By Christopher Tremblay

Last winter, the Norwood girls’ basketball team not only won the Tri-Valley League (TVL) title under Amy Quinn, the Mustangs earned themselves the number one seed in the Division 2 State Tournament. Norwood cruised through the tournament as the favorite beating Dartmouth by 20 points, Amherst-Pelham by 12, North Quincy by 18, and Whitman-Hanson by 5 to reach the state finals. Unfortunately, the Mustangs were upset by Oliver Ames 53-48 in that final contest.

While losing athletes to graduation is a normal, the Mustangs also said goodbye to their coach who stepped down this season. Despite Quinn’s departure, Norwood should not miss a beat as Kristen McDonnell will be taking over the reigns and call out plays from the courts sidelines this season. McDonnell, who has been the Norwood boys coach, also guided her squad to the state finals game only to lose to Malden Catholic, the number one seed. Although she had been coaching the Norwood boys basketball team for the past few years, McDonnell previously coached the Braintree girls basketball team for 10 years, where she had more than her fair share of success.

While she will not have the likes of Meghan Olbrys or Erin Reen at her disposal this season, Norwood does have a good core of athletes that will be returning to the court. 

“I am bringing a different style than they’ve had in the past, so I am going to need everyone to step up and play all positions to be interchangeable,” the incoming Norwood Coach said. “I want to be able to push the ball on both sides making the opposition uncomfortable.”

Caroline Forest, the only senior returner, will play the forward position once again for the Mustangs and bring her aggressive play on the boards to the court.    

Juniors Alexia Coras, Lauren Reen, and Tricia Wladkowski should be able to bring that fast paced energy to the courts this year giving the team that quick up and down the floor that McDonnell will be looking for. Junior Sophia Vindetti and sophomore Ava O’Neil will take to the courts as wings or forwards this season, and according to the McDonnell, they are both poised players who bring a smartness to the court and can run the team’s offense.

Norwood will also have a strong group of freshman athletes looking to show what they have in hopes of making the squad.

“The incoming freshman class are all ballers; they play a lot of basketball and make good decisions on the floor,” McDonnell said. “They get after the play on defense and bring a scrappiness from the soccer field.”

McDonnell believes that her team is a little undersized so they will need to keep the opposition away from the basket as much as they can while on defense, but on the offensive side of the ball the girls are fast and good in transition.

“Watching them in camp and scrimmages, I found that the speed of the girls is amazing,” McDonnell said. “None of them have let up and they just keep going. We can use our speed to make the other teams uncomfortable in their passing.”

As the season gets ready to get underway, McDonnell’s goals in terms of intangibles is to secure more wins than loses while earning themselves a spot in the tournament. Once they get there, who knows what can happen.

“Coach Quinn did a great job with the team last year and I am still learning their strengths, but we should still have a shot at winning the TVL,” McDonnell said. “We may have a bullseye on our backs for winning it last year, but we’re definitely up to the challenge.”

Although the Norwood girls did not bring home the Division 2 state trophy to Nichols Street, the new coach believes it could be beneficial for the team.

“Coming into this year, I believe that its is a good thing that they didn’t win it all last year,” McDonnell said. “They’ve had all year to let it marinate and now they are coming in much hungrier.”

With the recent run through the state tournament and a coach who has seen her share of winning, Norwood looks to be poised for a year like no other.