Midland squads win tournaments
Submitted photos Members of Midland Elementary’s fifth-grade team include front row, from left, Samuel Belan, Kinley Koch, Cam DiPasquale and Jordan Starr; middle row, A’dam McCauley, Flora Perkins, Noah Cunningham, Elijah O’Brien and Grayson Streets; and back row, assistant coach Mike DiPasquale and head coach Steve Belan. Not pictured: Emma Miller
Members of Midland Elementary’s fourth-grade team include front row, from left to right, Rocco Shepler, Eli Currence, Kendall Ward, Brody Howell, Reagan Burke, David Huffman, Gino Nucilli, Elliot Graham, River Maxson, Jordan Senic; and back row, assistant coach Jodi Burke and head coach Dom Nucilli.
Submitted photos Members of Midland Elementary’s fifth-grade team include front row, from left, Samuel Belan, Kinley Koch, Cam DiPasquale and Jordan Starr; middle row, A’dam McCauley, Flora Perkins, Noah Cunningham, Elijah O’Brien and Grayson Streets; and back row, assistant coach Mike DiPasquale and head coach Steve Belan. Not pictured: Emma Miller
Members of Midland Elementary’s fourth-grade team include front row, from left to right, Rocco Shepler, Eli Currence, Kendall Ward, Brody Howell, Reagan Burke, David Huffman, Gino Nucilli, Elliot Graham, River Maxson, Jordan Senic; and back row, assistant coach Jodi Burke and head coach Dom Nucilli.
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ELKINS -- Midland Elementary's fourth- and fifth-grade basketball teams each won their respective Cheat Mountain Conference Tournaments recently at Elkins Middle School.
The Midland fifth-grade team successfully defended their fourth-grade tournament title from last season and both teams won their respective regular season titles this season as well.
The fifth-grade Mustangs were the top overall seed with a 14-2 regular-season record and defeated Beverly (tied for No. 2-seed with 13-3 record), 39-32, in overtime in the title game.
Midland led 11-4 at halftime and maintained a slim three-point lead after three quarters. But Beverly used a furious second-half rally to take a four-point lead before Midland tied the game at 30-30 in the final minute to send it into overtime.
Midland coach Steve Belan stated, "Hats off to Beverly. They were down early and kept fighting and really put it on us in the second half."
Midland outscored Beverly 9-2 in overtime to clinch the title.
"(Assistant coach) Mike (DiPasquale) and I couldn't be more proud of our kids for keeping their composure late in the game and in overtime to get the win after falling behind in the fourth quarter. They showed a lot of character. This group stayed focused throughout the season and were very coachable, which was a huge factor in their success over the past two years.
"This is a great group of kids, both on and off the court, and their parents should be very proud of them. We have a great group of parents as well."
The fourth-grade Mustangs were the top seed as well and finished the regular season undefeated at 14-0.
After sweeping all three tournament games, they finished with an unblemished 17-0 record.
Midland defeated second-seed Upper Valley White (10-4), 59-29, in the championship game of the tournament.
The Mustangs never trailed in the game.
"I'm proud of the kids for buying in to learning and practicing hard," stated Midland coach Dom Nucilli. "I'm also very fortunate that the parents let me coach their kids extremely hard and it showed on the court with how much they improved throughout the season.
"It takes buy-in from both the players and parents and we're thankful that we had it from the kids and the parents."