A year ago, the Nutley High girls’ basketball team put together a championship season, as it won the Super Essex Conference’s (SEC) Liberty Division title and finished 19-9.
That Raiders team was led by seniors Abby Scheidel and Jayden Long, who were key offensive players and tremendous overall leaders.
A year later, the Raiders return a strong nucleus, but also earned a promotion to the SEC’s toughest division, the American, and head coach Larry Mitschow, entering his ninth season, knows it will be a challenge.
“This season we move up into the American Division of the SEC, and this will be quite a challenge,” said Mitschow. “Playing the likes of University, East Orange, West Orange, Newark Tech, Montclair Immaculate, all twice, will be extremely difficult for our young team. We don’t like to call any year a rebuilding year, but after the year we had a season ago, and the key players we lose, we may have to alter our team goals just a
bit.”
The Raiders had its first practice on Jan. 11. The team opens the regular season on Jan. 26, at Payne Tech, starting at 4 p.m. On Jan. 30, Nutley will play its first home game, opposite East Orange Campus, in an 11:30 a.m. start and on Feb. 2, the Raiders host University, at 4 p.m.
Among the key returning players in 2021 are juniors Mackenzie Albert, Stephanie Luberto and Alex Twomey along with sophomore Liana Minichini.
“They were all key role players last season on the varsity level, and will be asked to step up to more important roles this season. We have no seniors on the roster this season.”
Some other players that will be asked to step up this season are Nicole Cicchetti, a junior, and sophomore Megan Riccardi.
“They saw some varsity minutes last year, but will be looking to crack the starting rotation this year, or play key roles off the bench,” said Mitschow.
Mitschow’s coaching staff includes Matt Francello and Kara McNish.
The turnout for the first day of practice was good.
“We had 16 girls come out for basketball, eight of which are freshmen,” said Mitschow. “We are very excited from what we have seen from the freshmen, thus far in practice, and we expect three or four of them to earn some playing time on the varsity level.”
Mitschow was elated to get back on the court and see his student-athletes.
“The players and coaches are just pumped to be back in the gym, with everything going in the world right now,” the coach said. “We open up at Payne Tech on Jan 26, and can’t wait for the opening tip of another season of Nutley basketball.”
The message from the coach to his team was simple, as the Raiders prepare for a tough schedule.
“I told the girls from Day One this year, lets improve as a team, and individually, as much as possible this season. Let’s build team chemistry, and pull off a couple upsets along the way.”
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