All recaps are as reported by team captains. Bear Facts makes every effort to contact any and all captains; any omission is therefore not the responsibility of the news staff.

Boys Cross Country
Captains: Erik Jacobsen and Scott Jacobsen
Coaches: Joe Scelia and Rene Acquisto

Coming into this fall’s season, the expectations were low. Unranked in the state, 16 of the 38 people on our roster had never run on a high school cross country team before. But our team stepped up in a big way. In our first race, at the Somers Big Red Invitational, we took second out of eight teams, behind only Arlington. For the rest of the season, Brewster exceeded expectations. At our League Championship meet on October 17th, John Jay Cross River was expected to win by at least 20 points, but after a series of season bests by Brewster Varsity, we ended the day only 4 points behind them. Our JV team also had impressive victories: winning the Brewster Bear Invitational JV race on October 4th, with freshman Finn Ratajack and sophomore Jack Panagrossi taking first and second individually. Other major accomplishments included five of our runners making both All League and All Section: captains Erik Jacobsen & Scott Jacobsen, senior Ryan Lenahan, junior Josh Herman, and freshman Ryan Neubauer. Additionally, Ryan Neubauer had the 2nd fastest times for a freshman out of all 65 teams in Section One. Our season ended with Erik Jacobsen qualifying for the New York State Championship meet, running with the some of the best runners in the country on November 11th in freezing temperatures and snowy conditions, and he still took 58th.

Girls Cross Country
Captains: Florence Cuomo, Leah Frey, Mackenzie Luby
Coaches: Joe Scelia and Rene Acquisto

The varsity team overall dominated this season, with first at the Somers Invitational, first at the Sunken Meadow Invite in Long Island (out of more than one hundred teams), third at the Manhattan Invite, and sixth at the Ocean State Invitational.

Elsa Neubauer had an awesome season, with a first at Somers (out of approximately 200 girls and 14 teams), and first at the Rhode Island meet (out of 150 girls)!

Dance Team
Captains: Jillian McNamara, Jenna Pinzur, and Bridgette Sanok
Advisor: Aileen Sanok

During the fall sports season, the captains lead the team in three awesome performances. The team performed at the BHS Varsity Football home games and blew The Den away with their flips, kicks, and tricks. The dances always had the crowd pumped up at half-time and even had the entire fan section singing along to their songs! The choreography was created by the co-captains, followed by hours and hours of team rehearsals. The season was an amazing one – all of the hard work was apparent the second the team hit the field!

Varsity Field Hockey
Captains: Kayanne Monti, Yannah Nordquist, Grace Pastore, and Emily Schaub
Coach: Jen Hershman
Seasonal Record: 11-1-6

The team made it to the quarter-finals of Sectionals. Our team improved so much this season, working on passing, shooting, defense and field awareness. Some of our biggest wins were 4-2 against Pelham, 6-0 against Lourdes, 6-0 against Put Valley, 4-0 against Hen Hud, and our biggest win of the season, 1-0 against Pelham in Sectionals. That sectional game was the first time BVFH qualified for a home sectional game, being the higher seed (Brewster at No. 6, Pelham at No. 10). Grace Pastore scored the winning goal with 2 minutes and 7 seconds left in the game. At the end of the season, we had 2 All-Section/Elite Players, 2 All-League Players and 2 All-League Honorable Mention players.

Varsity Football
Captains: Mike Buonadonna, Manny Costales, Justin Jimenez, Tim Meissner, and Tino Surace
Coaches: Ed Mulvihill, Ryan Cleary, Michael Honey, Ron Reid, and Paul Stellacci
Seasonal Record: 3-6

The 2017 Varsity Football season was not what we, as a team, expected. This season’s record hurt especially because we have a history of claiming a good solid record. Although we felt we did not live up to our full potential, the season was fun nonetheless. Our wins all came at home. We won our home game against Beacon, our homecoming against Poughkeepsie, and our senior night game against Sleepy Hollow. As a group, we gave it our all, and most of the time we had fun doing it. We had three players achieve All Conference (Tino Surace, Tim Meissner, and Justin Jimenez) with Surace going to the Senior All Star Game. In the end, the season isn’t the one we wished for, but it gave us a reason to grow closer as a team.

Boys Varsity Soccer
Captains: Brian McKee and Kevin Moroney
Coach: Scott Potusek
Seasonal Record: 11-5-0

Coached by Scott Potusek, winner of the Coach of the Year, this group had the best record the team has had in over thirty years, with the highest winning percentage of any sports team in the fall. Highlights include a win away at Lakeland. Major contributions towards the team came from Brian McKee, Kevin Moroney, Marko Poljak, Mike Charbonneau, and the leading scorer, Edwin Lopez. There are big hopes for the team next year. Geo Zanetti, Anthony Ferrandino, Valentine Markaj, and Daniel Hasa are all juniors who will look to step up next season.

Girls Varsity Soccer
Captains: Jessica Miele and Brianna Pellechia
Coaches: Deb Miele
Seasonal Record: 3-13

The Girls’ Varsity Soccer team was a young team with more lower classmen than upper, and succeeded in holding most of their opponents to 0-0 halftime scores. Amanda Sherman, Gianna Gioielli and Brianna Castle made All League Honorable Mention; Sadie Mae Fischer-Diotte and Jessica Miele made All League.

Swimming
Captains: Beth Howell and Rachel Thompson
Coaches: Melinda Burke and Joe Francis
Seasonal Record: 4 (including senior meet)-6
With just 10 girls. the team had just two fewer than necessary to compete, making the season difficult because each girl was swimming four events every meet. We were so fortunate to have friends who supported us enough to offer to join the team in order to make each meet easier. We ended up with 13 girls, adding 3, some of who had no swimming background, but we were fortunate. Each one of the girls on the team gave 110% every practice and 120% every meet. Our team froze at bake sales, crunched 4-hour practices into a 2-hour period, looked like actual fish out of water at dry land practices, and somehow managed to butcher High School Musical songs on every bus ride to every meet. No one could ask for a better way to spend a season.

Tennis
Captains: Julie Lewis, Tara O’Hanlon, and Ying Zhang
Coach: Daria Pascale
Seasonal Record: 7-8

The Girls Varsity Tennis 2017 fall season was great! The girls started off their strong season with a fundraiser for the Brewster Fire Department and raised $1019 for new CPR devices. They had especially strong matches against Panas as well as against Lakeland, winning both. Our last match of the season was the best one yet, beating Kennedy! The team would like to give a shout-out to their wonderful coach, Daria Pascale. They would also like to congratulate Gabby Monaco on her powerful season upon her return back to Brewster from Kennedy. Thanks to “team mom” Nevaeh Navarro for always coming through with snacks and drinks before every game. Best of luck to new captains, Sammy Kim and Lauren Knorr.

Varsity Volleyball
Captains: Grace Harrison and Grace Coughlan
Coach: Stacey Schriro
Seasonal Record: 2-18

Although a difficult season, the team persevered together to become a highly competitive one. Captains Grace Harrison and Grace Coughlan, both seniors, received All League and All League Honorable Mention awards at this year’s Fall Sports Awards. This team worked hard and accomplished many goals both personal and team related that were established at the beginning of the season. The team also raised a significant amount of money for the Breast Cancer Association, selling Volley for a Cure t-shirts for $15, which were in high demand and sold rapidly. This team showed dedication and heart all season long, even when the outcomes of the games seemed discouraging. The seniors leaving the team this year know that they are leaving it in good hands, because the talent shown by the younger girls has proven that they are going to be strong competitors in the years to come.