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Native Cape Codders Reap Rewards of FIne Collegiate Seasons

The honors, awards and titles are coming in this spring at a rapid fire pace... and it must surely be satisfying to all of the Cape Cod High School coaches who have mentored a slew of athletes whose collective prowess seems unparalleled.
      Liz Curley, a two-sport star at Barnstable High School who graduated in 2003 (volleyball and Basketball), led Tom Turco’s girls to three league titles, four South Sectional Championship titles and one MIAA Div. 1 State Championship in 2000 when the team went 28-0 All totalled, Turco’s teams that featured Curley as one of the mainstays (she was captain in 2002, her senior year), went 97-7.
Now, she has been crowned one of the top collegiate volleyball players in the nation.
      The Hofstra University senior middle blocker has been named the 2006 Colonial Athletic Association Volleyball Player of the Year by a vote of the league’s head coaches.Curley, who earned second-team all-conference honors in 2004 and was named the 2003 CAA Rookie of the Year, completed the regular season atop the league with a .426 attack percentage and leads the Pride in kills (357), kills per game (3.76) and blocks (120). She is ranked in the top seven in the CAA in each of those categories. The senior middle blocker is currently ranked ninth in the nation in hitting percentage. Curley becomes the first player since Ajola Berisha of American in 1998, and third overall, to earn the conference’s Player of the Year award after not earning any type of award the previous season. The Centerville native earned CAA Player of the Week honors three times this season (Sept. 5, Oct. 2 & Oct. 23).
      Former Barnstable High School three-sport star Jeremy Schilling recently received Keene State’s male athlete of the year honor as the College’s annual awards dinner.Schilling, who completed his Owl career last spring, won’t soon forget his final season at Keene State. “I had a very good year and had a lot of success,” he said. “I kept on waiting to cool off at the plate, but it never happened.”
A four-year member of the Keene State baseball team, Schilling capped his Owl career (2003-06) last spring by becoming KSC's first-ever Little East Conference Player of the year. Also selected to All-NEIBA and All-LEC teams, the outfielder from Centerville, Mass., led the Owls in a multiple of categories including hits (74), runs (48), stolen bases (21), and batting average (.418) as a senior. He finished his career third on Keene State's all-time batting (.372) and RBI (86) list and set career records for runs (111), hits (189), doubles (41), and stolen bases (40).
      Schilling is currently serving as a coach with the Owls, who, heading into this week, were 25-9, 11-1 LEC.

Former Barnstable Track Standout Wins ACC Championship for Clemson

When he ran for former Barnstable High School boys cross country head coach Don Smith, Matt Clark proved to be something special, helping pace the Red Raiders to a 19-3 record over three seasons (‘99-2001) and two Old Colony League championship titles.
Three weeks ago at the 2007 ACC Men’s & Women’s Track & Field Championships, the Clemson senior shattered the University of Maryland facility record in the 10,000-meter men’s race, with a personal best time of 29:46.26.
The former Barnstable cross country captain earned his third All-ACC honor with the victory and he is the first Clemson runner to capture the ACC championship in the 10,000m run since 1990.
A Pre-Business major, Clark sets a model example for current Cape Cod high school athletes to strive for Division 1 Collegiate excellence.
Clemson was most recently ranked 8th in the country in men’s collegiate track & field and Clark is one of his team’s regional qualifiers.
-- Sean Walsh/Sports Report

Kelly LaDow Named MASCAC Baseball Player of the Year

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Commissioner Angela Baumann has announced that Bridgewater State College sophomore catcher Kelly LaDow has been selected the 2007 MASCAC Baseball Player of the Year in all-conference voting conducted by the MASCAC head coaches. 

A native of East Falmouth, Massachusetts, LaDow started in 30 games behind the plate for the Bears this season as he batted .373 with 11 doubles, 31 RBI and 19 runs scored.  He finished second on the team in batting average, doubles, and runs batted in, tied for second in hits with 38, and was third in slugging percentage (.480) and on base percentage (.440). LaDow also threw out 6 would be base stealers and registered a .979 fielding percentage.

As a team, Bridgewater finished the 2007 season with an overall record of 16-15 including a 7-7 mark in the MASCAC.

In two plus seasons at Bridgewater, LaDow has started and played in 63 games as he is sporting a career batting average of .309 with 15 doubles, 46 runs batted in and 35 runs scored.

Laplante Named NEWMAC Player of the Year

WORCESTER, MA- After wrapping up its eighth New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament title over the weekend, the seventh-ranked Wheaton College baseball team had a successful showing at Tuesday's coaches meeting at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), as the Lyons won three major awards and garnered five all-conference selections. Ranked first in New England by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), Wheaton sent three players to the all-conference first team.

Senior catcher Adam Laplante (Harwich, MA/Harwich) became the third Lyon to be voted NEWMAC Player of the Year in consecutive years and is the fourth Wheaton player overall in the conference's nine-year history, while junior southpaw Chris McDonough (Weymouth, MA/Weymouth) brought home Wheaton's first NEWMAC Pitcher-of-the-Year honor, as the conference began recognizing the award in 2006. Head coach Eric Podbelski was named NEWMAC Coach of the Year for the seventh time since 1999.

Laplante, McDonough and senior shortstop Brandon Leonard (Brockton, MA/Brockton) provided the Blue and White with at least three all-conference first teamers for the third straight year. Junior pitcher Louie Bernardini (Gray, ME/Gray-New Gloucester) and sophomore first baseman Nick Pecora (Highland Park, NJ/Immaculata) rounded out Wheaton's honorees after being named to the second team. Laplante, Leonard and McDonough earned the second all-league awards of their careers, while Bernardini and Pecora nabbed their first.

Laplante, who is a three-year starter and one of Wheaton's top all-time catchers, is tied for fifth in the league with eight doubles and tied for eighth with 26 runs. Second on the team in doubles and slugging (.452), he is fourth in average (.323) and tied for fourth in runs. Recording a .988 fielding percentage in 258 chances, Laplante recently came off a season-best 10-game hitting streak. He has nine multiple-hit games.

McDonough has been a force as a starter this spring, surrendering just two earned runs in 46 innings with 41 strikeouts. Allowing just one earned run during his last 41.2 innings, including tossing a pair of complete-game shutouts against WPI in the conference finale and Babson College in the tournament, McDonough is ranked first in the NEWMAC with a 1.50 ERA. He is fourth in strikeouts (50) and tied for fourth in wins (5). Just 13 strikeouts away from tying the program's all-time mark, McDonough has yielded three extra-base hits in 54 innings.

Leonard has been a four-year starting fixture with the Lyons, moving up the career charts in several categories, as he is currently tied for second in stolen bases (59), fourth in runs (140), sixth in hits (188) and ninth in RBI (96). Leading the team in runs (39) and stolen bases (17) while tying for first in triples (3) this season, Leonard has 10 multiple-hit games. He paces the league in runs and is tied for second in each stolen bases and triples.

Bernardini has joined McDonough as a tough one-two punch, winning all six of his decisions to tie for the league lead in victories while ranking fifth with a 2.72 ERA and tied for eighth in strikeouts (28). Posting a 5-0 record against league competition, he has given up a mere two extra-base hits in 35.1 innings against those teams. Bernardini carried a no-hitter into the seventh against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on April 7 and didn't allow an earned run in two wins over MIT and a victory over the United States Coast Guard Academy.

Pecora leads the NEWMAC with 34 RBI while ranking ninth in the league and second on the team in hitting with a .377 average. Pecora stands second on the squad with 49 hits and third with a .432 on-base percentage. During league play, he led Wheaton in RBI and was tied for first in hits and doubles. Recently on a nine-game hitting streak, Pecora has a team-leading nine multiple-RBI contests and 16 multiple-hit games.

Podbelski has led the Lyons to a 27-10 record and ninth straight regular season conference championship.