Tewksbury Athletes Making Their Choices

certainly isn’t the only success story coming out of Tewksbury High’s talented senior class as college destinations are being finalized this spring.

Senior right handed pitcher Matt Luppi has already signed a letter of intent to play baseball for the University of Connecticut next year. Luppi got his senior season off to a good start Monday by throwing a complete game against Wilmington. Luppi did not allow an earned run against the Wildcats.

Anthony Arcari, the senior speedster who led the TMHS football team in rushing last fall and won the Merrimack Valley Conference indoor track 55-meter championship this winter, has narrowed his list down to three schools: Bentley, Merrimack and UMass-Amherst.

Bentley and Merrimack want Arcari to run track and play football, while UMass-Amherst has recruited Arcari for its track team and told him he can try out for football as a walk-on.

Arcari, who is also an outstanding student, is already off to a strong start in the spring track season, having won both the 200 and 100 meters by impressive margins in his opening meet against Lowell last week.

UMass-Lowell looks like it will once again land some of Tewksbury’s top talent, including Pat Bernardo, a standout soccer player and runner for coach Steve Levine over the past four years. Bernardo has also been accepted at Bentley, Bryant and the University of New Hampshire, but it looks like he’ll be playing soccer for the River Hawks and coach Chris Figueroa in the fall.

Unofficially, three-sport star Ally Greene will also be heading to UMass-Lowell. Greene is perhaps Tewksbury’s top all-around female athlete, having put together outstanding careers in field hockey, indoor track and softball. She’ll most likely be spending a lot of time in a River Hawk softball uniform.

Multi-purpose track man Richard Kirby, who also plays a pretty good game of soccer, will also attend UMass-Lowell in the fall and run track for the River Hawks.

Football and track standout Ryan Vibber is headed for Wagner College in New York to play football and run track, while Ashley Toland, a four-year pillar of the girls' track team’s success, will be attending the Universityof Rhode Island.

Colby-Sawyer College up in New London, N.H., did well at Tewksbury High this year as both Rob Wallace and Heather Carroll will be attending Colby-Sawyer in the fall. Wallace, the standout catcher on the TMHS baseball team, will play baseball for the Chargers while Carroll, who had a standout season on the TMHS girls soccer team last fall, will play soccer there.

Curry College looks like the front-runner to land Redmen football quarterback Sean Connolly, although Framingham State is in the mix. Football and hockey standout Rob Pruyne is headed to Worcester State and football linebacker David Gallatto will attend Nichols. Sean McCarthy, the football place kicker and baseball starting pitcher, is headed to Southern New Hampshire University.

Nick LaCascia (football, lacrosse) is headed toward either Emerson or Suffolk, while Joe Hulme (football, basketball, baseball) is looking at Wentworth Institute of Technology to play baseball.

Basketball standout Sean Gorman has been focused on Newbury College all winter long, and Craig Semenza (basketball, golf) is looking at Westfield State and Fitchburg State.

Perhaps the guy with the most impressive list of choices is football and track star Dan Sugrue. Also a top student, Sugrue has offers from Rochester Polytechnic (RPI) in New York, Stonehill and WPI. In addition to his skills as a lineman on the football team, Sugrue had an outstanding indoor track season throwing the shot put and is off to a fast start in the throwing events outdoors. RPI looks to be the front runner.

Among the long list of undecided athletes are hockey standouts Ryan Doherty and Sean MacLeod. Doherty is at a tournament in Pittsburgh this week gaining national exposure as a member of Team New England.

Chris Andella (baseball, football) and Jerry Etienne (football, track) are also undecided.

Stay connected to Tewksbury.patch.com for further updates on the college choices for the TMHS Class of 2011.