What A Winter Season For Berlin Athletics Program

The Berlin Athletics program had about as good a winter season as any school in the state.

The Newington-Berlin co-op ice hockey team, three years old, won the Division III state championship.

Junior swimmer Dan Klotz won two state and two Open state championships despite Berlin not having a pool to train in.

"The Ice Hockey Program came about when a few invested parents requested that I explore the idea of a Co-op with Newington High School," Athletic Director Jim Day said. "Newington was having difficulty getting numbers out and Berlin was at the point where we could consistently send five or more players to the co-op.

"I met with the AD and principal of Newington High School and was able to work out an agreement. The parents agreed to pay for all the costs associated with joining Newington, this year that figure was $1,450, and the BOE agreed to enter into this arrangement.

"I think our skaters were lucky to join a program run by Coach Harackiewicz, he and his staff have been very easy to work with. As you know high school programs are in large part successful due to their coaching and our co-op in no different."

As or Klotz' accomplishments in the pool, Day admitted he is still a bit stunned.

"Dan Klotz's success is amazing, once again it is a measure of the excellent atmosphere our coaches have created," Day said. "Eileen and Dan Thurston have done a great job considering the limitations they work with.

"Dan is obviously very talented and dedicated, that added with the positive energy of the coaching staff have allowed him to overcome serious limitations when it comes to not having a pool in town, the travel time it takes to travel to Meriden to practice, and because they compete off-site limited fan support. Great competitors find away of using those roadblocks as motivators and Dan and our coaching staff our a perfect example of this."

A few years ago, Berlin offered the fewest selctions for athletes. Now that has changed.

"In relation to the CCC, we now offer the most sports of any program in the CCC South Division, that would be the Bristol Schools, Meriden Schools, Plainville, Bulkeley, and Middletown," Day said. "The additions of men's and women's lacrosse, the ice hockey co-op, and having our girl's compete as a team of one in gymnastics have really rounded out our offerings.

"We don't compare with the Glastonbury's, Simsbury's and Farmington's in number of offerings, but they are significantly larger schools that have the numbers to handle more offerings. I think we may be at our limit as far as offerings relative to our student population. We have also increased our non-traditional offerings with Mountain Biking and Cricket."

Some of the accomplishments of Berlin Redcoat athletes and teams this fall:

Women's Basketball wins CCC South Championship and earns a spot in the State Semi-finals.

Men's Basketball earns a spot in the state quarterfinals.

Jake Eliades wins the 138 lbs. State Class M Title in Wrestling.

Men's Ice Hockey wins Div III State Title, CCC Title and CCC Tournament Title

Dan Klotz wins two events in the Class M State Championship and State Open Championship in Men's Swimming.

Unified Sports is once again the winner of the Michael's Cup for Excellence.

The student cheering section "The Red Sea" is cited for outstanding sportsmanship.

Women's Indoor Track has a relay team qualify for State Open Championship.

Men's Swim Team earns Academic All-American honors with an average GPA of 91 percent.

13 of our Athletes are named to the All-Herald Team in Gymnastics, Basketball, Hockey, Swimming, Track and Wrestling.

Cheerleading wins the CCC South and the CCC Grand Championships.