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Swinging into spring sports at HVRHS
Mar 22, 2025
HVRHS sophomore Wyatt Bayer will suit up for the Mountaineers' varsity baseball team.
Photo by Riley Klein
FALLS VILLAGE — With the arrival of warm weather, so too comes a new season of athletics at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
The Mountaineers will field teams in five different sports for the spring season: baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis and track and field.
Baseball gets the varsity season started with a scrimmage March 31 at home against Wolcott Technical High School. The Mountaineers will be coached by Bobby Chatfield this year. The last time most HVRHS varsity players took to the diamond was in August 2024 when Housy Juniors won the Babe Ruth League District 4 Northwest Connecticut summer baseball championship.
With a surplus of baseball players this year, junior varsity baseball returns to HVRHS. The JV boys, coached by Russell Sears, will get the season started April 5 on the road against Shepaug Valley High School.
Softball starts April 5 as well with a home game against Shepaug Valley. Coaches Pete Foley and Kaleigh Selino led the team to a 13-9 record and a trip to the Class S tournament last year. The Mountaineers will need to establish a new hurler on the mound after graduating star pitcher Anne Moran in 2024.
Boys and girls tennis begins April 7. The boys, coached by Jeff Tripp, will travel to Lakeview High School for the first meet of the season. At the same time, the girls, coached by Don Drislane and Mo Kirby-Dore, host Lakeview on the newly refinished courts at HVRHS.
The lacrosse season begins with a rematch of last year’s Western Connecticut Lacrosse Conference girls championship game. HVRHS, coached by Laura Bushey, will travel to play the reigning champs St. Paul Catholic High School in Bristol April 9. St. Paul defeated HVRHS 13-12 in a riveting league final last May.
Track and field is set to start April 22 with a home meet against Lakeview High School. HVRHS, coached by Alan Lovejoy, has a number of decorated athletes returning to the track this year including Kyle McCarron, Ava Segalla and Anthony Labbadia, each of whom competed in the CIAC State Open meet last June. Many more returning runners and jumpers gained state-level experience last year at the CIAC Class S meet in May.
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One of a dozen artists participating in the Northlight Art Center’s 14th annual student exhibit is Cathleen Halloran, above, who paused for a photo by one of her several works on display. The opening reception at the Sharon Historical Society’s Gallery on Saturday, March 15, brought out a robust group of local art fans.
Leila Hawken
Fans of fine art filed into the Sharon Historical Society’s gallery on Saturday, March 15, for the opening reception of student works from the Northlight Art Center in Amenia, New York.
Northlight was founded in Sharon by Pieter Lefferts in 2010 and later moved to Amenia. This is the 14th year of the annual student exhibit.
“It’s an invitation for people who may never have thought that they might be included in an art exhibit,” said Lefferts about the show that includes 34 works created by a dozen artists. Lefferts added that visitors will see a range of abilities and individual expression.
“I like to draw out innate expression,” Lefferts said. Lefferts said there were 34 pieces as he had hung them all the day before.
Several works on display were inspired by local subjects. For example, Kathleen Kulig’s “Grand Dame of the Orchard” depicts an actual old apple tree found at a friend’s home.
“I’ve actually picked apples from that tree,” Kulig said.
Kathleen Kulig with her “Grand Dame of the Orchard” painting.Leila Hawken
Artist Cathleen Halloran’s acrylic on paper painting titled “Eleven Eleven” is a loving remembrance of her dog, Maddie, whose death was imminent as Halloran created the painting, an expression of her subject’s magnificent spirit.
Variety is evident in artists’ ages, mediums, experience and subject matter.
“It’s always a pleasure to see how the artists grow every year, a fascinating variety,” said Historical Society President Chris Robinson as he dished out the wine and other beverages in the reception area.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the historical society, although not all works are for sale. The exhibit will be open until Friday, May 9, during historical society hours. For additional information, go to www.sharonhist.org.
Coinciding with the gallery show, the Sharon Historical Society’s current exhibit is worth a visit. Titled “Family Collections,” the exhibit shows collective Sharon memories found in the artifacts left by ancestors, remembered now in part by what they left behind. Each is a clue to the town’s historic past, spanning two centuries.
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Tess Marks as Little Sally and Jackson Olson as Officer Lockstock in the Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of "Urinetown."
Tom Brown
Last week’s Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of “Urinetown” featured strong performances and superb choreography.
The remodeled auditorium at Housatonic Valley Regional High School made a big difference as well. New seats were a welcome addition, and the increased technical capability meant that the show was flawless from a production point of view.
The difference was so noticeable that director Christiane Olson thanked the taxpayers of Region One for supporting the recent school improvements project in brief remarks before the start of the matinee performance Saturday, March 15.
Katelin Lopes and Andy Delgado were powerful as the star-crossed lovers Hope Cladwell and Bobby Strong.
Jackson Olson got a lot of laughs with his deadpan take on Officer Lockstock, often in tandem with Tess Marks’ wide-eyed Little Sally.
The entire cast hit all the right buttons, not the easiest thing to do with a show that contains multiple layers of satire.
The orchestra, led by Tom Krupa, was rock solid.
And Amber Cameron’s choreography was seamless. The cast looked like they’d been dancing together all their lives.
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Technology and social media were once a foe to the age-old quest of inspiring young adults to read. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic young women started making short 1-minute TikToks to document and share their reading experiences. A community, known as BookTok, grew roots and began to blossom.
A subgenre of literature that has emerged through this community of readers has been labelled as “weird-girl fiction.” This sub-genre explores the abstract, dark and complex aspects of femininity with the utilization of symbolism, art and metaphors. An example would be "Nightbitch" by Rachel Yoder.
The story follows a young mother of a newborn boy who abandoned her career to be a stay-at-home mom. One day she notices a dark patch of hair emerging from the back of her neck and her canines begin to sharpen. Despite her fear and visible symptoms, her husband dismisses her, as she morphs into a dog. Yoder unravels the shift of motherhood and complicated female characters through magical realism that captivates the reader.
In conversation with popular BookToker Haley, or @whathalesreading, she reflected on Yoder’s ability to cast a light on women who feel caged in the constraints of conventional womanhood.Haley said Yoder’s writing plays with “feeling misunderstood, conflicted, caught between role and intention — these are themes that play out in women’s lives all the time that weird girl fiction is giving voice to.” Weird girl” books flesh out the meaning and importance of womanhood that bring light to darkness.
Somewhere in the darkness young women are feeling seen, safe.
Literature has served many purposes, protest being one. Historically, women have been caged in narratives, expectations and laws to fulfill their role as a child bearer and wife. “Weird girl” books fight against the single purpose role of womanhood being marriage and motherhood.
In these stories, women have the power to choose. The reader may not like the character or agree or understand and it seems that is the point. A woman does not have to be digestible or agreeable to be loved or respected or admired.
It is important to note that for centuries, women writers have been pushing boundaries and breaking archaic narratives. Executive Director of the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon Gretchen Hachmeister said “these latest writers are part of a centuries-long tradition of works by women about women dealing with their rage, desires and experiences.”Think “The Bell Jar,” “Frankenstein”, “The Days of Abandonment” — works that follow women through imaginative narratives that carved out a new space in the literary world. That set the stage for women to be complicated, to have hate-able qualities, to be human, to be seen.
As the world gets weirder, creativity is a force for change, for escapism, for community. In uncertain times connection is a guiding light through these murky waters. While readers have banned together through TikTok to build a community, there are still brick and mortar spaces to cultivate community.
Local libraries are the cornerstone for the practice of accessible free speech and thought.
As a life-time Lakeville resident I grew up among the shelves of Scoville Memorial Library. Despite my mother’s warning I took out too many books each week and could never finish them all.
In those stories I uncovered pieces of myself in the writers’ words. Not every found piece I enjoyed, but I knew someone else had experienced it and put truth to page so I did not have to feel alone.
As an adult(ish) I still go to the library. I read strange books written by women that concern my loved ones at times but have made me feel free. Free to be the woman I choose to be.
Olivia Geiger is an MFA student at Western Connecticut State University and a lifelong resident of Lakeville.
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