DePaolo Middle School recently announced its honor roll for the fourth marking period. Grade 6, First Honors: Robert Adamo, Praise Adekola, Sarah Anderson, Tyler Bade, Joshua Badgley, Samantha Baleshiski, Jake Beaupre, Kaitlyn Bertola, Joseph Bethencourt, Abhiram Bhamidipati, Emily Blaszko, Nathan Borkowski, Owen Bouchard, Sydney Bradshaw, Kyra Brayall, Samantha Bucci, Chiara Burgio, Daniel Butlien, Robert Cantillon, Valente Castillo, Caitlin Cochran, Mikayla Costello, Sarah Csuka, Jenna Curley, John DeGumbia, Kelly Doyle, Jacob Drechsler, Isabella Feest, Logan Fischer, Justin Fontano, Tyler Garry, Mitchell Geary, Chantelle Gimenez, Michael Goralski, Jacob Gravel, Kate Gray, Taylor Hamlin, Maxwell Heath, Lily Heidgerd, Russell Hotchkiss, Matthew Howard, Michaela Hughes, Adam Hunter, Brett Hunter, Timothy Jagos, Katherine Jez, Brendan Kavanagh, Erica Klem, Jason Krar, Karolina Kurzatkowska, Cade LaChance, Lauren Laius, Gianina Lambert, Abigail Lamson, Haley Larrabee, Noah Lee, Molly MacAllister, Phillip Mallett, Logan McInnis, Brandon McKnerney, Craig McPherson, Jake Miceli, Julia Michnowicz, Ryan Mikosz, Justin Miranda, Ryan Monte, Hailey Morelli, Sabrina Morelli, Cameron O’Hara, Kate Olsen, Benjamin Palladino, Hieu Phan, Rocco Possidento, Olivia Potter, Lidia Prusak, Samantha Przybylski, Elaina Rivers, Jacob Romano, Hailey Root, Kyra Rosenberg, Charlene Roy, Ethan Salsbury, Jeremiah Segrue, Julia Semmel, Olivia Sherwood, Jake Siedel, Bianca Spataro, Eli Steindl, Nicholas Stevens, Luke Tedeschi, Julia Theriault, Matthew [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer The first game against Avon was an extra-inning contest that began on July 3 and ended on July 12. The second contest saw a 3-0 Southington lead evaporate in a flurry of miscues and errors. Southington posted an 8-4 victory in the third game, but it was too late. American Legion Post 72 led in all three games. Southington out-scored their Avon rivals, 13-11, over the three game regular season series, but Avon won the one stat that mattered. With a 2-1 advantage in their head-to-head contests, Avon ended Southington’s bid for back-to-back zone titles. Coach Marc Verderame said that he hopes his team learned a valuable lesson in the loss. “You can’t have the lead that late and give it up, but I think we’ll learn from that. We know that we can play with a team like Avon. We know that we’re the best team in the zone, and we know we gave it away,” he said. “I told the kids that we’re going to be judged by what happens next.” Things are heating up for the local Legionnaires. They survived a stretch of 11 games over a 10 day stretch that included [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer When Matt Wayton opened registration for the 2013 Wayton Open tennis tournament, he wasn’t ready for anything that followed. Within a few days, he was deluged with entries. Over the next few weeks, they flooded into his home office in an endless stream of emails and phone calls. “It was incredible,” said Wayton, a former Blue Knight tennis captain. “We had over 200 entries, and when you count all the doubles teams we have almost 400 people involved. We have five divisions this year with men’s singles, women’s singles, and doubles in both divisions. We’ve added mixed doubles, too.” With all the interest, Wayton began the mad scramble to secure courts, schedule matches, and organize the event. It became clear that there weren’t enough high school courts to accommodate the burgeoning brackets. It was evident that two weekends wasn’t enough time to play all of the matches even if the weather cooperated. Wayton made an impassioned plea to the Parks & Recreation Department, and they sent the cavalry. “We couldn’t do it without their help. They’ve been great to us. They gave us the courts at Panthorn Park and Recreation Park. We’ve become too big [...]
By Gayla Cawley Correspondent The kid-friendly Sloper Express mini-train has pulled into the Rossini Program station at YMCA Camp Sloper. The train’s name is a play on words using the camp’s name and the popular holiday movie, “The Polar Express.” Camp Director Mark Pooler said he got the idea when he was taking his family for a trip to the Meriden Mall over the winter. The mall featured a new mini-train, designed to give kids a ride around a mini-train track. For a ride to accommodate all of his children, the trip would have cost $15 to $20 for about a five minute session. Pooler liked the idea of the train but wasn’t pleased with the price. He began to think about how a train would be able to serve the children at camp, without emptying their parents’ pockets. After some brainstorming, he began to search online for different manufacturers. After some searching, where he found a price range of $15,000 to $30,000 for the train, he settled on Roundhouse Company because of their friendly sales atmosphere, optional design, and a median price of $15,000 to $20,000. The train was paid for out of the camp’s Improvement fees line of [...]
By Lisa Capobianco Correspondent Between summer squash, tomatoes, peach pies and cupcakes, the local farmers market sells a wide assortment of fresh produce on the town green. But one local vendor sells a “skin-quenching” item: soap. Anneliese Dadras, a long-time resident of Southington, is the founder of her own soap-making business called “Bradley Mountain Soaps.” Dadras started making soap last year after suffering from the skin condition, psoriasis, for nearly 20 years. She has experienced itchy, bleeding skin, and felt self-conscious in public. “It can be a little debilitating or even embarrassing, and you’re always fighting an itch,” Dadras said. Skin conditions are not new to Dadras’s family—her mother has dealt with them, and her 11-year-old son Kiyan has suffered from eczema since he was about five years old. This led Dadras to take a proactive approach to solve her family’s skin problems. “We wanted to address our own skin conditions, and then what we realized is there’s just some people and children that have issues with their skin, and actually it feels really good to help people,” Dadras said. The key ingredients that make this soap different from store-made soaps are olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil and goat [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer Zac Murillo grabbed hold of his first opponent, drove him into the mat, and rolled him over and over like an alligator in a death spiral. In each of his first four bouts in the national spotlight the Southington wrestler rolled, flipped, and turned his opponent as officials tried to keep up with the scoring. He wrestled for just over one minute in the first day, and finished with a 3-0 record. It wasn’t until his semifinal match that anybody managed to score on the 88-pound grappler, and he clawed his way into the finals with all but one victory coming by technical fall. Murillo might not have been crowed a national champion at the 2013 ASICS/Vaughan Cadet National Championships in Fargo, N.D., but the incoming junior became the first Blue Knight to advance to the freestyle championship bout. His second place finish might be the best finish from a Connecticut wrestler at the national meet. “We’ve had kids go out there before, but we’ve never had anyone place,” said Southington High School wrestling coach Derek Dion. “Connecticut’s only had two kids that I know of in the finals, and he’s one. That tells you [...]
By Ed Harris Editor The Italian-American Festival returns to Center Street this weekend. The three-day street festival, managed by the Sons of Italy and the Southington chapter of UNICO, aims to carry on the customs and traditions of the Italian culture. “It’s a gathering of friends,” said Bill Della Vecchia, who co-chairs the festival with Bob Triano. Della Vecchia described the event as simple and small, with a street festival atmosphere. The festival will include 25 food vendors, a wine tasting competition and a wide variety of entertainment highlighted by Italian themed singers and bands. The festival usually attracts a crowd, though weather can prove to be a hindrance. “We’ve had a good turnout every year,” said Joe LaPorte, who handles the entertainment for the festival. Along with the food, music is a large part of the festival, and LaPorte has the stage packed all three days of the festival. Some returning musical guests include Aaron Caruso and the Southington Stars group. Other musical guests include Roberto Pavortto, Vincent Riccardi and Emily Wright, Marty Roache and an Elvis tribute. Non musical acts include an Italian magician and the Young Italians group, led by Tina Riccio, which consists of youths that [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer Brett Susi stopped halfway to second base and stared at the catcher to try to draw the throw. In the delay, Zac Susi slipped into third base and watched carefully for a chance to head home. Willimantic’s catcher seemed confused as Southington runners toyed with him like a kitten with a ball of string. On Monday, July 22, Southington Post 72 opened the American Legion Baseball postseason against the third place team in Zone 6. Willimantic had size. Willimantic had a postseason win under their belt, but they didn’t have Southington’s speed or audacity. Matt DiNello, the power hitter, ran out a bunt for a single. Matt Santovasi beat out a sure out for a two-out single in the third inning that sparked a six-run rally. Southington runners combined for six stolen bases, and Willimantic never knew what hit them. Southington rallied to a 14-3 win that was stopped by mercy rule after seven innings. “I thought they were a very good team. They had some big guys and a lot of athletes, but we just put the pressure on them,” said Southington coach Marc Verderame. “We got into our offense and started stealing bases [...]
by Ed Harris Editor The Republican slate for November features many familiar names and faces even though there is a bit of a shakeup at the top of the ticket. Four of the six incumbent Republican town councilors have decided against seeking reelection. The only incumbents running again are Cheryl Lounsbury and Stephanie Urillo. Council Chairman John Dobbins, Lou Martocchio, Peter Romano and Dr. Al Natelli are not seeking reelection. “They’ve served four years,” said Republican Town Committee Chairman Brian Callahan. “The way the council is structured now there is a minimum of six meetings for every council meeting. People are tired.” Rounding out the Town Council slate are former councilors Michael Riccio and Victoria Triano, along with Paul Champagne and Thomas Lombardi. Natelli cited family and a bit of fatigue as the reasons why he decided against seeking a third term on the council. Natelli said he had accomplished almost all of his goals he had begun with. “I just need to recharge the batteries,” he said. “I enjoyed what we did for the town.” Though he has not served on the council since 2007, Riccio is a bit of an old hand in local politics. He served eight [...]
By Ed Harris Editor The Southington Democrats have announced their slate for November, a mixture of old and new faces. “I’m excited with the candidates we’re presenting,” said Robert Berkmoes, a member of the nominating committee. For Town Council the Democrats are running incumbents John Barry, Dawn Miceli and Christopher Palmieri. They are joined by Dennis Conroy, who served on the Council for a term in the late 1970s, Chris Kelley and David Rinaldi. Palmieri, who has served as minority leader for the last two years, said it is important for the Democrats to win back the Town Council, adding that the majority party has control over appointments to the non-elected boards in town. “It’s time to get good Democrats back in office,” he said. Rinaldi may be a somewhat new name to Southington politics, but the Council candidate has a long family history of public service. His father, the late Donald M. Rinaldi, served as a state senator in the 16th district for two years and David has previously served ten years as an alderman in Waterbury. He moved to Southington ten years ago. “It’s time to get back in,” he said. “Make myself part of the community.” Rinaldi [...]
By John Goralski Sportswriter Matt Wayton slumped in a canvas chair and stared out at the empty courts. Nobody was in the bleachers. Nobody was warming up. The women’s doubles finalists were already making their way back to their cars, and his three weary volunteers were already breaking down tables and taking down signs. On Sunday, July 21, Wayton was expecting to be celebrating the successful completion of his 10-day charity tournament, but that just isn’t the case. He survived one bout of rain, a scorching heat wave, and over 400 entrants to his annual tournament that helps fund two scholarships for Southington High School graduates. Wayton has only crowned two of his five bracket winners as his tournament stretches into an unprecedented third week. Three more matches will have to be played, and that has the tournament director thinking ahead to next year’s schedule. “It was a little bit disappointing that we couldn’t do a true Championship Sunday, but we had too many scheduling issues with players and doubles teams now that we’ve gotten so big,” he said. “We did get rain on the first Saturday, but we got caught up by the end of the first weekend. It [...]
By Ed Harris Editor The Milldale train depot has recently reopened as a museum. The railroad line that once came through town is now Rails to Trails. Volunteers and officials have long sought to restore the train depot as an attraction for the people that utilize the trail. “It’s a passive historical site,” Town Attorney Mark Sciota said at a recent Town Council meeting announcing that the museum would open this past weekend. “We have a lot if interest from train enthusiasts.” Numerous volunteers have helped refurbish the depot. The owners of Southington Paint donated time and materials to put a new coat of red paint on the building. Eagle Scout Scott Casolo painted the inside walls. The Parks and Recreation Department cleaned up the interior of the building. The items on display at the depot were donated by the Southington Historical Society. The items are housed in display cases built by the Kiwanis Club. The items on display include mostly photographs and text explaining the photos. One of the photos on display is an autographed Doris Day photo. The depot was featured in the 1959 film “It Happened to Jane,” which stared Day and Jack Lemmon. Though they no [...]
By John Goralski Sports Writer Marc Verderame didn’t try to conceal his grin as reporters swarmed around his players at Fuessenich Field in Torrington. He laughed as one player tried to interrupt his teammate’s post game interview with a good natured joke. He nodded his head with satisfaction as he listened to the interview unfold and the player was heaping praise on his teammates rather than championing his own efforts. Verderame didn’t try to conceal his pride in his players as he joined in with their postgame celebrations. It’s no surprise that the Southington American Legion baseball team is just one win from securing a berth in state finals. It’s no surprise that Verderame’s team is in the driver’s seat as the only undefeated team in the double-elimination regional brackets. Verderame credits the teamwork, cooperation, and camaraderie as Southington’s biggest assets during their third consecutive postseason rally. “They’re like my little brothers,” he said with a wide smile. “I really like where we are right now.” Post 72 didn’t repeat as Zone 1 champions. They just survived a first round scare to reach the double-elimination tournament, but Southington took advantage of the opportunity. They out-scored opponents, 14-6, in the two [...]
