DARIEN — By and large the hardest thing about developing a successful sports program at the high school level is the turnover of athletes from year to year.
In most cases, it is the team with the most seniors that thrive, largely because of experience and leadership.
That being said, Darien is in the midst of something special in 2016. A year removed from one of the best seasons in recent history the Blue Wave graduated eight of nine position players in 2015, as well as their DH and ace pitcher.
All Darien has done since then is get out to a 16-2 start with a 12-2 conference record, poised to be the No. 1 seed in next week’s FCIAC tournament.
“We were definitely written off from a lot of people when the season started,” Darien coach Mike Scott said. “But they’re talented players, we had a good group at the JV level last year, a couple backups at the varsity level that were really just waiting their turn, they were waiting behind a talented crop of seniors but they worked hard and kept developing and wanted to step in and continue what those seniors left behind.”
Two of the most impactful current players who returned are pitcher Andrew Winsch and infielder Jamie Schofield.
Winsch was Scott’s Swiss Army knife out of the bullpen last year; the crafty southpaw often came in tight spots as well as filling the long-relief role. This year Winsch is the ace of the staff and his experience has led him to success in a larger role this year.
“Last year being a reliever put me into some very high-leverage situations and that’s where I learned to have a bulldog mentality and go into the game under a lot of pressure,” Winsch said. “Relieving last year put me in a lot of situations that make it a lot easier to start games right away this year — I’ve been in the high pressure situations last year and I knew how to cope with the pressure.”
Schofield plays third and bats leadoff for Darien this year after manning second and hitting near the bottom of the order a year ago. The senior captain said this year’s team isn’t very different, just the names on the back of the jerseys have changed.
“Really the only difference is the faces,” Schofield said. “The defense is the same, the pitching is the same, the hitting is the same; we’ve just been playing the best baseball we can and it’s happened both years.”
What this squad wants to add to the Darien legacy is post-season success.
In 2015 Darien took home the regular-season crown but suffered early exits in both the FCIAC and state playoffs. Scott said his two leaders along with co-captain Rich Brereton have worked tirelessly to make sure that doesn’t happen again, starting in the offseason.
“They were the driving force behind all the offseason work,” Scott said. “…it starts with those three, they organized the guys to get together and do their offseason work and repetitions and I would drive out of the school in February and March and I’d look and there would be 20 guys just taking fly-balls and fielding ground balls, and it’s those guys that were behind that.
“They wanted everybody on board, it took a lot of leadership for them to get together, they’ve been leading by example with both their attitudes and their will to succeed, they’re the most important part of what’s been going on here.”
That being said, he knows nothing will come easy this postseason, especially in the FCIAC, where a log-jam of teams have made it near impossible to pick a front runner.
“It doesn’t matter what seed you get,” Scott said. “You throw the seeds out the window and you play ball; anybody is capable of beating anybody any day and that’s part of the beauty of our sport.”
Win or lose come these playoffs Scott has one mission in mind — to build a transcendent program that enjoys consistency and success spring after spring.
“When we took over this program, myself and (assistant) John Maceli, it’s been a goal to make this successful from a year in and year out basis,” Scott said. “One year is always different than the next; I think we’ve provided more visibility the last three years, the team has been one of the top teams in the FCIAC and has been making some runs and it definitely provides some visibility for the sport and town.”
aparelli@bcnnew.com @reportedbytheAP
