Winter sports preview: Nashua South High School

Coaching:

Last season:

“Last year, we struggled quite a bit in duels, we had trouble filling out the roster and gave up a lot of forfeits. I don’t have our exact stats, but we sent two kids to New Englands, Robert Perez and Mia Baez. Rober was a senior, but Mia is still around.” – Spero

Captains:

– Connor Whitman (Senor)

– Benny Byrne (Junior)

– Ian McCubery (Sophomore)

Expectations:

“Our team should no longer have difficulty filling out the roster as we have gotten great numbers compared to last year, but it will be a year for growth as our team is comprised mostly of freshmen and sophmores, many of them new to the sport.” – Spero

Key returners:

– Katie Perry (Captain)

– Ishaan Palmer (Captain)

– Mihir Garimell (Captain)

– Srijith Rangan (Captain)

– Elsie Goyette

– Mara Grigas-Lewis

– Teresa Mathew

– Pratham Mukewar

– Nathan Perry

– Cole DeHoyos

Promising newcomers:
– Natasha Mallya

– Broden Landsteiner (Captain)

– Andrew Byrne (Assistant)

– Brendon Doughty (Assistant)

– Dan Byrne

– Gavin Asimakopulos

– Kaden Cruze

– Brendon Skelley 

Head coach:

– Doug Booth (13th season)

Last season:

Key returners:

– Marcell Perry (Senior captain)

– Camdon Brien (Senior captain)

– Ryan Du Varney (Senior captain)

– Cameron Patronick (Senior captain)

– Tim Staveley (Senior)

– Revin Olsen (Senior)

– Leo Lopez (Senior)

Promising newcomers:

– Jeramiah Agbo (Freshman)

– Evan Jean (Freshman)

Potential challenges:

“Both Bedford and Pinkerton are strong teams, so we have to maintain a focus on our team goals throughout the very quick season. Our first meet is this coming Sunday, Dec. 15 and (the season) ends on Feb. 8.” – Doug Booth

Expectations:

“The expectations are that we continue to show that we are a competitive team and will be working every meet to get better so we are in the mix for a championship again this year.” – Doug Booth

Head coach:

– Nicole Hembrow (Fifth season coaching between North and South)

“I started coaching the Nashua North varsity gymnastics team in 2019 while I was a teacher at Nashua South. Due to COVID, we did not have a season in 2020. In 2021, I continued coaching the North team and then, in 2022, I ended up being the coach for both North and South as we had smaller groups for North and South and competed as independents versus teams. In 2023, I switched to coaching Nashua South and have returned for this season.” – Hembrow

Last season:

“Last season, I had a small team of six and we had a steady improvement for our team score for each meet. Unfortunately, two of our six meets were cancelled due to snow. We did not qualify to the state championships as a team but four of our six gymnasts qualified for state championships: two as all-around gymnasts (compete all 4 events), one as a floor competitor and one as a vault competitor.”

Key returners:

– Sophia Collins

– Renee Glidden

– Abbey Herbert

– Binita Rana

– Nina Somorrostro

“All are key to the success of our team as they each have their own strengths.” – Hembrow 

Promising newcomers:

– Maddie LaFleur

– Ryenne Georgiana

– Katie Perry (part of the South team during her freshman year and is now returning as a senior)

Potential challenges:

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that we are a smaller team, which can sometimes pose problems to fill event line-ups at competitions. We have been slowly rebuilding and increasing our numbers over the years, so I am happy to have a strong group of eight this season.” – Hembrow

Expectations:

“My expectations for this season is that our gymnasts enjoy representing Nashua South Gymnastics. With continued confidence and successful routines, we can improve our team score and individual scores at each competition. It would be wonderful to qualify as a team for state championships in February but being a smaller team, that can be more of a challenge. If we can not qualify as a team, my hope is that we have numerous qualifiers in the All-Around or individual events like we did last season.” – Hembrow

Last season:

– 5th-place at winter spirit competition

Top contributors:

“We do not have captains, but cheer is a unique sport where all athletes are critical to our success. We could talk about every single one of their contributions to the team’s success.” – Goudouros

Promising newcomers:

“We have two gymnasts on the cheerleading team this year that did not compete last year, Nina and Renee. Both are very talented and have helped improve our tumbling scores.” – Goudouros

Potential challenges:

“We are really pushing difficulty this year and hoping to increase our overall stunt, pyramid, and tumbling scores from last winter. As a result, there’s more skills to perform in the routine and more room for error. We will also need to focus on conditioning as more skills require increased stamina.” – Goudouros

Expectations:

“We want to hit a really solid routine and improve our scores overall.” – Goudouros