An exciting winter sports season is underway as high school and middle school basketball and cheer teams showed off their skills at several games during the week of January 25. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, no spectators are allowed in the stands, but fans can watch the games live on YouTube.
Athletic Director Pam Hitchner said that home games of both the middle and high school basketball games are being live-streamed on the ACS YouTube channel and away games will also be available to watch online using links provided by other schools.
All links will be posted on the ACS website on the “High School Athletics” page and the ACS link is available below. Anyone who would like to get email notifications of live-streamed ACS home games when they are about to air on YouTube can do so by subscribing to the ACS YouTube channel.
The game schedules for middle school and high school are also posted on the ACS website under the “Athletics” tab and will be updated regularly as needed.
Hitchner said she was very pleased that over 70 middle school and high school students are participating on the various athletic teams, and even more came out for tryouts. “There is a lot of enthusiasm for our winter sports and we are taking every precaution to keep everyone safe and healthy throughout the season,” Hitchner said. “We will really miss hearing the cheers of our fans in the stands at the games, but we know they will be rooting for us from home.”
High School Season
The Varsity Boys’ and Girls’ teams won their January 25 scrimmage games against Buena High School and then played the following day at home against Calvary Academy, posting their first Tri-State Christian Athletic Conference wins of the season. The Varsity Girls beat Calvary 52-9 and the Varsity Boys played strong to beat Calvary 61-53. The JV Boys tied their game 37-37.
On Wednesday, the ACS teams traveled to Sparta, NJ to play Veritas Christian Academy in a non-conference game. The ACS Varsity Girls lost a close match in overtime to Veritas 57-50, and the Varsity Boys lost their game as well, 43-56. The two schools will face off again this weekend at ACS on Saturday, January 30. Four games will be played on Saturday — JV Girls at 2 p.m.; Varsity Girls at 3:30 p.m.; JV Boys at 5 p.m.; and Varsity Boys at 6:30 p.m.
The 14 members of the 2021 ACS Varsity Boys’ Basketball team, led by Dan Carney in his 5th year as head coach and assistant coach Ben Chapman, are: Robby Barberio, Jake DeNick, Noah Gibbs, Aaron Glancey, Sam Glancey, Malachi Green, Joshua Jacoby, Manny Johnson, Cruz Lewis, Evan Pearson, Jacob Rosie, Joshua Schlundt, Devin Tridente, and Caleb Vogel.
The 13 members of the 2021 ACS Varsity Girls’ Basketball team, led by ACS alumnus Kaylee Breunig (’12), in her 4th year as head coach, and assistant coach Dara Kimmerley, are: Daniella Ajayi, Olivia Chapman, Kami DeNick, Maddie DeNick, Shelby Einwechter, Becca Kelley, Evangelina Kim, Ryleigh Martin, Paige Noble, Sydney Pearson, Chloe Vogel, Eden Wilson, and Cristen Winkel.
Middle School Season
The Middle School Boys’ and Girls’ teams won their first games of the season on January 26 away at Pilgrim Academy. The MS Boys, under head coach Lee Martin, beat Pilgrim 53-37, and the MS Girls, under head coach and ACS alumnus Grant Miller (’07), beat Pilgrim 31-19. The MS Boys team lost its January 28 away game at Life Center, 52-64.
The 13 members of the Middle School Boys’ Basketball team are: John Cook, Charlie Costello, Ethan Costello, Micah D’Anna, Judah Dawkins, Jayden Dixon, CJ Ford, Caden Kim, Chase Leach, Joseph McCrae, Jayden Sanchez, Adam Schlundt, and Justice Settles.
The 15 members of the Middle School Girls’ Basketball team are: Alexis Andujar, Angela Awad, Sophia Capito, Katie Colella, Sophia Costello, Gianna Flynn, Kiera Frontino, Lucy Huff, Sophia Johnson, Taylor Murphy, Ava Nixon, Nadia Pearson, Skyler Shivers, Taylor Sutton, and Anyae Welch.
Cheer Season
Twenty-three middle school and high school students are part of this year’s cheerleading squad, co-coached by staff members Mrs. Kelly Flynn and Mrs. Morgan Gibson. Practices got underway in early December to prepare for the season. The squad is cheering at home games to support our middle school and high school teams. The intramural cheer squad for students in 1st-5th grade, which practiced in November and December, is also planning to cheer at several upcoming home games, dates to be determined.
The members of the cheer squad are: Ashley Alford, Isabella Alford, Ava Barberio, Leah Boyer, Annalena DiMaio, Rebecca DiMaio, April Eaves, Mackenzie Flynn, Autumn Henson, Kylie Jackson, Grace Johnson, Abby Kelley, Katherine Kong, Ava Lombardi, Autumn Loo, Kiara Loo, Jadelynn Maurer, Heather Milstead, Nadia Pearson, Sophia Publiese, Haven Sanchez, Isabella Santos, Stephanie Valdes,
Subscribe to the ACS YouTube Channel to watch the Saturday games live and all upcoming High School and Middle School home games each week. Away games are also being live streamed by the host schools.
CLICK HERE for the online link to watch the ACS home games on YouTube.
In its first competition of the season, the ACS Cheerleading Squad won first place at the ImpACT Competition, in the JV Intermediate Division, on Saturday, February 12 at the RWJBarnabas Health Arena in Toms River. This exciting win opened the door for the ACS squad to be invited to other competitions, including The ONE Finals national competition in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where ACS will compete on April 2-3.
