WMA athletes enjoy their time in the Sunshine State

Jan. 9, 2013


Chris Sparks

WILBRAHAM – The Wilbraham & Monson Academy (WMA) boys' basketball team was scheduled to play in one of the biggest high school tournaments in the country during winter break.

That tournament, however, was postponed at the last second, leaving coach Chris Sparks and the Titans with a flight to Florida and no games.

Sparks, though, managed to piece together a three-game schedule, and WMA returned from its Florida trip with wins over teams from Ohio, Florida and Canada.

"I think it was a great opportunity for our guys, not only to see and experience different teams but to also spend time together," Sparks said. "I think there was a lot of growth. That was the biggest takeaway. Some guys were able to let their guard down and not worry about school and focus on trying to get better as a team."

The Titans opened with a 47-42 victory over Moeller High School of Cincinnati. WMA then topped Waterloo of Toronto 72-55 before capping its trip with a convincing 90-57 triumph over Barron Collier of Naples, Fla.

Kamali Bey of Springfield, (13 points), Marcel Pettaway (12 points) and Luis Montero (10 points) led the Titans against Moeller. Kerem Kanter scored 17 points and Curtis Cobb added 13 in the win over Waterloo. Luis scored 15 points and Mustapha Heron netted 12 against Barron Collier.

The three wins pushed the Titans' record to 9-5.

"Marcel did a great job," Sparks said. "He played a little more and averaged a double-double for the trip. We got huge minutes off the bench from Earl (Stephens and Curtis, with Curtis establishing himself as a guy who can be dominant on the floor. Mustapha and Luis didn't turn the ball over."

As a bonus, the Titans had a good following at all three of their games, with alumni in the area making an effort to get out and see the team.

"There are a lot of alums in that area," Sparks said. "We had at least 10-15 alums at our games. Someone would come up to us and say they were in the Class of 1953. There's also a local restaurant there called Foxboro run by the Popoli family, who went to our school. They took care of our meals."

***

WMA's Matt Naumec came back from his golf trip to Florida with a nice tan. He also came back with quite an accomplishment.

Competing against more than 200 of the top golfers in the world, Naumec qualified for the championship bracket and finished tied for 36th at the Doral Publix Junior Golf Classic in Miami Dec. 20 to 23.

"I went down there not expecting a whole lot," Naumec said. "I had three weeks of hitting a ball off a mat. But I struck the ball well, putted well and played really good golf. I played better than I expected. I was able to place the ball in fairways and greens where I wanted."

Naumec shot rounds of 79 and 76 to advance with the top 63 golfers to the championship round. He fired a 77 on his final round for a three day total of 232.

"My whole goal that weekend was just to make the cut," he said. "It's such a great tournament with such great competition. To make the cut I knew I would have to play well. I achieved my goal."

The Doral tournament attracted many of the top junior golfers in the world. Eleven of the top 12 finishers were from outside of the United States.

"Everywhere I went I heard different languages: Spanish, French, German," said Naumec, who placed 11th among the players from the United States. "The winner was from Germany. It was awesome to go down there and play with kids from so many different countries.

"The tournament was a great experience. It's more than a golf tournament. It creates life-long goals for you. You can see people from all the different countries and you can interact with all these different players. The courses were amazing. I was so grateful to go down and play," he continued.

More than 50 college golf coaches attended the Doral tournament.

Naumec played in an invitation-only event the day before the Doral. He competed for Team New England in a Ryder Cup-style competition against Team Florida. Matt helped Team New England to the win.

"It was a great experience," said Naumec, who was the youngest player on Team New England. "I was humbled to be selected to play with such talent and players. They're role models because a lot of them are going on to great schools and I look up to them. It was a great experience for me to play with those guys."

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