New-look ’Canes trying to forge identity

Matt Metcalf
Posted 12/11/14

The Warwick Vets girls’ basketball team went 5-11 in Division II last year, but really struggled to make much headway.

Relying heavily on three seniors, the ‘Canes finished fourth out of six …

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New-look ’Canes trying to forge identity

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The Warwick Vets girls’ basketball team went 5-11 in Division II last year, but really struggled to make much headway.

Relying heavily on three seniors, the ‘Canes finished fourth out of six teams in Division II-Central, compiling a better record than just seven teams in what was the 24-team landscape of D-II.

But Vets will make the move down to D-III this year and those three seniors – Casey Bennett, Lauren Almonte and Emily Almonte – have all graduated.

Bennett was a First-Team All-Division selection and was Vets’ leading scorer each of the last three years, while Lauren Almonte received Third-Team honors and Emily Almonte received an honorable mention.

Replacing them won’t be easy, but head coach Owen Paquet is hoping that his new-look team will encounter more success in D-III moving forward.

The ‘Canes will be looking to shed their streak of seven straight losing seasons. Their last winning season came back in 2006-07, when Vets finished 9-8 in league-play.

“I’m looking forward to some more competitive games,” Paquet said. “It’ll be good for us to play at a lower level with some more competition.”

Trying to fill the void left from the girls that graduated last year will be a mix of young and veteran players.

Paquet certainly expects a lot from a pair of sophomores in Victoria Ferri and Katherine Raposo, who have varsity experience and need to mature as players quickly for the team to be successful.

Vets will also look to three senior captains – Frankie Medeiros, Abbie Paul and Kaitlyn Rhodes – for leadership on and off the court.

Between the three seniors and the two sophomores, those are the only five players on Vets’ roster with any real varsity experience.

The good thing about that is that there is a lot of playing time up for grabs, which has equated to a high level of competition at practice.

The lack of experience on the roster has opened up opportunities for a group of five juniors, who are battling to earn minutes.

“They’re working hard in practice and fighting for playing time,” Paquet said.

The juniors on this year’s roster are Arietta Chevian, Briana Ferreira, Kendra Howard, Emma Nason and Natalie Preciado.

A newcomer that Paquet hopes will step in and take over some of the point guard duties is sophomore Arianna Pafume.

The overall landscape of D-III should be interesting, as many teams shuffled around and D-III has added 11 new teams from last year to this year.

Several teams dropped down a division to create a 20-team D-III. It’ll play as two sub-divisions, a North and a South Division.

Vets along with Warwick rivals Toll Gate and Pilgrim, who also dropped down to D-III, will compete in Division III-South.

Of the three Warwick schools, Vets had the most success in D-II last season, as Toll Gate and Pilgrim finished with three wins apiece.

Among other teams that dropped down are Mount Pleasant, Central Falls, Narragansett, Mount St. Charles, Burrillville, Tolman and Classical.

Masters Academy will also be in the mix, as they’ll compete in the RIIL for the first time since the 2002-03 season.

In terms of a playoff picture, the RIIL will implement the same playoff format for girls’ basketball that they’ve been using for the boys. Each team in the state will receive a certain amount of power points for a league win – one point for a D-I win, .8 points for a D-II win and .6 points for a D-III win.

At the conclusion of the season, each division will have a tournament, then the top 16 teams with the highest point totals in the state will play a single-elimination tournament for the state title.

Paquet will be assisted on the bench by Gary Costantino.

The ‘Canes will get a good test right out of the gate. They will travel to last year’s D-III state champion Juanita Sanchez tonight for an Injury Fund game at 7 p.m.

Juanita Sanchez went undefeated in D-III a season ago, defeating second-seeded North Smithfield for the Division crown. They’ll compete in D-II this season.

Vets will open league play tomorrow, when it hosts Block Island. That game will tip at 3 p.m.

Paquet knows that his team will experience some growing pains this year, but is still hopeful for more success.

“It’s a rebuilding year,” Paquet said. “It’ll be a good year to be in D-III and compete. We have to find our identity rather quickly.”

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