PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team was relatively young last season after losing eight seniors the year before, but that didn’t stop the Crusaders from having a successful season. This winter, Fenwick is aiming to take the lessons from last year and turn them into an even more successful season in 2020-2021.
“Last year was really successful overall considering what we lost from the year before, and we learned a lot along the way,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “We didn’t have a ton of experience and we grew a lot, and that’s going to be really valuable heading into this year.”
The Crusaders went 14-6 during the regular season last year, earning the No. 5 seed in the Division 3 North tournament and grabbing a win over Lynnfield in the quarterfinal round. Fenwick went on to fall to rival and eventual Division 3 co-champion St. Mary’s in the semifinal, but DeBaggis thinks that it was an essential learning experience for his team.
“Going up against a team as strong as St. Mary’s, that really showed our team where we needed to be if we wanted to compete for a state championship,” said DeBaggis. “That’s a learning experience that we needed to go through.”
With a number of key contributors returning to the starting lineup and a couple of solid transfer players coming in, Fenwick is poised for another strong season. A trio of seniors — Liz Gonzalez, Veronica Tache and Brynn Bertucci — will lead the way for the Crusaders, while junior transfers Olivia Found (Matignon) and Nasha Arnold (North Reading) are coming in to add even more punch to the rotation.
“Liz is a four-year starter for us, Veronica is coming off a huge junior year and Brynn is one of our most reliable players, so we’re really excited about our senior leadership,” said DeBaggis. “Olivia and Nasha will be great additions for us as well, so we’re happy with where we are coming into the year.”
Still, the program isn’t without losses from last year’s team. Senior Micayla Rossi is gone to graduation, while Annie Murphy has decided to focus on volleyball and Bella Romero has transferred to Lawrence Academy.
While Fenwick just got back on the court this week, the Crusaders did meet as a team once over the summer to host the annual Heart and Hustle Clinic. DeBaggis always loves the event as a team-building exercise, and he noted that it may have been especially important in a year like this.
“It was a great time and the camp was really fun,” said DeBaggis. “It’s always a good event for our team, and it really helps in terms of building leadership skills and team relationships. It was especially nice to get to meet as a team this year because there was no summer basketball or anything like that, so no one had really seen each other since March.”
As for the work on the court, things will be different for Fenwick this preseason. DeBaggis doesn’t anticipate any scrimmages this year, so it’s going to be about making his practices as much like games as possible.
“It’s definitely going to be different this year,” DeBaggis said. “The main thing for us now is since we won’t be scrimmaging, we need to simulate game action in practice as much as possible. The one good thing is that we’re actually going to have more practice time this year than in years past, so we’ll be able to work on things a little longer before we get going.”
The Crusaders will once again have to battle through the gauntlet that is the Catholic Central League, going toe-to-toe with teams like St. Mary’s, Cathedral, Archbishop Williams and newcomers Bishop Stang and Bishop Feehan.
“It’s fun to switch it up and play non-conference opponents sometimes, but I think this year has the potential to be very much like a college season where all of our league games are in a row,” said DeBaggis. “It’s basically a rush to see who can be the best in the conference, and it should be a fun run.”
Fenwick opens up its season Monday, Dec. 28 (3) at home against Bishop Stang.