January 8, 2007
The Ledyard High School girls' basketball team is two wins away from taking the program to a place it hasn't been in 11 years — the state tournament.
The Colonels have been the most pleasant surprise of the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls' basketball season. They've already won more games this season (six) than in the previous two seasons combined. They need just two more wins in order to qualify for states.
"That's our goal," Colonels first-year coach Allison Macca said. "Everything seems to be going well. The fan base has been good and the support has been unbelievable."
Ledyard (6-4, 1-1 ECC Large Division) won just nine of its previous 80 games over the last four seasons, and its only win last season came during its last regular-season game (a 40-33 victory over Woodstock Academy on Feb. 14, 2006).
Macca credited Kathryn Tabor, last season's coach, with improving fundamentals and bringing more discipline. The mental aspect still needed work, however.
"The biggest thing was changing their mentality," Macca said. "They needed confidence in how to win a basketball game, how to compete with teams that they should definitely compete with. Change the atmosphere. Change the attitude.
"This year I went in and talked a lot about team building. We have a lot of team events like pasta parties and things like that. Practicing hard every minute. Understanding all the little things. The details, such as how hard you have to work."
Winning their first game of the season (35-28 over Killingly) was a huge hurdle for the Colonels, who proved to themselves that they could compete.
"I think that was probably the biggest thing for us," Macca said. "I don't think they even realized how important that was. To see, hey, we can win. Even in the fourth quarter, they were still very scared. They wanted the time to run out quickly.
"We had practiced a lot of game situations, and we instilled an attitude of, 'We're not just playing and hoping to win; we go out there versus certain teams and expect win.' "