By Michael Letendre
EAST HAVEN – Bristol Central’s sports programs nearly cleaned up this past fall.
It started with Frankie Porrini and the boys cross country team snaring yet another CCC South Championship.
And then for the first time since 2008, the girls soccer program took home the CCC South title – another excellent achievement for the crew that was a dozen-plus seniors strong.
On Thanksgiving, the Rams pulled off a huge 13-6 win over crosstown rival Bristol Eastern with senior Tre Blair nabbing his 1,000th yard to go out on top.
And then, in what turned into a historic event, the girls volleyball program over at BC went to the state title game for the first time in school history.
Central (19-8) made its championship debut against undefeated Joel Barlow on Saturday, November 19.
It was an excellent Class L effort – losing in straight sets over a tremendous effort.
Game scores were 25-13, 25-20 and 25-23.
“They don’t have anything to hang their heads about,” said Central coach Lance Pepper after the championship contest.
Central’s senior core, led by Brooke Valentino (280 kills, 46 aces, 272 digs), Olivia Clingan (168 kills, 50 aces, 74 blocks), Maddie Lodovico (213 kills, 71 aces, 290 digs), De’Ana Prowell and Sam Sklenka (474 digs), led this impressive crew to new heights.
And anytime you can navigate the choppy waters of the Class L bracket – loaded with some of the best squads in the state – and can make it to the final match, that’s a special season no matter the outcome.
“I think it’s going to take time to kind of reflect on everything,” said Pepper. “You look back at everything we’ve accomplished. It’s unreal, everything we’ve done, what the kids have done.”
The list of Central’s accomplishments is a mile long in 2022.
The Rams won the CCC South championship over rival Bristol Eastern – not an easy task.
That CCC South title, by the way, was the first one in school history.
Speaking of the Lancers, the Rams posted its first victory over that outstanding program since November of 1994.
Central won the contest in straight sets 25-23, 25-20 and 25-18 over a huge victory.
The 19 wins was also a school record as was the trip to the semifinals – resulting in a 3-1 triumph over East Lyme (25-15, 25-15, 22-25 and 25-17) – leading to a chance at a Class L championship.
And then there were plenty of individual awards which were tremendous in scope.
Setter Alex Rivera (61 aces, 245 digs, 769 assists) along with Valentino, Lodovico, Clingan and Sklenka were all named to the CCC South All-Conference team.
In the end, that group coming away with a lot of hardware for a superb regular season wasn’t much of a surprise.
Don’t forget the contributions of sophomore Grace Higgins (96 kills, 64 aces, 156 digs) and freshman Lily Kirk (111 kills, 41 aces, 42 blocks, 60 digs) – two athletes were going to be hearing a lot about over the next two to three seasons over at Bristol Central.
To end the postseason, Sklenka earned First Team All-State honors while Valentino made the Second Team.
What more can be said about this outstanding group?
“We had five all-conference [players], first time beating [Bristol] Eastern in twenty-eight years, winning our conference pod, making it all the way to the finals,” said Pepper.
After dishing out that amazing list of accomplishments, Pepper paused to collect himself – obviously overcome by the moment at hand.
“I don’t know what else to say about these kids,” said a tearful Pepper.
They sure said a lot to end the fall scholastic campaign of 2022, making the city of Bristol extremely proud in the process.
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