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05/10/2020 12:00 AMIn the 1966 song “Tiny Bubbles,” Don Ho sings, “So here’s to the golden moon, and here’s to the silver sea, and mostly here’s a toast, to you and me.” The song is a favorite of Branford boys’ lacrosse head coach Jim May, and the Hornets use it as a victory cry following every win, singing the refrain, “Tiny bubbles in the wine, makes me feel happy, makes me feel fine.”
Last season, then-junior Jack Manware and his Branford teammates earned a 6-5 win versus Amity on April 13 and then came back to the locker room to sing “Tiny Bubbles.” Manware and the Hornets got to sing their victory song with assistant coach Frank Barron, who was battling cancer.
“After every win, we go into the locker room and sing a song Coach May likes called, ‘Tiny Bubbles.’ It’s a tradition that has been going on for a long time,” said Manware, now a senior captain. “We sung the song with Coach Barron after that big win, and I’ll always remember that moment.”
While Manware and his teammates are unable to play their 2020 spring season, they were still able to give a toast to Coach May. On May 4, Coach May celebrated his birthday. Past and present members of the Branford boys’ lacrosse program drove by May’s house, honked their horns, and delivered some presents to their beloved coach.
The event was set up by former Hornets’ player Anders Brown, a 2019 graduate. Brown sent texts to current members of the team, as well as program alums, to make sure that Coach May was celebrating his special day, even though the team wasn’t on the field.
“It’s little things like that they have done consistently over their time that makes me so blessed to be their coach,” May said. “The biggest thing I see with the players in this four-year class, no matter whether they’re having a bad day, they’re always shaking the coach’s hand, and they’re always shaking the opposing coach’s hand. That’s not something that gets done a lot by student-athletes I’ve seen over my 25 years as a coach. My guys do a great job with that.”
Jack Manware has been a member of the lacrosse team through all four years of high school, playing varsity the entire time. For his senior year, Manware was named one of the Hornets’ captains alongside fellow seniors Max Manware, his brother, and Aiden MacNeil.
The Manware brothers also played for the Branford boys’ ice hockey squad, which was in the middle of the Division II State Tournament when the CIAC canceled the winter postseason in March. At the time, Jack Manware didn’t realize that spring sports were in jeopardy, too. When Manware and his teammates found out that their season was over, they were absolutely crushed.
“I didn’t realize how bad it would get. I thought it would be just a two-week delay,” Jack Manware said. “When I found out the season was canceled, I reached out to my teammates. We were devastated. We have a lot of memories in that locker room and on the field. I like being around those guys, and I like playing those games. It’s a shame, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Aside from the three captains, the other athletes on the 2020 edition of the Hornets’ boys’ lacrosse team are seniors Cam Mills, Jacob Araujo, Cody McHenry, Logan Hamilton, and Shane Hanson. This year’s roster also includes juniors Connor Erickson, Nick Chieffo, James Hayden, David Amatruda, Luke Volpe, Rocco Plano, Andrew Zito, and Markus Indeck; along with sophomores Cam Paleski and Kristjan Fonacier; and freshmen Ryan Sheldon, Alex Milne, Rio Mrdalj, Jack Fitzpatrick, and JP Garea.
The 2020 season was supposed to mark the first year that Branford joined forces with East Haven to form a co-op. The Yellowjackets don’t have a lacrosse program, so Coach May reached out to East Haven Athletic Director Anthony Verderame to try and put the team together.
Senior Logan Hamilton was a captain who played goalie for the East Haven boys’ ice hockey squad. Hamilton’s high school hockey career came to an end when the Yellowjackets took a loss in the first round of the Division II State Tournament. While he was upset that his time on the ice was done, Hamilton was pumped up to join the Hornets’ lacrosse program, especially since had played youth lacrosse in Branford in 7th and 8th grade. Unfortunately, that never came to pass.
“It was really tough. When I first found out we were having a co-op, I was really excited and looking forward to it,” said Hamilton. “When hockey season ended, it wasn’t that hard, because I knew I had lacrosse, and I was going to be a part of a team again. It was tough when I found out that wasn’t going to happen.”
Despite the season being canceled, Hamilton says that the athletes from both towns were meshing together well prior to the shutdown. The Hornets had a few practices and, even though Branford and East Haven are longtime rivals, everyone on the team was getting along nicely.
Although there won’t be any games played this spring, Coach May is already thinking about the next time that he will be able to toast to golden moons and silver seas with his athletes. When the Hornets take the field again, May wants them to be ready to demonstrate just how good of a team they can be.
“We want people to look at the Branford lacrosse and see a team full of character,” May said. “We want them to see a team willing to do whatever it takes to win.