 assists) – that helped guide the club to a 10-11 record and its third Division 1 South Sectional tournament appearance (a 17-4 loss to Braintree in the first round) in the past four years. 

“We’re down a lot, but I really believe we have the girls here to fill those gaps,” Rowell said. “Each year (junior) [Samantha] Whitman gets better, I can see her being the new Ali Joanis. (Senior) Ashley Memmolo is doing great on the draw to take over for [Taylor] and then we have (senior) Lauren Bonavita back.”

The return of Bonavita, who was held out of last season due to soccer, is certainty a welcome sight. During her sophomore campaign, she ranked second on the team with 42 goals.

“Having her in the circle fills a huge gap of just speed and athleticism,” Rowell said.

Bonavita, a midfielder, is not the only Panther who can get up and down the field in a flash.

“We worked so hard in conditioning and speed, so if we’re not there stick-wise, because some of the Duxbury’s have such a strong youth program and we don’t have that,” Rowell explained. “(Senior) Camille [Miller] is one of my best defenders and she didn’t pick up a stick until she played the first time so athleticism [is our strength], I believe. I think if we can get on the circle, get fast breaks, just being faster than the other team will get us some goals early on.”

While the Panthers still plan to put the ball in the net plenty of times, they also plan to be stout on defense. Having Miller, along with classmate and fellow defender Camryn Boyce and senior goalie Kasey Molito as captains should put an emphasis on just that.

“It’s awesome because this is the first year that they’re all defense,” Rowell said. “It’s great that it’s the first year that not all the goal scorers are captains. It’s showing how our focus this year is on defense because this sport is so offensive- oriented that it’s made to be 18 to 15.”

Also, at the outset of this season a freshman girls’ lacrosse team was added, and it’s already paying dividends.

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“Normally I take a bloated roster and then I have nine girls looking at me to come into a game,” Rowell explained. “I usually take 25. This year I took 20 and then there’s room for people to move. I think that really helps because now I can get everybody in. [If] someone gets injured, people can move up, people can move down. It gives us a lot more flexibility with our rosters.”

The Panthers will open the season at home Thursday, April 5 at 4 p.m. against Patriot League Keenan Division foe Hingham.

“They’re strong,” Rowell said. “It’s tough to start with them. Obviously, we always try to win, but with them they’re so strong we try to keep the goal gap minimal, so that’s our small goals. The ultimate goal is to win, but to keep it competitive, don’t give them anything easy [and] make their life hell on defense.”

Season Review: Exceeding the expectations: Boys’ basketball found its rhythm in tough season

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The boys’ basketball team before a Feb. 16 game against Quincy. / Photo by: Sue Moss

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ basketball team made the tournament for the 10th straight season, won at least 16 games for the sixth straight winter and captured its third straight division crown.

The 2017-18 season didn’t come together the way 18-year Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ basketball head coach Bob Rodgers was expecting, but it came together in a way that he hadn’t envisioned.

“We were able to accomplish some things that I didn’t think would be on the table for us,” Rodgers said.

The Panthers went 16-5, which marked the sixth straight season in which they won at least 16 games, made the Division 2 South Sectional tournament for their 10th straight campaign and grabbed a share of their third consecutive Patriot League Keenan Division title and fourth in the past five years.

“Winning the league championship with Hingham was really a testament to how hard the kids worked and how they believed even though we hit that tough stretch in the middle of the season,” Rodgers said.

In that tough stretch to which Rodgers referred, were three straight losses to Hingham (71-45), Cardinal Spellman (78-76) and Quincy (55-54) that dropped the Panthers to 5-4. But, they turned it around and rode a 10-game winning streak until Division 1 Bridgewater-Raynham topped them, 60-45, in an exclusion game for W-H. Perhaps W-H’s most impressive victory during the winning streak was a 68-51 triumph at Hingham. The Harbormen had dealt the Panthers their worst regular-season loss (71-45) in more than 10 years four weeks prior.

“I think what really happened at that point was the guys were humbled and realized that nobody is giving Whitman-Hanson anything because it says Whitman-Hanson across your chest, and they started to work harder and we kind of found a way,” Rodgers said. “In reality, because Sean Leahy put the team on his shoulders and was just an immense player that was a difference-maker in a lot of the games, especially that game in Hingham. I told him before that game, ‘If you’re an MVP, if you’re a league MVP, you got to go play like it because the other guy that’s vying for league MVP is on the other team.'”

Leahy poured in a game-high 25 points and retrieved 10 rebounds in the win en route to being tabbed Patriot League Keenan Division MVP.

However, in the playoffs, the sixth-seeded Panthers succumbed to 11th-seeded Nauset, 65-56, in the first round.

“We didn’t shoot it well,” Rodgers said. “We got plenty of shots, but we just didn’t shoot it well. We didn’t have that rhythm of guys that could stick it, so if Sean [Leahy] wasn’t scoring we were going to have difficulty putting points on the board.

“The other thing in that Nauset game [is] we made a couple little runs, but we weren’t able to get stops. We weren’t able to get the big bucket down one end and the get the big stop down the other end.”

Shooting, which had always been a strength of the Panthers over the years, it was an issue all season long, forcing them to form a new identity on offense.

“Jake Hanson-Bartlett shot it well, Cole Lewis shot it well, Bryan Tyrie shot it well, but other than that we really didn’t shoot the basketball well as a team,” Rodgers explained. “That’s unusual for us, that’s unusual for Whitman-Hanson basketball. So, we were able to get to the basket a little more, get some stuff off of our defense, so that was really the biggest difference. We had to score points in ways that we really didn’t do in years past.”

While there was no trip to TD Garden like there had been the previous two seasons for the Panthers, they exceeded what Rodgers had for expectations.

“I thought when we lost [Lucas Franklin, Nikko Raftes and Luke Tamulevich] last year, I knew how important they were to our team,” Rodgers said of his former captains. “We only lost three guys, but that was three-fifths of the starting lineup and they didn’t come out a lot last year.”

The Panthers will once again have a significant number of holes to plug next season with the departures of senior captains and league all-stars Leahy (19.7 ppg, 9.2 rpg) and Hanson-Bartlett (12.3 ppg, 7.1 rpg), fellow senior and league all-star Josh Genereux (8.7 ppg), and classmates Tyler Rice (5.1 ppg) and Tyrie (5.9 ppg). But, they’re no stranger to that.

“We won’t have a lot of guys that have played a lot of varsity minutes, but we’ll have some,” Rodgers said. “And then we have some good guys in the JV that if they put in their time and get in the weight room and really spend the next month months getting better, I still think we’ll be one of the better teams.”

Whitman-Hanson’s Uva scores lone South goal in Shriners All-Star Classic

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Alex Uva (No. 6) scored a late second-period goal. / Photo Credit: Twitter/@WHBoysHockey

Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior Alex Uva scored the only goal for the South team in Saturday’s boys’ hockey Shriners All-Star Classic.

Alex Uva provided a silver lining for the South team in a 10-1 loss to the North on Saturday in the Shiners All-Star Classic at the Canton Ice House.

With 44.5 seconds remaining in the second period, the Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior, who was an assistant captain on the boys’ hockey team, took a feed from Blue Hills’ Anthony Sarno and buried it home, bringing the South within 8-1.

“It felt great scoring a goal in the game,” Uva said. “It was a great way to finish my high school career.”

On Thursday, Uva was awarded the Charles P. Driscoll Community Service Award for his fundraising efforts for Shriners Hospital for Children.

“I want to send a special thank you to all who donated,” Uva said. “I was happy to be selected as an all-star and it was great to play in the game with all that talent.

“The best part of the experience was being recognized with the community service award. Raising money to save kids lives is what the game is all about.”

Season Preview: Panther softball team aims to stay competitive

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The Whitman-Hanson Regional High softball team is aiming to reach the .500 mark, but has some major shoes to fill.

Assembling the starting nine for this season’s Whitman-Hanson Regional High softball team will be much like a puzzle for fifth-year head coach Jenna Olem.

The Panthers are down four integral pieces from last spring’s team that went 11-10 and returned to the postseason, where it lost 8-0 to North Attleboro in the first round of the Division 1 South Sectional tournament. The quartet — which featured catcher Kristin Arthur, first baseman Kelly Burke, shortstop Emily Cook and center fielder Sarah Saccardo — were all senior captains and four-year varsity players.

Arthur, a three-year starter, hit .397, scored 19 times and collected 14 RBIs. Burke, a two-year starter, posted a .338/.400/.412 slash line and drove in 13 runs. Cook, a four-year starter, hit .452, knocked in 13 runs and crossed the plate a co-team-leading 24 times. Saccardo, also a four-year starter, scored 24 runs, hit at a .459 clip and produced eight RBIs.

“They kind of jumped in [and] set the tone to try and build this program,” Olem said.

Cook and Saccardo accounted for two of the three W-H Patriot League All-Star selections from last season. The other: current senior captain Colleen Hughes.

“Now we’ve got [Colleen Hughes] that’s trying to carry that on from the 2015 team that beat [Bridgewater-Raynham] (in the first round of the Division 1 South Sectional tournament), so this season is about trying to get Colleen’s season to go full circle, put the best players around her and do the best we can in our league,” Olem said.

Hughes, without a doubt, is going to be relied upon heavily this season, and with good reason. Last spring, she hit a team-high .486, belted a team-high four home runs and drove in a team-high 25 runs, while also serving as the Panthers’ ace, a capacity where she collected eight wins.

TRANSITIONS

Junior Kayla Crawford will be Hughes’ battery mate as she makes the transition from second base to a fulltime catcher.

“She got a lot of action at the end of last season,” Olem said. “She’s very, very solid and confident back there.”

Freshman Abby Cleary is the likely candidate to slot into the No. 2 spot in the rotation behind Hughes, who hurled 106 of the Panthers’ 133.2 frames played last season.

“[Colleen] threw a ton of innings last year and I think she was really fatigued by the end of it,” Olem said. “Hopefully Abby can step up and take some pressure off of [Colleen] so it’s not going to be all on her shoulders every day and we can kind of use her on the field.”

Senior captain Julia Donavan will also return for her third season in left field and classmate Hailey Norris will be back at third base for the third consecutive spring. Olem said the remaining five spots on the diamond (first base, second base, short stop, center field and right field) are up for grabs.

“It’s really how it plays out,” Olem said. “I’ve got a lot of competition. Hopefully we get some people who are going to push some people and get them a little bit better.”

Olem added that as much as she would like her team, which features eight new varsity players, to make the tournament, this season is going to be centered a great deal around development.

“We’re gonna see if we can get it to .500, squeeze out a couple of wins, beat the teams that we should, but it’s so unpredictable because we have so many spots to fill, but as long as we finish the season better than we start, that’s really all I care about,” Olem said.

The Panthers are scheduled to open their slate of games at home Wednesday, April 4 at 4 p.m. against Milton.

“It’s always a big thing to win on opening day and set the tone,” Olem explained. “I’m probably going to have a lot of young kids in my lineup and to not be nervous and just play like how they’ve been showing the last few weeks and hopefully we can go from there — build off of something.”

Season Preview: Baseball coach is aiming big

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The Whitman-Hanson Regional High baseball team is returning some pivotal players from last season’s team that went 16-5 and was bouced in the first round of the tournament.

Whitman-Hanson Regional High baseball head coach Pat Cronin has always had a vision for the future.

Back in the spring of 2016 when Cronin took over the W-H program after spending the past 35 years at the helm of East Bridgewater, this was the season he was building toward.

“I will say this that in the three years that I’ve been here this was the year that I’ve had kind of circled as a year where I was really excited and interested in seeing how much our work paid off,” Cronin, who has recorded 452 wins as a head coach, said.

In the Panthers’ first campaign under Cronin, they advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2007 and won their first-round game 11-0 against Somerset-Berkley before falling to Falmouth, 4-2, in the semifinals. Last season, they finished 15-6, which included a 4-2 loss to Sandwich in the first round. W-H did, however, claim the Patriot League Keenan Division along the way.

“This is a team game more than anything else, so I think implementing a team-attitude that you may want to play short, but you’re a great second baseman or you may want to play center, but you’re a great left fielder,” Cronin said of how changed the culture of the team. “All of the kids bought into that.”

As part of Cronin’s forward vision, he doesn’t just account for the season at hand.

“We plan two of three years ahead when we’re putting our team together,” Cronin said. “I always have planned two or three years ahead.”

While the Panthers may be down Patriot League All-Star at short stop and captain Luke Tamulevich, who helped turn seven doubles plays last season, due to graduation, fellow league all-star junior Mike Cook, who hit .302 and helped spin nine double plays last spring, will slide over from second base to shortstop.

“When he first came up as a freshman, I put him at short when Tamulevich got sick and he played there as a freshman and helped us beat Stoughton,” Cronin explained. “So, I told him later, ‘I need you to go to second base. I’ve got Tamulevich there and I need the big arm to take [Nate] Perkins’ place.’ And then this year, he knew he was stepping in and the beauty of that is we’ll have him for two years now. And he’s perhaps, if not the best, one of my best hitters.”

Senior Ryan Sawtelle, who backed up Bobby Caliri behind the plate last season, will assume the catching duties and will be looked upon to supply some offense.

“He dinged and donged and his stroke has really improved,” Cronin said.

Sawtelle will be tasked with handling a lethal Panthers pitching rotation anchored by their two captains. Senior James Dolan enters the year having posted a 0.35 ERA over 40.33 innings last season while junior Rian Schwede hurled 39 innings to the tune of a 1.44 ERA. Both were Patriot League All-Stars.

“You’ve got your No. 1 and 2 back and they’re both all-league players,” Cronin said. “I think pitching is going to be the strength and then defense, we will work the defense. I hope this, out of the three years, will be our best hitting team of the three years.”

Dolan, who plays first base while not on the mound, also hit a team-high .389 last season en route to being tabbed Patriot League Keenan Division MVP.

Cronin is also high on junior Ethan Phelps (.319 last season) who he will let roam center field and use as a third starter.

“He’s certainly one of our best hitters and he’s back for two more years, too,” Cronin said. “Plus, I’ve held him off because I didn’t need him last year. You should see him on the mound, he’s another pitcher. We worked with him a lot last year, every day to get him ready for this year.”

Senior Caleb Burke is back at third base and senior Jason Green returns as the designated hitter and will see some action on the mound.

The Panthers are scheduled to begin their season at home Tuesday, April 3 at 4 p.m. against Middleboro.

“We won the first game in ’16 and we lost the second game to a good Falmouth team with the kid going to BC,” Cronin explained. “We lost to a good Sandwich team last year with a kid that threw well. We are not ready to hit at that level, that’s what takes time to build in a program and it did the same thing at East Bridgewater. You have to get them in the cages and get them to commit. Defense and pitching, we can work in early on and day in and day out, but to build a good hitter, it’s a different mindset from what they’re used to.

“A good hitter is also somebody who has some varsity reps. You can’t take a kid from the JV and have him step to the varsity and expect him to hit .350, it’s just not going to happen. They need to see those good guys and in this league and there are a lot of good guys. That’s the step and they know it. That’s the step to take this program go to the next level is we need to have them hungry as hitters every free moment they have during the season and during the summer. They need to dedicate themselves to hitting.”