Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19, No. 12 William and Mary men’s gymnastics competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Gymnastics Championships at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. Although the Tribe has sent individual athletes to the event in each of the last three seasons, this season marked William and Mary’s first team appearance at the NCAA Championships since 2021.

The Green and Gold began competition Friday, when it participated in a qualifying session alongside No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Nebraska, No. 5 Penn State, No. 8 Air Force and No. 9 California. William and Mary failed to make it to the finals as a team, scoring a session-low 307.691 points, but the Tribe sent a school-record five individual athletes into the finals, an accomplishment William and Mary director of gymnastics Mike Powell attributed to the mindset the team has cultivated in recent weeks.

“I think the team went out there and followed the theme that we’d been pushing and talking about,” Powell said. “Really just being proud of what they had accomplished, owning the fact that they belong on the biggest stage and being proud to show off what they can do on the biggest stage. Once they got comfortable and then settled into doing that, they showed it off and got rewarded with the spots in the finals.” 

At the time of the team’s last NCAA Championships berth, William and Mary had recently reversed its decision to eliminate the men’s gymnastics program. The brief period of uncertainty surrounding the program’s future, along with the departure of an eight-man class of seniors in 2021, contributed to the Green and Gold’s four-year postseason drought. 

Powell said, for the most part, the Tribe has not spent much time reflecting on the program’s near-death, but the completion of William and Mary’s rebuild is significant to graduate student Sam Lee, the only member of the team who was around for the 2021 season.

“I think it has [come up] a little bit in terms of reflecting,” Powell said. “The captains get a chance to reflect at the banquet and things like that. So it’s come up, but not as much as you would think. For Sam Lee, I think that the experience is particularly meaningful because he was a freshman that year. So this is sort of bookending his career. The last time that we made championships as a team was his freshman year, and now in his fifth year, it’s sort of come full circle, and he’s been with us on that whole journey.”

Friday, Lee advanced to the individual event finals on vault and parallel bars after adding a risky new dismount to his parallel bars routine. Lee had been pulling off the maneuver in practice for months, but he was not able to replicate the feat in meets throughout February and March. With Powell’s advice, he decided to bring the move to the NCAA Championships less than two weeks before the competition. The choice ultimately paid off.

“We tried using it starting in the middle of the competition season,” Powell said. “He had some trouble landing it, especially in competition. It had been going well in practice, but he struggled with it in the meets. So to just hit a solid routine and get through conference championships, we decided to back down to an easier dismount, hoping that that would help build some confidence, and then he could come into the championships and put it down, which he did.”

Lee was the only William and Mary gymnast to significantly modify his routine for the event. Powell said most of the Tribe’s athletes found success through the effective execution of their existing routines.

“For the most part, we really just executed really well,” Powell said. “[Junior] Ricky Pizem added a half twist on his vaults, and then any other upgrades that we made were in finals. Once the team had done really well, and we’d gotten the guys through the finals, [freshman] Luke Tully added a release move to his high bar routine to try to increase that difficulty in and move him up in the standings.”

Lee and Tully were joined in the finals by freshman Connor Barrow on vault, sophomore Niko Greenly on parallel bars and sophomore Evan Wilkins on floor and parallel bars. Powell said the four William and Mary underclassmen in the finals served as evidence of the program’s strong developmental record and bright future.

“That was a part of building this team over time,” Powell said. “We’ve had to work through the initial steps and help the guys realize just how good they are and how good the team is. And that was a part of being proud and owning the fact that they’ve earned their way to this level, and that they’re able to execute on the biggest stage with the best guys. So they deserve a lot of credit for owning that opportunity and owning their abilities and being able to go out and show off on the big stage.”

“Props to them, because this is what we consider the first step and not the last,” Powell said. “So we’re looking to continue building this team, and they’ll obviously play a big role in that, as they’re early in their careers, leaning on the upper classroom for guidance. We’re excited to see what we can do in the future.”

Powell specifically praised the progression of freshmen Barrow and Tully, who discovered the extent of their talents as the season went on. Powell said Tully’s growth process was steady and drawn-out, while Barrow could point to a single moment in which he realized he was NCAA Championship-caliber.

“When he stuck his vault, that was at Springfield [Feb. 16],” Powell said. “One of the long-time judges came up to us and said he thought that might be the best vault he’s ever seen. It was a huge moment for him and very concrete, and he put up a score that put him in our all-time record books. It was one of the top five scores in the country at that time in the season. So that was just a very concrete moment of, ‘OK, we are top-tier.’”

Barrow turned in a similarly impressive performance in the NCAA finals, scoring a 14.0 on vault to finish 20th in the nation. Tully finished 20th after putting up a score of 13.133 on high bar, Greenly tied for 25th with a score of 13.133 on parallel bars and Lee recorded scores of 13.433 and 13.966 to finish 20th and 22nd on parallel bars and vault, respectively. Wilkins was the Tribe’s highest finisher, coming in 19th on floor with a 13.466 and 27th on parallel bars with a 13.033.

With the season complete, Powell said the Tribe will take a brief break from training before implementing more difficult maneuvers into its routines in preparation for the 2025-26 campaign.

“Obviously, the guys who need it [will be] getting that rest and recovery from a long season and a lot of great work,” Powell said. “Then, it’ll be straight into thinking and planning for the future. Any changes that are coming to the rules, adapting to them and getting right back into training more and more difficult skills.”

The memory and legacy of Connor Kasin have continued to be at the forefront of the Massapequa community.

The Massapequa softball team held its Connor Kasin memorial game on Wednesday at Berner Middle School. Raffle entries were sold and a bake sale took place, with all proceeds going to the Connor Kasin Memorial Foundation.

The foundation aims to support families, individuals and organizations that lack the financial means to pursue their dreams.

“These kids have been amazing, the support they’ve given our family is unbelievable,” Connor’s mother, Mary Kasin said.” They reached out to us wanting to do something and of course we happily agreed.”

Kasin was a Massapequa senior and member of the school’s ice hockey team. He tragically passed away at the age of 17 after collapsing during a charity game on Nov. 30.

Madison Tucholski, a senior on Massapequa’s softball team, was close friends with Kasin and was the driving force behind the event.

“I was really close with him over the past two years. He always came down to the softball games to support the team,” Tucholski said. “I really just wanted this memorial game to be the best day possible.”

Pictures of Kasin throughout his lifetime were plastered at various points around the field. Mary Kasin threw out the first pitch, tossing a strike to Tucholski, followed by a speech read by the PA announcer.

The speech described Connor as an “amazing friend, kind brother and inspiring teammate”. It also mentioned his passion and love for not only ice hockey, but also providing kindness and uplifting those around him.

“There are kids who will see our lights on at midnight and knock on our door, just asking if they can stop in and say hi,” Mary Kasin said. “Connor was fun, carefree and competitive. It’s hard to think of everything he was, but to me, he was just perfect.”

Massapequa earned a 13-1 victory over Seaford in the ensuing Nassau I matchup. Sienna Erker and Sienna Perino each had a hit and three RBIs. Tucholski had a hit and scored three runs and Sam Portz had three hits and two RBIs for Massapequa (13-3). Rylie Betz had a hit for Seaford (9-6).

“We do a charity game every year and we had some seniors who were close with Connor, particularly Maddie Tucholski and they wanted to do this for Connor,” Massapequa coach Christina Castellani said. “We’re just grateful to be able to do this and raise money for the foundation.”

“It’s wonderful to see everyone still talking about him, his name is still everywhere,” Tucholski said. “We are continuing to remember him as the amazing person and player that he was.”

Christopher Matias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in Athletic Facilities and Operation at St. John’s and in Sports Information at CUNY York college. 

The changing of the guard is an important step in determining the future of a program. For a department with a rich history such as the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at Ithaca College, the search for the next athletic director is underway with a deadline of July 1, according to the athletics department. 

Susan Bassett ’79 has been the associate vice president and director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Recreation at the college since the 2013-14 academic year. On Feb. 6, Bassett made the announcement that she will be stepping down at the end of the spring semester.

Her announcement immediately prompted a search for the next director of intercollegiate athletics.

Margaret Shackell, associate professor in the School of Business and the college’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative, said 12 potential candidates will be interviewed between May 1-2. She said three finalists will then visit the college from May 12-14. WittKieffer, a premier executive search and advisory solutions firm, is assisting with the hiring process.

“They specialize in finding people to apply and help guide the process,” Shackell said. “Then President Cornish, with input from Susan Bassett, choose people that represent all the constituencies on campus to be on the search committee.”

Shackell said she joins the coaches’ meetings and meets with the provost and Bassett monthly to ensure all leadership is on the same page about making the right decisions for student athletes.

The search committee, selected by President La Jerne Cornish, with input from Bassett, consists of two student athletes and two head coaches: senior football player Josh Miles, senior golfer Rheanna DeCrow, women’s soccer head coach Melinda Quigg and men’s basketball head coach Waleed Farid.

From the student perspective, DeCrow said via email that the search process has been enlightening and displays the foundation of running an athletics department.

“It makes you look at your time as an athlete in a grander perspective,” DeCrow said. “[They allow reflection] on what have been the most important values and principles over your time as an Ithaca Bomber and trying to find someone who aligns as well as possible with those principles.”

Quigg said via email that the search committee is focused on combining the tradition of past success with the outlook of progression toward a stronger future.

“Our search committee embodies the inclusivity and diversity that are core to our values, bringing together a range of perspectives — from dedicated faculty and staff to the vibrant voices of our student-athletes, who lend critical insights from their firsthand experiences in our athletic programs,” Quigg said.

As a member of one of the college’s smallest varsity athletics programs, DeCrow said she holds a greater understanding of the smaller teams on campus and how they maintain stability. She said her work in student-media organizations like ICTV has also led to her building stronger connections with the other athletics programs, allowing for their voices to be heard.

“I feel a great deal of responsibility to make sure I am doing what is in the best interest of all the student athletes on campus,” DeCrow said. “I really try within our committee meetings to make sure the student athlete perspective is heard so that the Ithaca athlete experience continues to be one of excellence, competitiveness, and everything that makes being a Bomber so special.”

The NACDA Learfield Directors’ Cup honors the success of every college athletics program across the country, spanning all three divisions in the NCAA, the NAIA and junior colleges. The Bombers finished 32nd overall out of over 400 Division III schools in 2024, coming in as the top-ranked Liberty League institution.

During Bassett’s tenure, the college has placed in the top 20 among DIII schools seven times, including two top 10 finishes in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years.

Part of that success is credited to the college’s different coaches in each sport. Women’s basketball head coach Dan Raymond completed his 25th season at the helm in 2025. As one of the college’s longest tenured head coaches, Raymond has led the Bombers to 14 20-win seasons out of 25 games on the schedule. He said the athletic directors he has worked with have helped him adapt to the continuously shifting environment of the athletics department with coaches coming and going.

“I trust Susan,” Raymond said. “Her confidence in where the athletic department stands right now leads me to believe that I can have confidence in where we are moving forward.”

The athletics department took another step in providing its teams with the best equipment, facilities, coaches and resources by building the Athletics and Events Center in 2011. Under Bassett, the college has completed multiple renovations to Butterfield Stadium, starting with the new retaining wall in 2017 and a new synthetic playing surface in 2023. The college has also begun construction on a new outdoor track and field facility that is scheduled to be fully operational in Spring 2026.

Shackell said the fundraising efforts started by Bassett, as well as the individualized coaching instilled, such as the leadership academy program and faculty athlete mentors, are crucial for the long-term success of each program.

While the process is still in its early stages, DeCrow said she is confident that the future director of athletics will continue to guide the success of the college’s sports programs.

“We have a great pool of applicants that are extensively qualified,” DeCrow said. “I am very much looking forward to continuing the process and doing all that we can to make sure we are closing [on] someone who aligns with the Ithaca vision and Bomber standards.”

FRISCO, Texas — The first thing everyone talks about when they talk about William Moore is just how intelligent he is.

His minor hockey head coach, Chris Stevenson, who coached him from age 7 to 15, and “4-foot-nothing to 6-foot-2,” talks of an “elite level piano player, an elite level violin player and an elite level hockey player.” He’ll tell the story, as others do, of the Little Mozarts International Competition he won by playing Chopin’s “Polonaise in G Minor” and of how he got to play the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York City at 10, skipping the famed Brick Tournament to perform.

He’ll also tell the story of the time Moore stopped one of his practices when he was 12 to inform him, “No, no, that’s not usually what you tell us to do.”

“He corrected me, and I was like ‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m wrong.’ And it just shows you how much he paid attention to all of the details,” Stevenson said.

His skills coach of the last few years, Josh Wrobel, says he’s never worked with someone his age who can flip a switch and go, “Am I talking to a 30-year-old right now?” He describes him as personable and wise beyond his years, but also able to act his age when he’s around his peers.

“With most guys, it’s one or the other and you’re that robotic guy or you’re messing around all the time. He can do both and he does them at appropriate times,” Wrobel said. “(And) he’s an undercover nerd. He really is. And I think that translates when we talk about this vague term of hockey IQ. When we do video and the way he processes the game, he really does get it. I’ve worked with a lot of guys where they say ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ and it’s like ‘no, you’re not getting it.’ He really does process the game well, and I think being intelligent obviously helps. Really interesting kid.”

Mackenzie Braid, his longtime skating coach, usually doesn’t take on kids until they’re 13-15 because of how technical his work is, and how much time they have to spend, without pucks, standing around and listening.

He took Moore on when he was 9 because of how mature he was.

“From Day 1, he was dialed, he was engaged and he was willing to put the time in and the work in. That’s just how he was and it has never really strayed from that,” Braid said. “We’ve had the ability to work with a lot of high-end kids and the work we do is not the fun stuff and it takes special kids to continue to do it. A lot of times it’s their parents on Day 1 and then as they mature they get to make their own choices and it speaks a lot about William that he has stuck it out.”

Greg Moore, his head coach the last two years at USA Hockey’s NTDP, talks about him as an “impressive kid” who is a “highly intellectual, inquisitive, hockey junky.”

“He asks a lot of questions,” he said. “He’s a student of the game. And he learns quickly. He’s able to apply the things that we give him in his game right away.”

Moore’s proud to be smart, too. His parents were always “adamant on maintaining good grades and getting prepped early for school.”

“And it paid off,” he’ll tell you.

He’ll also tell you that he was an honors student all the way through public school and then online school at the program. Though online school is “a little different,” he also said, “I’m not going to take anything away from myself.”

“I was always a bright kid growing up and I think music helped with that,” he said.

He wants people to know that he’s more than just the smart kid, though.

He’s reluctant to talk about the hearing loss he had as a young child after a serious lymph node infection, too. It’s been taken out of proportion, he insists.

“It makes it seem like I was dealing with severe adversity when I don’t even remember it and I was like 2 or 3. I was deaf at some point but that got fixed pretty quickly,” he said.

These days, he just wants to be known as a hockey player — as a top prospect in the 2025 NHL Draft. NHL Central Scouting has him listed as their 29th-ranked North American skater in the class.

This week, he’s in Texas with Team USA for U18 Worlds. Through four games into the quarterfinals, he has registered six points (second on the team in scoring so far), 12 shots (fourth on the team) and has played 16:06 per game (third among forwards). He has also scored three goals, including a big one at the front of the net when USA trailed the Swedes 2-0, leading the charge in a come-from-behind win with a two-point, four-shot, plus-2 performance.

And the hockey player — a rangy, talented, smart center committed to Boston College — has plenty of potential for more.

The second thing people talk about when they talk about Moore is his parents. His mom, Vanusa, and dad, Patrick, bounced from Brazil and New York to Switzerland and then Pittsburgh before landing in Toronto and raising their son there after finding out they were pregnant while Patrick was on a one-year job placement.

“They had a pretty wild path,” Moore said.

Moore’s adviser, Eric Faion, calls Vanusa “more knowledgeable about hockey than anyone I know.”

“He’s just really, really driven and I would honestly credit that to his mom,” Stevenson said. “His mom expected the best from him and pushed him and got him whatever training he needed and the kid was so smart and determined that he always achieved excellence at anything that he did.”

Growing up, Moore said his parents had him try “every single sport.” He played tennis and lacrosse all the way through, but hockey was his passion. Vanusa did the long drives and early practices because he loved it.

In minor hockey, he always played up a year with Stevenson’s AAA Mississauga Senators. It didn’t click for him until “pretty late, honestly” that he could get to where he is, though.

When he first started with the Senators, Stevenson said Moore was a middle-of-the-pack player on his team. But Stevenson said he was “probably our best player” by peewee. That’s saying something, considering that team also had another player who was playing up a year: Michael Misa.

“They would kind of rotate back and forth between which one was better,” Stevenson said. “Will in the peewee season was probably the better player. His skill level was through the roof. Hands, edges, he always had it. I kind of just helped him into the learning the game aspect of things but he always had elite level skill. He always had a nose for the net. He was always clutch.”

That back and forth between the two continued all the way until their underage season in minor midget, according to Stevenson. That year, both Moore and Misa applied for exceptional status. Misa got it after a record-setting performance at the year-end OHL Cup put him over the edge. When Moore didn’t get it, joining the U.S. NTDP presented itself as an option and he returned to minor midget for a second year, joining the Toronto Marlboros before heading off to Plymouth, Mich., with USA Hockey when they were ready to welcome his 2007 age group.

“Mike edged me out,” he said, laughing and looking back. “If I did get it, it never would have opened my eyes to the NTDP but I’m always grateful that I was able to find this route through the U.S. and I’ve never looked back since.”

Last year, in his U17 year at the program, he led the team in goals with 23 in 50 games. This year, he has again been among their leading scorers, playing around a point per game.

Wrobel thinks that second year of minor midget was a disservice to him because it didn’t challenge him.

Playing at the program, on a team that doesn’t have its typical top-of-the-draft talent, has been good for him that way, according to Wrobel.

“He never really felt the grind, he never really had to go stand in front of the net and get some dirty goals. And we had this joke last year where he kind of turned into a bit of a skilled grinder where he couldn’t just dance through everybody at will like he did for two years of minor midget,” Wrobel said.

“I’ve been really encouraged with his willingness to go hunt pucks and work in the corner because it’s not just a skilled game. Something that I’ve talked to him about a lot is ‘When you do make that jump, what’s your B game? When it’s not a skilled game, if the game gets dirty and grimy, are you willing to play in that game as well?’ And that’s where I see a lot of kids that are just strictly skilled shy away. So I’ve been really encouraged with that willingness to get in the corners and get mucky and hunt pucks, and go to the net front, and go to the dirty areas that a lot of strictly skill guys aren’t willing to do. He’s at least showing flashes of that and for me it’s just the consistency of that.”

Greg Moore still thinks William can be more consistent in his compete. But he has made progress, and Moore has used him on the penalty kill this season because of it.

“You give him a game plan and he can execute that game plan, he can anticipate what happens next and he has a good stick. So he can cut off passes, he can cut off seams, and he can anticipate what’s going to happen next defensively, which is a huge skill of his,” he said. “Now he just needs to compete harder off of that consistently. He sees the ice really well. He can see things develop a step or two ahead of what a lot of people anticipate defensively. It makes his teammates better. And then he has a nose for the net, he’s got scoring touch, he gets to the crease, he can shoot the puck, and he has great instincts on how to score goals in different ways.”

William Moore describes his own game as about creativity first.

Late last year, when he felt a lot of pucks were slipping off his blade when he turned on his forehand, Wrobel encouraged him to switch from the flatter P88 curve he’d used his entire life to more of a toe curve. That has also made a huge difference in his stick handling and his shot — to the point where he wonders why he used his old blade in the first place.

“I love making plays, I love making my teammates better with my creative playmaking and I believe I have very high IQ and I see the ice very well. But I also have a scoring touch to my game and I love being around the net front,” he said.

(Rena Laverty / USA Hockey’s NTDP)

The third thing everyone talks about when they talk about Moore is just how much development he still has ahead of him.

That’s true in the gym and in his skating.

In the gym, he has worked hard at it in the offseason with his strength and conditioning coaches Andy O’Brien and Jason Martin. At the program, strength and conditioning coach Joe Meloni said he has put on 15-20 pounds in the last two years.

But “he really is like a string bean,” Wrobel said.

“It’s something he has worked on a lot. He will definitely grow into his frame,” Meloni said. “He’s strong but he’s just long and lanky. But you see it in games when he protects pucks, he has that functional strength on the ice. It’s just a matter of adding some body mass off the ice.”

NHL Central Scouting has him listed at 6-foot-2.25 but also a lean 175 pounds. Stevenson said he has always been that way: tall and lanky.

“But it’s coming,” Stevenson said. “And the crazy thing is that because of how elite his edges were nobody could knock him off the puck. So the more he fills out, that’s only going to make him better.”

The growth that’s still to come in his skating is intertwined with the muscle he’s working to add in the gym, too.

Braid said a lot of the taller, skinnier kids he works with “visually aren’t the best-looking skaters,” but that Moore has come a long way.

Last summer, Braid told him, “Hey man, all of the work that we’ve put in to the technique of it is starting to come along.”

“I know it can sometimes be a little bit ugly at times but not everyone’s the same kind of skater. His stride isn’t maybe his best asset but edge work-wise, he builds a lot of his speed and pull-away speed off of crossovers,” Braid said. “I don’t think he’s a bad skater by any means (and) as he physically matures and that muscle fills in, it’s just going to kind of continue to build and build. It’s a process that’s going to be never-ending. I don’t think in the long run skating is going to be something that hinders him but he’s never going to be the prettiest skater out there.”

Moore is happy with the way he has trended in the gym and in his skating, too.

“My issue with skating has always been my mass. My technique, I believe, is in a good spot thanks to (Braid) and it’s just developing power,” he said.

He’s stronger than he looks, too, Greg Moore argues.

“The one underappreciated skill of his is his puck protection and strength on his feet with the puck,” he said. “He can hold guys off under pressure to extend plays and if you are studying the best NHL players in the world, they can get into contact, protect the puck, separate themselves and make that next play better than anyone and he has that skill.”

But most importantly, there’s more to come.

“If he can start filling out that frame, I think we have a really dangerous player here,” Wrobel said.

(Top photo: Rena Laverty / USA Hockey’s NTDP)