Photos from the spring of 2004 by Alex von Kleydorff/Wilton Villager

The Warrior Nation Sports Blogs takes you back in time, to the spring of 2004, a time when life was just six years earlier than it is now.

In the top photo, boys lacrosse players Andrew Horton (14) and Steve Fowler (24) celebrate a goal that occurred during the team’s 9-6 win over Greenwich in the FCIAC semifinals.

In the next photo, Wilton girls lacrosse player Meghan Cratty protects the ball from a Sacred Heart defender during the Warriors 17-14 victory.

Below that, former Warriors softball pitcher Elize Brzoska knew things were looking up for the program, under new head coach Bruce Cunningham.

And at the bottom, baseball player Matt Orr goes head first into third base with a triple during the Warriors 4-2 win over Westhill.

If I’m still here in another six years, which current day Warriors might find themselves a part of the blog?

Stay tuned.

It only seems like it’s been forever since the Wilton boys swim team has been in the pool.

The Warriors were supposed to swim in the Class M championship meet on Tuesday, but the meet got bumped back 48 hours due to a broken water main at Wesleyan University.

The meet has been rescheduled for tonight.

Those expected to swim for Wilton are:

200 Medley Relay: Ranked 11th (Jack Winslow, Dan Mangan, Tim Lattimer, John Craig)

200 Free: Mason Molina (20th – Bonus Heat)

200 IM: Dan Mangan (3rd – Championship Heat); Tim Lattimer (7th – Championship Heat); Sean Higgins (17th – Bonus Heat)

50 Free: John Craig (8th – Championship Heat)

100 Butterfly: Dan Mangan (7th – Championship Heat)

100 Free: John Craig (16th – Consolation Heat); Sean Higgins (21st – Bonus Heat)

500 Free: Tim Lattimer (9th – Consolation Heat); Mason Molina (22nd – Bonus Heat)

200 Free Relay – 14th (Sean Higgins, Jack Winslow, Mason Molina, David Lourd)

100 Back: Jack Winslow (9th – Consolation Heat)

400 Free Relay: 11th – Sean Higgins, Tim Lattimer, John Craig, Dan Mangan)

Results will come in too late for this week’s edition of the Wilton Villager, which goes to press at 5 p.m., but we’ll get them online and on here as soon as we can.

This week, it’s mostly about the kids … And I don’t mean those playing at the high school level.

It was Championship Weekend for the Fairfield County Basketball League and the Wilton Basketball Association had three teams playing for FCBL titles on Saturday and as the classic crooner Meatloaf once sang, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

The Wilton seventh grade girls team won the 8th Grade B-Division championship and thus became our cover girls for this week while the Warriors 5th grade boys team capped off a memorable year with a title, as well.

The Warriors 8th Grade squad more than doubled its win total from a year ago, but fell to New Canaan in the final.

Plus, as a bonus for those still shy of high school, instead of featuring a High School Sports Extra page this week, we give you a Middle School Sports Extra, including an “On The Record” interview with 5-foot-11 12-year-old Erica Meyer of the Wilton 7th Grade championship team.

Hard to beleive it’s almost a week since the high school seen iced over for the Warriors boys  hockey team, who suffered a third-period cal-Amity and fell by an 8-3 score to Amity Regional High.

Plus, some girls ice hockey players are going national, another basketball team took Stratford by storm and even some youth hockey players and Wahoo swimmers made news this week, as well.

If you can’t wait for our print edition, you can always read us online by clicking here.

The Wilton Lacrosse Association, in conjunction with STX, will once again sponsor a free girls lax clinic on Saturday, March 27, from 2:30-3:30pm at the Wilton HS Stadium Field.

There will be lots of prizes for everyone and should be lots of fun.

Athletes should bring stick, goggles, mouth guard and wear sneakers. This is a rain or shine event!

For more information, contact the WLA’s Steve Flanagan at 203-761-8515.
The clinic will be held right after the 3rd Annual Wilton Girls Lax Play Day Event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the Fujitani and Lilly fields.

This annual event has become a national draw as the Warriors have several Top 5 nationally ranked teams (West Genny, Moorestown and Garden City)  as well as powerhouse programs in their respective states.

Wilton High girls ice hockey players, from left, Sammi Blicht, Lara Schnitzler and Emily Tucker are going national next month. (Contributed photo)

Three members of the Wilton High School girls hockey team are going national.

Juniors Emily Tucker and Lara Schnitzler and sophomore Sammi Blicht, members of the Mid Fairfield Stars U-16 team, competed in the New England Regional Tier 2 Championship game last weekend, thereby qualifying them for the U.S. National Championship tournament that begin on April 7, in Lansing, Mich.

The Mid-Fairfield group will be one of two teams representing the region at Nationals.

It's St. Baldricks time again at Wilton High School, where at least 50 students, including many athletes, plan on shaving their heads to help raise awareness for kids and cancer. (File photo by Alex von Kleydorff)

Wilton High School senior Tim Becker, whose best-known athletic exploits are on the track and the cross country trails of the FCIAC, has become the — ahem — hair apparent to former WHS lacrosse player Reed Dempsey to head up the WHS “St. Baldrick’s Foundation”.

“It is an organization in which students, and a few faculty, volunteer to shave their heads in order to raise awareness and funds for kids’ cancer.,” Becker wrote me in an e-mail today. “This year we have almost 50 ’shavees’ and we are expecting more to pour in before the event tomorrow. ”

Becker wants any other athletes to know that they are more than welcome to give their hair for the cause, as well.

“Over the past few years, St. Baldrick’s has been very common among Wilton sports teams, specifically lacrosse,” Becker wrote.

The event is scheduled to run from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday at the Wilton High cafeteria. And, minors, take note: If you want to shave your head you’ll need your parents permission to do so.

It’s always been a hair-raising tradition for Wilton athletes to join this cause and Becker and Dempsey are hoping other athletes will get involved, as well.

Click here to learn more information.

Kindall Healy of Lehigh University, right, is a 2007 graduate of Wilton High School. She was in Fairfield on Tuesday as her team beat Fairfield University, 14-13, in sudden death overtime. (Photo by John Nash/Wilton Villager)

Give or take a mile or two, depending upon the route you take, it is just about 16 miles from Wilton High School to Fairfield University.

It took Kindall Healy, WHS Class of 2007, 290 miles to get there, though.

Healy, the daughter of Matt and Kristine Healey, is a junior defenseman/midfielder for the Lehigh University women’s lacrosse team. On Tuesday afternoon, Healey and her Mountain Hawk teammates took on the Stags of Fairfield University and spent a little more time on campus than they hoped, pulling out a thrilling 14-13 win after going to a sudden death overtime.

Healy had a goal in the first half as Lehigh led by an 11-5 score. In the second half, though, Fairfield rallied back to tie the game at 13-13 and force overtime.

It was Healy’s second trip to Fairfield and being so close to home meant a lot to her.

“It’s great,” she said. “It’s kind of a tease being so close to home. But it’s nice to come back, being a part of new team and coming back to my home territory, but definitely it’s good to get a win.”

The last time Healy came “home” — well, almost home — was her freshman year. Fairfield won in triple overtime that season, so this season there was a sense of revenge for Healy and her teammates.

Plus, as a bonus, the win moved Lehigh to 6-0 on the season.

“I knew going into this season, we’re young, but we’ve got incredible talent and an amazing coaching staff,” she said. “We have such great chemistry, too, which is awesome. We just work really well together.”

Part of that team chemistry is Healy, who is listed as a defenseman, but also fills midfield spots for Lehigh on an as-needed basis.

“I was  midfield in high school, but I transitioned to defense,” Healy explained. “If I’m ever needed in the midfield, I’ll move up to that position. It’s like whenever they need me, I’ll go. I like it.”

Healy was in the midfield at the end of the regulation and at the end of the first overtime, where she also most set up game-winning goals that were denied by the Fairfield goaltender.

Tuesday’s game also pitted Healy against another former Warrior as Caitlin Young, who graduated from the University of North Carolina last year, but had one year of eligibility left and is attending Fairfield to get her Master’s degree. Young, however, missed the game due to a concussion.

Still, Healy enjoys running into former Warriors on the other side of the field.

“Oh my gosh, it’s always so awesome,” she said. “It’s so much fun to see how other people’s styles change as they go to another team, but its always get to see a former teammate.”

Through six games this season, Healy — who had 13 career goals coming into her junior year — has already scored seven goals on only 10 shots.

She and the Mountain Hawks host Lafayette on Saturday.

• • •
Above, is a “movie” I put together from some of the many shots I took at Saturday’s Fairfield County Basketball League’s championship game doubleheader at Ridgefield High School, featuring the 7th and 8th grade girls basketball programs.

Unfortunately, another assignment took me to Hartford later that afternoon and I was able to attend the boys 5th Grade championship victory.

To view more photos from the girls doubleheader, though, please click here.

The Wilton girls indoor track team sent two relay teams to compete in the 2010 National Scholastic Indoor Championship meet at The Armory’s New Balance Track in New York.

The girls 4×800 team — which included Julia Broach, Brynn Hansson, Sarah Guth and Cailey Fiesel — placed 15th out of 37 squads. Their time was 9:39.61, almost 12 seconds off the school record time they had set at the New England Championships. (The winning time was 9:08.77).

In the distance medley relay, the team of Rebecca Craig, Grace House, Hoelzl, and Fiesel ran to a 20th place showing in 12:58.38. A total of 26 teams took part with the winning time being 12:03.19.

Wilton seventh-grader Hannah Maatallah pushes the ball up court during Saturday's championship game against New Milford in the Eighth Grade B-Division finale. (Photo by John Nash/Wilton Villager)

It was at some point in the second half when I dropped by to visit Wilton High School freshmen basketball players Casey Pearsall and Megan Boeppele as they watched the Wilton Basketball Association’s Seventh Grade team play in Saturday’s Fairfield County Basketball League Eighth-Grade B-Division championship game against New Milford.

“You know what I think?” I started.

“Don’t jinx it,” Casey pleaded, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“I’m guessing by the time you guys are seniors,” I said, “You guys could be playing for an FCIAC championship.”

It’s a mighty prediction to be sure, but I did back up that bold statement with, “If everybody keeps improving the way they should over the next three years.”

And I meant it.

That’s how good this year’s Seventh Grade group is — too good in fact to compete with their peers.

After a 23-3 regular season in the Seventh Grade A-Division, the folks at the FCBL — who like to share the wealth when it comes to winning — told the Warriors to jump up a couple of divisions.

The girls did so without batting an eyelash and then, without missing a beat, took on all comers and beat them, too.

And Saturday’s performance, in which the Warriors dismantled and humbled the New Milford Eighth Graders by a 49-32 score, did lead Casey Pearsall to utter two words.

“I’m excited.”

As the whole program should be.

This team has height in Erica Meyer, who is closing in on six feet, and Anna Pucci and Cori Cannavino.

It’s also got solid guard play in Haley English, Makenna Pearsall and Hannah Maatallah and Sara Dickinson.

And it has a superstar in the making in Erin Cunningham, a pure shooter with an immense amount of basketball savvy that belies her years, who, if she ever developed the tiniest of selfish-ness in her, could be Wilton High’s next 1,000-point scorer.

It even had two players — Casey Tucker and Alex Lamantia — who were key to the team’s regular season success missing from the final because the multi-faceted Warriors were in a local production of Peter Pan, too.

They’d make a pretty competitive AAU team on their own, since most of them play AAU anyways.

The future is there for the taking, but it’s not going to be handed to them. They’re going to have to work for it, to strive for it and reach for it.

But it’s there. Trust me. I know.

Following the game, Wilton varsity coach Jaclyn Woitkowski addressed the team. As she spoke, there seemed to be a slight twinkle in her eye.

Perhaps it was just the reflection of the ear-to-ear grins worn by the championship-winners. But I prefer to think of it as something else.

The future of Wilton girls basketball.

• • •

Click here to read a midseason story the Wilton Villager published on this team.