There were moments of glory, last-second losses and improbable victories in state high school championship games in 2024.
There was history made: a woman coached a boys basketball team in a state championship for the first time – and she was coaching against a 21-year-old in his first season as a head coach.
One school won a state title in the final second of a game in soccer; the school’s basketball team had pulled off a similarly improbable state championship win 11 years earlier.
Successful coaches in Southington (softball) and Glastonbury (track) retired. For the first time since 2007, a Greater Hartford area boys tennis player won the State Open title. Bloomfield girls track kept winning. A hockey team celebrated its 50th season with a state title.
There were many highlights in the 2024 high school sports season. Here’s a recap:
Fall sports
Football: After the Windsor football team beat Darien, even with key players missing, in late September, the question was: What can’t the Warriors do? They were elevated to the No. 1 spot in the Courant’s state coaches poll and stayed there until the end of the season, when they fell to Masuk, 24-21, in the Class MM championship game on a last-second field goal. The Warriors finished 12-1.Windsor’s last title was in 2014. … After a rough start, Bloomfield advanced to its sixth straight state championship game, where the Warhawks lost to Ansonia 58-12 in the Class S final. It was the eighth time Ansonia and Bloomfield had faced each other in the championship game, and Ansonia has won five of those. … Sheehan, which last won a state title in 2019, had another shot this season after beating Granby/Canton and Windham in the Class SS playoffs but Killingly, which had defeated Sheehan earlier in the season, won the title 48-33. … Buoyed by a group of seniors who didn’t give up, including UConn-baseball commit and quarterback Cam Righi, Wethersfield did not win a game in 2023 but went 9-1 this fall before losing to Newington in the Class MM quarterfinals. The Eagles had beaten Newington the week before to make it into the playoffs. Newington rebounded from a two-win season a year ago to advance to the Class MM semifinals, where the Nor’easters lost to Windsor.
Boys soccer
The Farmington boys won their first state title since 2021 after exiting the state tournament in the first round the last two years. Farmington had 16 seniors and that experience helped the River Hawks beat Xavier 3-1 for the Class LL championship. Senior Logan Drozd was named MVP of the game. … Sophomore Jon Adadjo took a pass from his older brother Chris and scored the game-winner as Tolland rallied to beat Weston 2-1 in the Class M championship, Tolland’s first title since 2015.
Girls soccer
In 2013, the Mercy girls basketball team won the state championship, 54-53, over Lauralton Hall on an improbable buzzer-beater by Maria Weselyj, a play that became part of Connecticut high school sports lore. In 2024, here was Mercy again, this time in soccer, winning on a buzzer-beating goal 2-1 over three-time defending state champion St. Joseph, which had lost only one game on penalty kicks this season. When probably everybody else was thinking the game was going to overtime, Mercy sophomore Molly Benson brought the ball downfield with 10 seconds left. The ball went to her sister Kaylee, who headed it to Molly, who scored as time ran out and the St. Joseph players crumpled to the field in shock. The play made it on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the day. … Coginchaug had lost to Shoreline Conference opponent Morgan twice during the regular season by a total of nine goals but beat Morgan on penalty kicks, 2-1, to win its first state title in the Class S final. … Lewis Mills beat Northwest Catholic, who had a number of girls on the team from its two-time state basketball championship team (including UConn-soccer-bound Maeve Staunton), 2-1, for the Class M championship. Junior Lily Castle scored both goals for Lewis Mills.
Volleyball
There were more improbable comebacks in the state tournament, this time in the Class L volleyball championship. Farmington was two points away from losing the title it had won the previous year to Bristol Central, a team the River Hawks had beaten twice earlier in the season. Farmington senior libero Jamie Zadrozny served eight straight points but Bristol Central scored a point and it was match point. Farmington rallied again to win the set and then cruised in the fifth set to win its second straight title 3-2 (18-25, 24-26, 25-23, 27-25,15-4). “Some of the adjectives I saw were: ‘Preposterous. Insane. Wild. Unimaginable,’” Farmington coach Laura Arena said. “We pulled it off. I was so proud of the girls.” … In another crazy game, Darien rallied to beat Glastonbury in the Class LL championship, (19-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22. 15-12). … Valley Regional won its first championship in 35 years, beating defending champion Coventry 3-1, for the Class S title. … Granby advanced to the Class M final but lost to Joel Barlow 3-0.
Other sports
Glastonbury senior Brooke Strauss, who will run at UConn, swept the CCC, Class L, State Open and New England championships, all at Wickham Park, and her team won the State Open title, while her heir apparent, Old Lyme junior Chase Gilbert, finished second at New Englands, third at the State Open and won the Class S title. The Xavier boys won the Class L title. … Riley Anderson, a junior at Bacon Academy who swims with Manchester, won two State Open titles in 50 and 100 free and set a State Open record in the 100 (49.66). Anderson has committed to swim at Duke. … Glastonbury field hockey, led by UConn-bound midfielder Addie Infante, advanced to the Class L quarterfinals, where the Guardians lost to Wilton 2-0. Simsbury advanced to the Class M semifinals.
Spring sports
Lacrosse
Notre Dame lacrosse commit Matt Jeffrey played football for Cheshire in the fall, then led the lacrosse team to a Class L state championship 13-12 over St. Joseph. Cheshire had won the Class M title the previous year. … The Somers boys, with only one senior, advanced to the Class S state championship, where they lost to New Fairfield, 7-0.
Baseball
Coventry had advanced to the Class S state final a year earlier, but coach Ryan Giberson thought his team was maybe a little too young and the Patriots lost. This spring, nine seniors returned, and the Patriots went back to the state championship game, where they beat Oxford 5-2. … RHAM advanced to the Class M final, where the Raptors lost to Woodstock Academy 5-2.
Softball
Southington coach Davina Hernandez stepped down after winning five state titles and 228 games in the last 10 years. Southington advanced to the Class LL semifinals, where the Knights lost to Cheshire. … Ellington advanced to the Class L state final, losing to defending champion and unbeaten Masuk, 4-0. … Coventry won its second straight title in Class S, beating Holy Cross 16-3 behind a 4-for-4, three-RBI and three-run performance from junior shortstop Sarah Miller. … Cheshire advanced to the Class LL final where the Rams lost to Fairfield Ludlowe 3-2 in 10 innings despite a 16-strikeout performance from sophomore Jenica Matos, and Sheehan advanced to the Class M championship, losing to Woodland, 7-1.
Other sports
Enfield senior Lukas Phimvongsa, now playing at Brown University, won the State Open boys tennis title, the first boys player from the Greater Hartford area to win a State Open championship since 2007. Cheshire’s Alex Orlins won her second straight State Open girls tennis title, beating Branford’s Peyton Gaudreau, 6-4, 6-3. … The Windsor boys track team won the State Open outdoor title, beating Xavier, after Xavier beat Windsor at the Class L championship a week earlier. Windsor also won the indoor State Open title. … The Bloomfield girls won the State Open outdoor title as Jahniya Barclay won the 200- and 400-meter races and won the Class M title, their 15th outdoor class title since 2008. … The Windsor girls won their sixth straight Class L title. … Glastonbury girls track and cross country coach Brian Collins announced he was stepping down as the outdoor and indoor track coach after 25 years, after his Guardians won their fifth straight Class LL outdoor title. … Newington’s Katie Bohlke, who is running at Virginia Tech now, won the State Open 3,200 title and set a meet record while winning the 1,600 championship. … Xavier (Div. I), Tolland (Div. II) and East Catholic (Div. III) won the boys golf championships.
Winter sports
Boys basketball
Windsor won its fifth state championship with a 59-57 overtime victory over West Haven in Division II. … There were compelling storylines on both sides of the Division V championship: Coventry was coached by a woman, the first to do so in state boys basketball history, and Old Lyme was coached by a 21-year-old in his first season. Old Lyme and Brady Sheffield won the school’s first title, beating Coventry and its coach Lois Hasty, 55-42. … Innovation won its first title since 2019 with a 55-48 win over Cheney Tech in the Division IV championship game. Cheney Tech was looking to be the first tech school to win a state title since 1967. … Lewis Mills advanced to the Division III final where it lost to Bunnell, 45-40.
Girls basketball
The Simsbury girls won their first title, 55-40, in Class L over top-seeded Holy Cross. It was an emotional time for coach Sam Zullo, who resigned after the season was over, after his mother died in January and his father coached his team to the state finals in upstate New York. … Northwest Catholic, powered by Maeve Staunton’s 16 points, beat Sheehan in Class MM for its second straight championship. … Somers won its first state title in 47 years in Class S, beating Thomaston 56-43. … St. Paul beat a feisty Windham team for its first state title since 2010, 49-42 in Class M. Windham had stopped East Hampton’s 46-game win streak in the semifinals.
Other sports
Cheshire capped its 50th season of boys ice hockey with a state championship, beating the East Haven co-op 6-3 for the Division II title. It was the Rams’ first title since 2011. … Conard won its first hockey title since 1996, 4-1, over the Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury-Immaculate co-op in the Division III championship game. … Xavier won the State Open wrestling title for the third straight year and had 14 wrestlers, one in each weight class, compete at the State Open.
