Greenwich High girls basketball program holds first annual Alumni Challenge

By David Fierro on June 26, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

Contributed photo: Current members of the Greenwich High School girls basketball team and former Cardinals players gathered at halfcourt, along with some coaches and parents, at the Greenwich High School Girls Basketball Alumni Challenge at Greenwich High School on June 25, 2022.

Though it’s summertime, there was a lot of basketball action inside Greenwich High School’s gymnasium on Saturday.

That’s because the first annual Greenwich High School Girls Basketball Alumni Challenge was held. The game included members of the current Cardinals girls varsity team, along with some 2022 graduates who competed on the school’s 2021-2022 basketball squad and Greenwich basketball athletes from the past – alumni.

The Greenwich alumni team included Abbie Wolf, a 2016 GHS graduate, Emily Anderson (2017 graduate), Jayla Faison (2017 graduate), Amanda Yu (Class of 2017), Kathy Castellanos (2017), Kim Kockenmeister (Class of 2018), Marielle Povenelli (2021) and Sarah Peng (2021).

Contributed photo: It was a good time for all competitors, present and past, at the Greenwich High School Girls Basketball Challenge held at Greenwich High School on June 25, 2022.

Wolf, a 6-foot-4 center, excelled on Greenwich’s 2016 team that advanced all the way to the championship game of the CIAC Class LL Tournament. She proceeded to play at Northwestern, where she had an excellent career, then played professional basketball for the CD Zamarat team in Spain in 2020 and 2021.

Wolf joined the FC Barcelona professional basketball team in Barcelona, competing for the squad from September 2021 to this month. A guard, Faison continued her basketball career at the Roanoke College, where she graduated from in 2021. She joined Greenwich’s coaching staff this past season, serving as the program’s junior varsity coach and a varsity assistant coach.

Kockenmeister, a guard, played basketball at Swarthmore College, sparking the team in the backcourt during her career.

The members of the current team that competed in Saturday’s Alumni Challenge, included Kayla Anderson and Gillian Frey, both of whom graduated from GHS on Thursday. They played on the Cardinals’ varsity team for four seasons. Current team members that also played in Saturday’s Alumni game included Sophia Sergio, who will serve as a captain of the Cardinals’ 2022-2023 team, Carolyn Frankle (captain of the 2022-2023 team), Julia Monteiro, Laura Smego, Caroline McShea and Alyssa Gath.

In a tight game throughout, Greenwich’s Alumni team pulled out a 74-71 win.