March 23, 2009
Ray Glier
Special to Rivals High
In Connecticut, not every corner of the state gets to rejoice in winning women's basketball.
There are the UConn Huskies, who won 573 games and five national championships between February 1990 and the start of this season.
Then there are the Wolcott Tech Wildcats, who hadn't won at all during that nearly 19-year stretch.
But Oliver T. Wolcott Technical High, located in Torrington, Conn., ended a 265-game losing streak in December with a 54-43 victory over Gilbert. The Wildcats went on to win two other games this season to finish 3-17.
But that's only part of the story.
You see, Wolcott could play in a division for technical schools only, a 17-team league that would be more appropriate for their talent level and would likely lead to more victories. Instead, Wolcott plays in the Berkshire Division against schools with more resources.
Why?
"One reason is the travel," coach Mark Eucalitto said. "We would be getting home late at night if we played in the league for technical schools [because] everything is spread out.
"The other reason is the girls want to play against the players they know on other teams."
School, basketball and work
Yet another reason is because the Wolcott Wildcats do not just go to school. They work. Wolcott attracts students from "sender" schools in the region, students who want to learn a trade. Wolcott is not usually attracting Division I athletes.
In the second half of the school year, the students go to school for several hours a day and then go to work in their trade. Senior Alyssa Paniati, for instance, works at Village Motor Cars in auto body, doing sanding and touch-up work. She makes around $11 an hour.
There are motivated kids like Paniati throughout the student body who participate in athletics as freshmen and sophomores, but when they get to be upperclassmen some good athletes will give up basketball to concentrate on their trade, which could be carpentry or health technology.
"I wasn't going to come back this year, which is a problem for our program," Paniati said. "Once you have a job, you stick with it. You get to make money. It sounds better than playing basketball.
"I just decided that this season was my last chance to spend time with friends and I wanted to play."
Eucalitto, a teacher at Wolcott since 1980, said part of his job is trying to get the girls to stick with the program. He knows that even if they all kept coming out the program would not be a powerhouse, but it could be more competitive.
"They are in trade all day, but I try and tell them they can work the rest of their lives," said Eucalitto, 55, a computer graphics teacher. "I have the personality to where I can twist their arms a little bit."
Eucalitto took over the program in 2007-2008 and his first team was 0-20. This season, however, he saw some games on the schedule he thought his team could win, beginning with the Gilbert game.
"I told them before the game, 'Ladies, losing is not an option. We are not coming home without a victory, ' " Eucalitto said.
But losing was an option at the end of the third quarter. The Wildcats lost all of a halftime lead and Gilbert roared back to tie.
Eucalitto could see his team tiring as Gilbert pressed. Wolcott does not have a deep bench. Then, a 3-pointer went in for the Wildcats, and there was new energy. They pulled away for the victory.
"Those girls were crying and jumping up and down and hugging," Eucalitto said. "We put them back on the bus and they were singing."
Gaining respect
The next day the Waterbury paper ran a headline, "The Streak is Over." The phone calls started coming in for Eucalitto. There were more well-wishers.
And then the Wildcats won again, the very next time they took the court. This time they did it at home.
"We had fans there, usually nobody cares," Paniati said. "We don't get much respect."
The beatings resumed after Christmas against more formidable competition with Wolcott losing by 50 and 60 points. But the streak was over.
"We took a huge step forward," Paniati said. "We won a game. Maybe more will come out for the team instead of dropping basketball. There is a lot more respect for us now."
For a team everyone in Connecticut can be proud of.
Very inspirational story!!!