UNCASVILLE – When the Somers girls basketball team arrived at the high school to get on the bus to Mohegan Sun and the Class S championship game Sunday morning, the players were greeted by the sight of their head coach Jay Fenlason wearing an all-white suit and assistant coach Tony Guiggio wearing an all-red suit.
They were wearing Somers colors, but Fenlason was going for more of a classic Rick Pitino white-out look.
“We were all so nervous getting on the bus,” Somers senior Eliana Wood said. “Then we were dying laughing. All of us were pointing and laughing at them. It honestly lightened the mood.”
Somers hadn’t won a girls basketball title since 1977. The Spartans hadn’t been to the championship game in 40 years. There was a space waiting under the 1977 banner in the gym, Fenlason pointed out this week.
Sunday, they filled the space. Fourth-seeded Somers (21-6) beat Thomaston, a regular in the state championship game, 56-43 in the Class S title game.
“I think that’s probably why we won, to be honest, because of the suits,” said Somers sophomore Maya Skalski, who scored 22 points and had 13 rebounds and three blocks and was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player.
“The suits were amazing. They never wear anything like that.”
Fenlason told the kids he would wear the suit if they made it to the final. Never mind that he didn’t own one as of last week.
“If we made the state final, I told them I’d go full Rick Pitino and he’d go the opposite color,” Fenlason said. We were scrambling all week to get this stuff. Men’s Warehouse doesn’t carry this in March apparently. We were begging and borrowing and stealing.
“We were trying to take some of the pressure off the kids. Come here, laugh it up, have some fun with it, you may never get back. Try to enjoy every moment. Forty-seven years, 40 years since they’ve been here. Let’s make sure we do it right.”
Somers had a 30-19 lead at the start of the third quarter but Thomaston – which has won titles in 2014, 2015 and 2022 – was not going to let it get away so easily and rallied. Thomaston tied it at 37 on two Nicole Decker free throws with 7:45 left in the game.
That’s when Skalski took over.
“I was like, ‘I’m not letting this happen right now,’” she said. “I locked in and I was hoping for the best.”
She scored eight of Somers’ next 10 points. Junior Sydney Cassidy (16 points) made five free throws down the stretch. Wood (16 points) had four points.
“Forty-seven years…we know, we know,” Fenlason said. “We stood under the banner yesterday in the gym, the only state title in girls basketball, we said, ‘Look, there’s a space right below. Can’t we put one in there and fill it in?’
“I’m so happy for these kids that we did.”
