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By CONNOR PIGNATELLO

Ursula von Goeler likes making calculations.Her favorite subject is physics. She’s decided to major in it next year at Bowdoin College.But that love of matter and its behavior through space and time isn’t just limited to the classroom. It stretches...

By HANNAH BEVIS

Before she became the best libero in Western Mass., Amherst’s Liza Beigel was trying to decide whether she wanted to keep playing volleyball or not. Beigel grew up playing soccer and was an excellent player, joining a club team and competing against...

By GARRETT COTE

Hampshire Regional boys soccer head coach Dan Moynahan decided midway through the year that he was going to put seventh grader Aidan Miklasiewicz on varsity despite him being undersized compared to the other players on the field he’d be competing...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

The change transpires subtly then materializes violently.Owen Dawson flips a switch, or a switch within Dawson is flipped on the lacrosse field. Either one means good things for South Hadley and a bad time for whoever’s on the other side.“He does the...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Jocelyn Mettey handed Hampshire Regional softball coach Brian McGan the game ball back. She’d just thrown a no-hitter, usually a career achievement.“That was kind of unique. It didn’t really strike her as a big performance,” McGan said. “She knew the...

By HANNAH BEVIS 

With just seconds left in her final high school lacrosse game, Granby’s Ella Laliberte was one tally away from hitting 300 career goals. Everyone on her team knew, including Laliberte, and they quickly came up with a simple but effective plan of...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Greg Vreeland called his older brother, Hopkins Academy baseball coach Dan Vreeland, over to the hitting tunnel set up near the field. The mesh cage allowed the Golden Hawks’ junior varsity call ups and bench players to take batting practice swings...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

The Frontier Regional boys volleyball program wouldn’t exist without Jesse Kurkulonis.Inspired by the success of his friends on the Redhawks girls team, which has won 11 state championships including last fall, he began inquiring with newly minted...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Luke Giguere nearly stopped swimming before his junior season at Belchertown.“I didn’t really like it anymore,” the junior said. “I was doing it so much the past six years, every day for the past two years almost.”Both he and the Orioles are glad he...

By HANNAH BEVIS 

Tessa Kawall has always been a supremely talented basketball player – Amherst head coach Ralph Loos often calls her a “freak” when talking about her athletic ability. But until somewhat recently, Kawall could sometimes let her emotions get the best of...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

For a moment, Edward Przybyla felt weightless.He threw himself completely into the ski turn and levitated in free fall. Every previous time gravity took over and forced him angrily back to the snow. Coaches in his weekend program wanted him to try the...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Colin Quinn summoned everything within to try and extend his basketball career at South Hadley.The Tigers trailed eventual MIAA Division 4 state champion Springfield International by 10 points entering the fourth quarter of their Sweet 16 matchup....

By HANNAH BEVIS 

With 10 seconds left in his match, Holyoke’s Juan Santiago knew he needed to make a move, and quick. Santiago was grappling with Marlborough’s Kevin Desena in the championship match of the 220-pound weight class at the Western Mass. Division 2...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

A special waiver allowed Lucy Smith to join the Amherst Regional high school swim team as a seventh grader.The Hurricanes couldn’t have fielded the squad without adding middle schoolers for the 2017-18 season.“It was definitely a little intimidating....

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

Jack Holt spent a Cape Cod vacation with his toes stuffed into shooting boots rather than the sand.The Belchertown senior broke his scapula during the summer soccer season and returned just in time for a family beach trip. He and his younger brother...

By KYLE GRABOWSKI

A high school volleyball court measures 60 feet long by 30 feet wide whether you’re in South Carolina or Massachusetts. Amherst senior Amalia Martin sought its familiar confines when the foundations of her life shifted.The University of South Carolina...