WHS football falls to South Portland in homecoming game

By Matt Pascarella

Windham High varsity football’s annual homecoming game against South Portland on Friday, Oct. 4 began with a powerful start in the first half. It was back-and-forth with the game tied at 19-19 at halftime but Windham lost some momentum in the second half while South Portland found the end zone twice and won, 33-19.

Windham sophomore Jordan Pastore intercepts a South
Portland pass and rushes up the field during a homecoming
football game at Windham High School on Oct. 3.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

“The bigger picture here is not wins and losses ... the season is not over,” said Windham varsity football coach Matt Perkins. “Our plan is to continue to get better. We’ve got guys who still are green and are trying to figure it out. We saw some major steps; we just got to continue to push and grind and get better. We’ve got a lot of guys who have grown up and are playing the game the right way. I’m proud of our guys and how we responded.”

Perkins said Windham swarmed to the ball well; they got in the red zone three or four times but needed to finish. The Eagles had some costly mistakes that caught up to them in the first half; they need to clean up those mistakes. It takes reps and time to work out those things.

Early in the game, on a first-and-10 for Windham from the 33-yard line, sophomore Patrick Davenport completed a pass to junior Tegan Perkins putting Windham on the 50-yard line for a first down. Another competed pass to Tegan Perkins and it’s first and goal. Windham attempted a field goal, which failed.

The Eagles’ defense didn’t let the Red Riots near their end zone early in the first quarter.

Junior Parker Sperry scored a touchdown. The extra point was good and Windham led, 7-0.

South Portland tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter.

Following a completed pass from South Portland, they now led 13-7 after the extra point failed.

Senior Mason Arbour scored a touchdown and tied the game at 13-13 with less than a minute left in the first half.

“I thought we played a good game, came out strong, it’s not an effort issue it’s more cleaning up mistakes and trying to get our stuff right,” said Davenport, who threw for 138 yards and had 32 rushing yards. “I thought we did great with not getting bad calls and flagrant fouls, keeping our mouths shut, that helps a lot when we’re not losing yards on stupid penalties.”

Jordan Pastore, a sophomore, intercepted a pass with 20 seconds left in the second quarter. Arbour scored again and Windham led by six. Moments before the end of the first half, South Portland tied the game, 19-19.

Pastore said they need to keep their momentum up and stay focused. He was at the right place at the right time, and it felt really good to get that pick. 

“In the second half I think some kids were just waiting and expecting things,” said Tegan Perkins, who had three catches for 41 yards. “I saw after the interception where we just broke down and (South Portland) got the touchdown on the kick-return. Little things like that we just got to clean up. We got to know our roles and do them consistently and we’ll be good.”

The Red Riot offense scored two more times. Windham stayed in it, but did not score.

 

“We came out fighting in the first half, the second half was pretty slow; that’s something we just got to work on,” said Arbour, who had three catches for 25 yards and two TDs. “South Portland is a tough opponent, and we always got to fight against them. We had some great passing, obviously from Pat. We had some great defensive plays like Jordan’s interception. We defended the pass really well. We just got to work on the run a little bit. We got to work on everybody doing their own thing and once we do that as a team we will come together.” <

Raymond Parks and Recreation cross country club teaches kids importance of fitness through running

By Matt Pascarella

Raymond Parks and Recreation’s kindergarten through fourth grade cross country club have established a goal of helping young runners to understand the basics of running.

Raymond Parks and Recreation kindergarten through fourth
grade cross country club runner and second grader Ben Cyr
keeps up a good pace during the 1-mile race at Poland
Spring Resort in Poland on Saturday, Oct. 4.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  

Aside from weekly practices, the team runs in four cross country races during the 10-week program. During the races, they can run a half-mile or a 1-mile run. They ran their most recent race at the Poland Spring Resort in Poland on Saturday, Oct. 4.

“A lot of the kids think running is just running hard,” said co-coach Sukie Dean. From a distance running perspective, we teach basic fundamentals. Making sure we’re nurturing their desire to run, they’re young enough where ... if it’s not nurtured, you get tired of running. It’s about building up a foundation.”

Raymond Parks and Recreation kindergarten through fourth grade cross country coaches Dean and Chanelle Sheridan said that they’ve seen immense improvements in the time since they began teaching the kids how to run most effectively. The focus for the club is on long-distance running.

There’s been growth in everyone’s confidence. Sheridan’s child, Bennett, went from running a half-mile to running a mile. She said they are all stepping up and wanting to do more than they did at first.

Also, there’s been a big improvement in the team environment. They cheer each other on during the races and are aware that each runner is at a different skill level. The runners who finish early wait for the rest of their team and high-five each other once they’ve completed the race.

Although running can be an individual sport, Dean said the kids are starting to build and understand what it means to be on a team.

Third grader Chase Nelsen said he joined running club because it makes him feel good to run. He really likes it.

“It was very hot ... it was mostly downhill and uphill; the race was fast, but ... I was thinking of that candy and popcorn that awaited me (at the end),” said Nelsen after running the 1-mile race on Oct. 4. “I did amazing. I can’t wait to find out what the next race is going to be like.”

First grader Olive Theriault said her favorite thing is to run because it makes her feel happy inside and she likes it a lot.

"The trail was good. It was shady and a little sunny,” said second grader Ben Cyr about running the 1-mile race on Oct. 4. “I felt good about the race because it’s going to be really helpful for soccer – it’ll be better for stamina, and it’ll give you more power running.”

Errol Bortles, a first grader, joined the Raymond Parks and Recreation cross country club because his favorite thing is running and he wanted to run more.

“We work really hard in practice to talk about that stamina and the endurance and to try to keep ... some fuel in the tank,” said Raymond Parks and Recreation kindergarten through fourth grade cross country co-coach Abby Feather Nelsen. “The energy at the meets is totally different so they’re excited to run and compete. We try to meet them on the trail and remind them of that stamina; here they are very determined and in the zone throughout the whole race.”

Feather Nelsen said everyone did so amazing, and they tried their hardest during the Oct. 4 race. A lot of them have a goal of trying to do better than they did in the last race. She said she was proud of how everyone did on Oct. 4. <

WHS volleyball earns second consecutive win by defeating Westbrook

By Matt Pascarella

After Windham High’s varsity volleyball team previously shut out Sanford, 3-0, the Eagles earned their second win of the season during a match against Westbrook at Windham High on Friday, Sept. 26. The match was pushed to the fifth set in a best-of-five sets contest and Windham won the match, 3-2.

Windham senior Sydney Harmon spikes the ball over the
net during a volleyball match against Westbrook at
Windham High School on Friday, Sept. 26.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

“We knew that to win this we’d have to work together as a team and that’s something we’ve been working really hard on is trusting each other on the court,” said Windham senior libero Lauren Neal, who had 15 digs against Westbrook. “I think it really paid off tonight. Toward the end, our communication got a lot better, we were calling where things were going. I think our attitudes were pretty good throughout the match – we were staying positive. It was thinking about the big picture as the match was really close. We know we haven’t done our best this season and we want to be able to prove ourselves. A second win feels really good.”

Right out of the gate, Windham showed they were ready to win. Windham took the lead early and were able to hold onto it until the end of the set. At one point, Windham led by 11. Senior Josephine Sibley scored over 10 points serving in this set and Windham won the set in a 25-8 blowout. Overall, Sibley had 12 digs and nine aces.

In the second set, Westbrook took an early lead, but Windham wasn’t far behind. At one point Windham was down by seven points but fought back and tied the set, 19-19. Westbrook pulled ahead and took this set, 25-20.

The third set was tied 7-7 early on. Windham defense blocked a ball and allowed Windham to take the lead. Windham had a 10-point lead. With senior Rowan Cummings serving the Eagles reached set point and won, 25-14.

“It's not just winning,” said Cummings, who had two digs and four aces overall. “It's more about ... playing our best game. And playing up to how we know we're going to play. Our two main goals were communication and serve-receive. To bring that energy and support each other. It was having that communication and being there for each other (when the match got close) as a unit instead of individual players. I think what went really well was our energy, we had great serves, we had great hits. A big thing for us is to come into the game with a mindset of being our best, we need to have a more positive outlook to things because volleyball is a very error-surrounding game. We need to look at errors as ways to make improvements.”

In the fourth set, Windham fought hard to end the match here. Shortly, the set was tied 14-14 but Sibley spiked the ball, and the set was even closer. It was tied, 18-18, but Westbrook was able to pull ahead and won 25-20 to bring the match to a tiebreaker final set.

The fifth set is played to 15 and Windham jumped out in front early, and stayed there, as the Eagles’ defense kept Westbrook scoring to a minimum and Windham really came together. Quickly, it was match point and Windham won the deciding set, 15-6.

“We had lows, but we had more of the highs,” said Windham volleyball coach Chris Cloutier. “We found out how to get out of those lows a little bit faster. It tends to be on our serve-receive that we have a couple missed serve-receive and that’s what starts that low. It was just in serve-receive; they didn't carry it to hitting. We kept the errors in that area and didn’t let it spread to errors in our hitting and our serving. That is a good start to mental toughness. Tonight was a good step ... we’ve made progress from where we were. Back-to-back wins feels good; I think it’ll give the girls a little more confidence.” <

Windham Little League’s flamethrowers heating up fall ball

By Matt Pascarella

The 12-and-under “Swing Away” Windham Little League fall ball baseball team have three aces on their pitching staff in Windham sixth graders Byron Dansereau, Alex McGonagle and Elijah Sun. In seven games, the three players have pitched in 25-plus innings and have combined for over 70 strikeouts. Each pitcher consistently strikes out at least two batters an inning.

Windham Little League sixth grade pitchers Byron
Dansereau, left, Alex McGonagle and Elijah Sun gather
before a fall ball baseball game against Bonny Eagle
Atkinson in Buxton on Monday, Sept. 29.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

Swing Away coach Jason Sun said he noticed this skill in just their second game against Gray New-Gloucester that these three each had something special happening on the mound.

“In ... Byron’s first time pitching in the second inning had us out of it with three batters up, three batters down - all strike outs on 16 pitches thrown,” said Jason Sun. “I just remember thinking ‘wow, that was fast.’ In the third inning, Byron got the leadoff batter to ground out on the first pitch of the inning and then struck out the next two for a total of eight pitches in the inning. Elijah pitched the fifth and sixth innings, striking out three batters each inning. I started looking at the stats and realized Alex struck out three in the first inning. Collectively they had 14 strikeouts of their 15 outs; that is impressive. I looked at the stats from our first game and found their dominance wasn’t a fluke, Elijah had seven strikeouts through two innings and Alex had four strikeouts through two innings.”

Dansereau, McGonagle and Elijah Sun were preselected as the fall ball team captains and have set a tone of excellence. This team has players as young as 9-years old. The three captains provide outstanding role modeling for the younger players. In addition, each captain is hitting very well. When not pitching, McGonagle plays strong defense at first base, Dansereau is a powerful shortstop, and Elijah Sun is the solid arm at third base.

At this age, players are still learning the game, so when a pitcher takes the mound, their main focus just throwing strikes – and that can be somewhat of a challenge. While in his first year as a head coach, Jason Sun has been around Windham Little League for three years and by his assessment, the hardest thing for a pitcher at this level to do is throw strikes.

“I learned how (to improve) my pinpoint, my cutoff and how to improve my attitudes towards the players,” said McGonagle. “This season has been like a journey ... I’ve been doing so good lately throwing strikes, throwing heat. It’s just been great by having good coaches, and a good pitching staff.”

McGonagle began playing baseball in 2021. In his second year of fall ball, he started pitching. The more he threw, the better he became at it, and the better he became the more he liked pitching.

“First, I wasn’t very good, but we worked on it a lot,” said Elijah Sun. “I think if you put your mind to it, you can really achieve something. I think it was pretty cool watching somebody walk back to the dugout (after you’ve struck them out). Fall ball has been good. We’ve really ... faced some good teams.”

Elijah Sun started playing baseball three years ago. He wanted to pitch because it looked fun and he’s fallen in love with it.

“I was watching the Red Sox a lot, and I wanted to play a sport, so I chose baseball,” said Dansereau, who is in his second year of pitching. “It’s really fun, I like pitching and hitting and hanging out with my friends. I feel like I’m improving; pitching is fun. (All three of us) try hard and encourage the team.”

Dansereau was the starting pitcher in the Sept. 29 game against Bonny Eagle Atkinson. He said he was excited, but not nervous to start the game.

Jason Sun said these three pitchers have remained consistent since he first realized their abilities and said these three aces are good kids on and off the field. <