, Bloomfield junior Wynter Whitt defends a Glen Ridge player.
BLOOMFIELD/GLEN RIDGE – The Bloomfield High School girls basketball team is young this season.
Nevertheless, head coach Zac Dearwater has high expectations for the team, as is the case every year.
“The goals and expectations are just like every year – always high,” said Dearwater, prior to the season opener at Glen Ridge on Saturday, Dec. 13. “There is a lot of turnover with the team this year. We have one senior and one freshman on the JV and varsity rosters, and the rest are sophomores and juniors. But the girls have been working real hard for two weeks during tryouts and doing everything and giving us everything they got. But the expectations should be high because they have been putting in the work to get there.”
The lone senior is forward/guard/captain Audrey McLaughlin.
The sophomores are guards Sing Samara Lee, Isabella Bernhard and Jasmine Caylor.
The juniors are point guard Sophia Baldevarona, guard Faith Ulan, forwards/guards Grace Belmonte and Teagan Weber, forward/captain Inez Brewster and forwards Quinn Bailey and Wynter Whitt.
Freshman forward/guard Maleah Liggins rounds out the roster.
The Bengals lost to Glen Ridge 34-19. Brewster led the Bengals with 11 points, six rebounds and four steals. McLaughlin, Sing and Ulan each had two points. Baldevarona and Bernhard each had one point.
After the game, Dearwater said the team had some good highlights, despite the decisive outcome, but that they will look at the video of the game and go over the things they need to improve on.
Brewster is the team’s top returning player, earning Second-Team All–Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division honors, voted by the divisional coaches, last season. Bailey, Baldevarona, Bernhard, Ulan and McLaughlin also saw time last year, when the team finished 10-15.
Notes – Grace Cannon, a 2017 BHS graduate who was a star player for the Bengals, made her debut as the Glen Ridge HS head girls basketball coach. Prior to the game, Cannon said she had “a little bit of feelings. I’ll always have that love for Bloomfield. But I am excited to be a part of Glen Ridge and I love my team and hopefully get it done here today.”
Cannon scored 1,520 points during her four-year career for the Bengals. Interestingly, she said her first game as a freshman at BHS was against Glen Ridge. Last season, Glen Ridge won its first-ever state sectional championship and finished as the Group 1 state runner-up.
In Dearwater’s first season at the helm (2018-19), the Bengals won the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 state tournament title, their first state sectional title since the 1999-2000 season.
Bernhard is a standout soccer player, having earned First Team honors on the All–Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division, voted by the divisional coaches. Brewster, this past fall. Belmonte and Weber led the BHS girls volleyball team to an 18-win season this past fall. Belmonte made Second Team on the All–SEC–Colonial Division for volleyball.
Photos by Joe Ragozzino
Bloomfield vs. Glen Ridge (Dec. 13, at Glen Ridge, season opener for both teams)
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