Athletics Photos

Losing our first match of the season against league rival Trevor Day was not the start the team was looking for, given we had been undefeated in league play for the three previous seasons.

Anchored by two strong players, our doubles teams had aspects to work on and hone.

The team proceeded to go undefeated in our non-league matches, finishing with an overall win-loss record of 8-3.

Disappointed by losing to Lycee Francais twice in one week, the team refocused for its last several practices leading up to the league tournament. Our season culminated in winning the tournament for the fourth year in a row, beating LFNY by one point with everyone contributing to the win. Our singles players went undefeated (and won individual medals as well as the team medal), and each of our doubles teams won one key match.

Perhaps best of all is that each one of the 12 players played in a match during the season, gaining valuable match experience.

Our team captain Peter Maguire and co-captain Alex Wisowaty led by example with a good balance of humor and focus. After our first win of the season, the players announced, “It’s a good day to be a Panther.” Appropriately, we adopted this as our motto for the rest of another successful season for tennis.

Coach Michael Klein

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The 2014 NYCAL season experienced an amazing conclusion and delivered its verdict on Tuesday, May 13, at Riverbanks Stadium. Columbia Prep won the competition, just edging out The Browning School. When we started the season at the end of the winter, only eight boys joined the team. After placing second in 2013 and first in 2012, the Form V co-captains I were rather concerned about what to expect this year. The competition in our league is increasingly difficult, and the qualifications times are very challenging. However, the boys made an excellent appearance and, for the first time in the season, piled up awards and medals Thanks to Coach Wallace for her excellent long jump coaching!)

However, the best was yet to come as we started the three relays: 4x800, 4x100 and 4X400. The Browning boys 4x800 relay team grabbed a more than honorable second place. Another group took home third place in the 4x100 relay, a race in which we had struggled at the beginning of the season. Finally, the high point of this beautiful afternoon was the 4x400. All the runners are strong and were able to shine and bring home the top honor in the 4x400. This win secured a second overall place finish for the Panthers. A great season indeed!

Coach Dominique Bernard

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The challenge for this year’s golf team was to lower their scores throughout the season and, in doing so, become more competitive with the other schools. They achieved both objectives, with the whole squad improving their scores by two strokes to 11 strokes.

Personal bests were recorded in every match, and although not every match went in their favor, the boys felt an improvement had been made in their play this spring. With three seniors leaving, the boys will be looking for some new blood next year, to continue the tradition of “Panther Golf!” 

Coach David Watson

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Even before the spring baseball season started, the boys were excited to get practice going so they could showcase their baseball talents. That excitement and motivation carried throughout the season from start to finish. Coach Andrew Wolf was a terrific asset to the growth and development of the team. He used his extensive baseball experiences to get the boys ready for Game One. As the season aged, each game created new challenges for us. We were able to adjust and manufacture skills from the boys. Whether it was pitching, hitting or fielding, someone was always ready to step up and fill the void as needed. A large part of the team’s success was based on the eighth grade leadership. The boys kept working in practice and improving each game, pitch by pitch. We finished the season strong with a 500 record. Most importantly, each boy learned a bit more about the value of hard work and they will take memories from this season with them throughout their lives. An excellent season, and a job well done!

Coaches Paul Mastroianni and Andrew Wolf

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The fencing team, which operates out of Chapin, is an interschool team, drawing its members from Chapin, Browning, Brearley, Spence, Dalton, Collegiate, and Hewitt.

Five weeks of training is built in to the beginning of the season. After the training, you can leave it at learning the basics, or go on to compete to extend your knowledge.

We compete against Horace Mann, Riverdale, Masters, St. Ann’s, Rye, Hackley; we fence each twice in the regular season. Then we participate in a one-day championship, a round-robin blizzard, in which every team fences every other team.

One of the Form V boys is a varsity starter in foil. He did not know how to fence when he came to the team, but he knew he wanted to. He has become a shrewd fencer because he is an intelligent fellow and has learned to control his body and make it do the bidding of his mind.

A few years ago, four Browning lads came over together to learn and, by their senior year, lost the championships only narrowly to a team with national and international competitors. Oh, yes, it can be done!

An eighth grade boy and sprinter on the track team was already fencing sabre when he came to the team. He found himself with something different to learn: to be an anchor for a team that did not exist. This year was the first for sabre and the only guys that were going to fill out the team were just learning to fence. He worked with the prospects, and now there is a sabre team. By the end of the year, he turned his sprinter’s speed into change of pace, finding different rhythms and beating guys who beat him before, and setting his sights higher. He still has four more years.

Browning students have done well in fencing, and there’s room for more. The fencing team starts in late September.

Joel Glucksman

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The Browning Panthers put together a successful 2013-14 squash season finishing with a 3-2 winning match record. Led by their seasoned co-captains, the Panthers showed much improvement both tactically and technically through the year. Fueled by an energetic influx of Middle School boys, the Browning squad enters next season primed for even more success.

The Panthers practice three days a week after school, with practices generally comprising of condition games, supervised match-play and squash conditioning/flexibility. This season’s roster of opponents included CitySquash, Dalton, Birch Wathen Lennox and Poly Prep.

Coach Kapur, Sports Club LA

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The varsity basketball team started the season with lofty goals and expected tremendous success. Unfortunately, we did not reach our goals of making it to the NYCAL Championships and getting a chance to play at CCNY. Despite clearly having the talent to compete on a daily basis, the guys never really gelled into a cohesive unit. With only one junior and no sophomores, it was challenging for the four seniors and eight freshmen to find a common ground. Ironically, in the final game of the season, in the first round of the NYCAL Playoffs, the boys played terrific team basketball but unfortunately ran into a Loyola team that simply could not miss a shot. After the game, the seniors and I reiterated to the returning players that next year it is going to take a lot of hard work and training if we are going to get to the level we need to be at in order to compete. I am happy that the seniors had the opportunity to play a game on the main floor of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and that they ended the season by all playing arguably their best games of the year. I will really miss coaching and working with this special group from the Class of 2014. I really enjoyed watching them grow into terrific players. – Coach Andrew West

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We started out in November with lots of optimism about the upcoming season. Try-outs brought many new faces to our basketball program. Once the varsity and junior varsity teams were set, we began practices. The JV boys were excited and ready to play our first game, but lots of work had to be done before that game. Conditioning, offensive and defensive schemes, as well as basic skill development were practiced. A few of the boys were new to Browning, so we had to become a team the old-fashioned way. It was done with a lot of hard work and a lot of getting to know each other. The boys certainly worked hard. Practices were intense, but the boys came together and worked hard for themselves as well as their teammates. As the season went on, our opponents seemed to get tougher and tougher. Each game the boys worked harder and harder. No matter what the situation, the boys gave it their best effort, right down to the final horn.

In fact, our final game was our best of all! We hit our peak defeating EF International by a score of 38-25. It was a great emotional win which will last in the boys’ memories for a lifetime. This season turned out to be one of the most memorable seasons of my Browning career. The boys learned a tremendous amount of basketball, developed their skills, made a bunch of new lifelong friends and, most of all, had a lot of fun doing it. They gained so many life lessons this season through the game of basketball. As coach, I enjoyed working with this team. They showed a lot of heart and dedication all season. I want to thank the entire team for a great year. – Coach Paul Mastroianni 

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RED TEAM
What a season for the seventh and eighth grade Red Panthers! Coming off a one-win 2012-2013 campaign, the team was determined to find success. Exceeding even their own high expectations, the Panthers finished the season with 10 wins and four losses, and an 8-2 conference record that earned them a share of the league title. To accomplish this, the team had to defeat a tough St. Hugh’s squad, which had previously handed Browning a 32-point loss. The rematch was all “grytte” and guts as the Panthers bested their rival by one point when co-captain Andrew Ceonzo sunk two free-throws with .9 seconds remaining on the clock.

Winning six of the final seven games of the year was a testament to this group’s dedication to each other as teammates. Trust, hard work and unselfishness add up to quite a recipe for success. – Coach Dan Ragsdale

BLACK TEAM
The Black team finished the season by defeating The Town School. It was a great season for the boys. They finished by winning their last five games, defeating Calhoun, St. Thomas Choir, Trevor Day School, Churchill and, finally, Town School. Our leading scorer and co-captain Stone Abramson led the team in its offensive efforts. The solid team defense was lead by Justin James, Amedeo Lorenzotti and Patrick McAllister. George Stavropoulos, our other co-captain, helped to keep the team focused on its goal of teamwork.

The boys’ season started off slowly; it only took a few games, however, to come together as a solid, in-synch unit. The B team’s final record was six wins and four losses; that success was based on teamwork, teamwork and more teamwork.

Coach Wolf and I are very proud of the boys and how hard they worked to achieve their goals. Go Panthers! – Coach Glenn Walker

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With a record of 10-1, the sixth grade team proved to be one of the most successful teams in sixth grade basketball history! Starting off slowly with a one- point victory against the School @ Columbia in early January, the team steam rolled the rest of the way with big victories against the likes of Allen-Stevenson, St. Hughs, Trevor Day and St. Bernards. The only hiccup was a one-point loss to Town School, which they might have won easily if their shots had just dropped.

The boys were impressive with their knowledge of the game, with understanding and learning the plays, and with being able to set the tempo of each game. But most of all they showed great sportsmanship against their opponents. In games where it was clearly one-sided, the team did not run up the score but gave opportunities for bench players to score and get good playing time. As these boys move up to the 7/8 grade teams next year, I’m looking forward to coaching the successful fifth grade team next season! – Coach David Watson

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The fifth grade Panthers had an extremely successful season. Their overall record was 8-1 with the only loss of the season coming in a close match against an all-sixth grade team. In fifth grade basketball a large emphasis is placed on teamwork, sportsmanship and skill development. Of course, it is always nice to be competitive, but at this age level it is most important that we teach the boys how to play the game properly. This team has the fundamental skills to be successful in the upcoming years. We had 29 players on the team. Our greatest success was having all players receive significant playing time in games and enjoying the wins as a team. This group of boys IS extremely talented and enthusiastic about the sport. The team was focused during practice sessions and thus well-prepared come game day. Throughout our nine-game season, we steadily improved as individual players and as a team. – Coach Matthew Brown

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The fall ’13 soccer season has come and gone, and what a season it turned out to be! It all started with our annual trip to Camp Mah-Kee-Nac in the Berkshires in late August for our pre-season training. It was a very successful camp with no serious injuries, and I hoped for the same in the upcoming season. Unfortunately it was not to be; within days of the start of term, we lost our senior co-captain, Raf Harvard ’14, with a broken toe, and two other seniors were unavailable for the first three games. With the early results not as good as they could have been, the boys pulled together and showed a commitment and focus that I haven’t seen in a while in a varsity team.

After losing to Columbia Prep, the Panthers went on an undefeated run of three wins and two ties, including a glorious victory against the League and eventual Playoff Champions Lycee Francais 3-2, thus securing a #3 seed in the playoffs against, yes, you guessed it, Columbia Prep.

The semi-final match was a hard-fought, well-played affair, with our opponents taking a 2-0 lead deep into the second half. With the “never say die” attitude that they have shown all season long, the boys pulled one back with two minutes to go and were putting Columbia under pressure when, unfortunately, the final whistle blew. The team had come a long way since the beginning of the season and showed their true colors in a gallant effort in the final game. With a core of young players returning, the future certainly looks bright for soccer at Browning.

As a footnote, the Panthers were awarded The Sportsmanship Team Award from the other League member schools, which could have been their motto this year....’Play hard but fair.’

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While not represented on the scoreboard, JV soccer had a successful rebuilding season characterized by significant improvements by individual players and the team as a whole. The boys played our first three games without a single goal or a single player on the bench. After recruiting some extra boys, several of whom were new to soccer, we gradually jelled into a legitimate team. The boys managed to book a win and a tie while tightening the gap between them and each of the teams they re-matched over the course of the season.

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While not represented on the scoreboard, JV soccer had a successful rebuilding season characterized by significant improvements by individual players and the team as a whole. The boys played our first three games without a single goal or a single player on the bench. After recruiting some extra boys, several of whom were new to soccer, we gradually jelled into a legitimate team. The boys managed to book a win and a tie while tightening the gap between them and each of the teams they re-matched over the course of the season.

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It took until the last event of the season to discover the true face of Browning’s varsity cross country team, version 2013. Honored and galvanized by the presence of headmaster Steve Clement, Athletic Director West, Director of Physical Education Director Patricia Zeuner, Dr. Miguel Gama-Sosa and his son, Michele Gama-Sosa ’11 (currently running cross country at Yale), our Harriers took an unexpected third place at the NYCAL Cross Country Championships at Van Cortland Park. Christopher Keyko ’15, the team’s best runner this season, was at his finest, finishing fourth in a competitive field. His comrades finished further back in the race, but all embodied the best of what Browning brings to our athletic contests: sportsmanship, engagement and, as always, “grytte.”
These past two years we had excellent individual results but not really a team. This season, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Christopher Keyko ’15, Michael O'Connor ’16, Brandon Keno ’16, Diego Lopez-Liranzo ‘15, Yvan Maslennikov '16, Peter Florescu ’15, Philippe Laffont ’16, Julian Orillac ’16, Andrew Bendo ‘16, Terrell Edwards’17 and Alex Lopez-Velasco’ 17, a cohesive team has been born.

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This fall, for the first time in its long history, The Browning School fielded a Middle School cross country team. The students themselves had pressed for its creation and responded in strong numbers when the call for runners went out. Calling themselves the Panther Prowlers, nearly a dozen boys from both Forms I and II met twice a week for endurance and strength-building runs in Central Park. Each Thursday of the six-week season, they traveled to Van Cortlandt Park to compete not only against other independent middle schools, but also against themselves and their own individual times in a 1.5 mile race. Those new to the discipline were surprised how noticeably their efforts improved with practice and applied focus. The more experienced runners also improved and gained a better understanding of the demands of the sport. All our sports teams will be much the stronger for the early start these young men have made with cross country.

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