Tina Scalese has arrived. Groton has at the same time.
The Zebras reached the Small School tournament championship for the second straight season in 2024.
It also was their second straight season losing the final game of the year to New Hampton.
But Groton firmly has momentum on its side, entering its fifth season under Tim LeRoy. After COVID-19 squelched LeRoy’s first season in 2021, the Zebras went 8-5-5 in 2022, improving upon a 4-17-0 finish in 2020. They built on that success into an 18-4-4 run in 2023 before going 18-6-2 last winter.
“We started four or five years ago kind of at the bottom, and we had to work our way up,” LeRoy said. “That first run where we had a good season, we knew we had the kids in place to get us pretty far, but we didn’t know how far we’d go. Last year, we had similar expectations but even higher goals. That disappointment hit harder last year, losing that game, but the realization was also like, ‘We can do this. We can compete with the best and be in this situation every year.’ ”
No player has had a bigger hand in Groton’s ascent than Scalese (West Boylston, Mass.).
