Brewster Settling in Under First-Year Coach Ohberg

By Tony Pinciaro

Transitioning from an established, successful coach to a new leader can be difficult, especially if he or she is not within the district. BREWSTER was going to have a new coach for the 2022 season after Sara DiDio retired in order to spend more time with her two young children and husband.

Didio was instrumental in establishing Brewster as a Section 1 power, including leading the Bears to a sectional title and state-final-four appearance in 2018.

When it came time to hire a new head coach, Brewster did not leave the lair as varsity assistant Kristen Ohberg was promoted.

Not only was Ohberg a major part of the program’s success, she is a former Brewster and SUNY-Cortland great.

“The transition of head coaches was extremely smooth,” said senior and three-year varsity player Ashley Sheil. “Coach Didio played such a huge role in this program for so long and taught us so much about the game and, especially defense. She brought Coach Ohberg back into the program as an assistant coach in 2018. Her knowledge played a huge role in the team’s offensive success when they went to states.

“Having Coach Ohberg as one of our coaches for quite some time allowed us to grow a strong player-coach connection before she became our head coach.”

The girls have responded to Ohberg as the Bears sport a 4-2 record following victories over Arlington and Putnam County-rival Carmel. Fox Lane defeated Brewster.

The player-coach connection also results from Ohberg’s Brewster five-year career. Also, new varsity assistant Marina Souza is a Brewster graduate and member of the 2018 team.

“It’s great knowing that our coach was a Brewster Bear,” said Sheil, who began playing lacrosse as a fourth-grader in the Brewster Youth Program. “We have tremendous pride in our Brewster Girls’ Lacrosse Program. Seeing all of her success after graduating from Brewster, winning a national championship with Cortland, is also something special for all of us to look up to.

“Coach Didio, and our new assistant coach Marina Souza also both played for Brewster, so it is really awesome to have that continuous support from the alumni of the Brewster Girls’ Lacrosse program.”

It was a tough 2021 season for Brewster as it went through some growing pains. However, Brewster did learn from the difficult time and began preparing for the 2022 season with determination.

“I think since we had such a young team, just figuring out how to push through the tougher games and learn from them was something we really stressed,” said Sheil, who will attend the University of Minnesota where she will be the feature baton twirler. “We are a tight-knit group. We have a lot of talent and definitely have a lot to prove. I think it showed in our comeback overtime win over Carmel the other day.

“We worked very hard during preseason. A big shout-out to all of our returning players as well as the younger girls that put in the extra work to get ready for games. We really came together as a team in the offseason so that we could be ready to hit the ground running March 14th.”

Brewster rallied to an 8-7 overtime win over Carmel as Sasha Kulo and Morgan Brace each had a hat trick.

Moe Poley added a goal and three assists and Alescia Nitti also had a goal. Julz Gabriel made 13 saves.

Kulo led the way in Brewster’s 10-3 win over Arlington with three goals, four assists and five draw controls.

Amelia Walsh finished with four goals and Nitti and Brace each had one goal and one assist. Emily Monaco also had a goal.

Winning four of its first six games has given Brewster a lift, especially the win over Carmel.

“It was definitely nice to see us play our game and get those important wins early on in the season. It was a nice extra boost of confidence for everyone on the team,” said Sheil, who will major in Sports Management at Minnesota.

Along with the wins, Brewster is aiming for something on a game-by-game basis.

“Our main goal this season is to work together to get better every game,” Sheil said. “Coach Ohberg always says, ‘One percent,’ meaning every day, we work to get one percent better.

“We have some tough league games, so just working every day and getting better to win those games is definitely a goal of ours.”

MAHOPAC remained perfect (4-0) with a 14-9 victory over Clarkstown South behind five goals and one assist from Avery Przymylski.  Ava Jennings had four goals and Audrey Colucci had a hat trick as well.

“We were down by three goals, at one point, then we made some adjustments and the girls played hard to come out with the win,” first-year Mahopac Coach Christina D’Amore said.

Ava Jennings added four goals and one assist and Audrey Colucci had a hat trick and an assist.

PUTNAM VALLEY dropped a pair of games to Lakeland/Panas (19-7) and Pawling (12-11).

Ava Harman scored four goals and Emily Nielsen scored twice against LAKELAND/PANAS, which was led by Emily Ashlstedt (5G). The Rebels improved to 4-1.

Harman led the Tigers (0-5) in scoring against Pawling with six goals.

Freshman Lily Hilyer scored her first two varsity goals and Nielsen also had two goals.

Alexandra Scialdone had a hat trick and Allison Passarella added two tallies for YORKTOWN in the Huskers’ 11-8 loss to Mamaroneck. The loss dropped the Huskers to 1-4.

Girls lax coaches are encouraged to contact Tony Pinciaro at tfinch23@optonline.net for inclusion in our Girls Lax Notebook.