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Westwood High's Boys Hockey And Girls Basketball

Championship Tandem Almost Unprecedented

POSTED: 4:47 pm EST March 22, 2002

Westwood High School is home of not one, but two state championships, both earned in a 26-hour span over the weekend.

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The Westwood girls basketball team had its state title shot first on Saturday. They did it by wining their 52nd straight game.

"I can't describe the feeling," team co-captain Danielle Fitzpatrick said. "It's unreal that we won 52 straight games. Just to go out like this. It's the best feeling."

On Sunday, the boys hockey team capped off a momentous season of its own. Down 2-0, the team scored four unanswered goals on its way to the crown.

"We watched the 1980 Olympics video, and the coach said to the guys before they went out, 'If you lose this game, you're going to take it to your graves,'" co-captain John McDonough said.

The two teams have the utmost respect for each other. The girls were at all the hockey games, and the boys were at all the girls' playoff games.

"In school now, it's a little bit different," basketball co-captain Ali Rose said. "We have a little more competition, but during the year we were just so excited for them. We had been there last year. We knew what it's like."

"It's been great, because we've been getting a lot of credit," hockey co-captain Mark Reilly said. "No one thought we'd make it this far. We proved everyone wrong. The girls aren't getting all the hype anymore."

For their part, the basketball players said that they don't mind sharing the acclaim.

"It's not so bad," co-captain Kerri Bergen said. "It's just great that two teams from the same high school could win it."

For one school to win a hockey championship and a basketball championship in the same season is almost a unique feat. It's only happened one another time in the last 30 years -- back in 1985, also in Westwood.

"Two big wins in one weekend," hockey coach Mike Welby said. The sportsmanship -- where we're going to their games, they're coming to ours -- I think it's unparalleled. I think that pushed us as much as it pushed them.

"I don't think a school could ask for more in one weekend to celebrate two great teams and a whole bunch of fun kids," basketball coach Bill Riley said. "I think that was the special part of it for the town."

High 5, a weekly look at a Massachusetts high school athlete, is in its 17th year of providing Channel 5 viewers an in-depth look at one of the Bay State's finest. Check here every week to see who Mike Lynch picks to win this week's award.


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