BY STEVE BARLOW
WOODBURY — Listening to Monica Untiet can be exhausting.
The senior point guard for the Nonnewaug High girls basketball team spits out the details of her normal day with the rat-a-tat-tat of a machine gun because there’s so much she has to do and only 24 hours to get it all done.
Out of necessity, her day starts before the crack of dawn at 5:30 a.m. She must catch the bus from her home in Prospect for the hour’s trek to Nonnewaug, where she is studying veterinary science in the regional school’s vo-ag program.
After classes finish, there’s basketball practice from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., followed by an evening meeting of the Woodbury FFA, of which she’s a chapter officer.
One of her parents, Bill or Liz, picks her up around 9 to chauffeur her back home, where dinner and homework can keep Untiet, an honors student, up until 11 or midnight.
The next morning, her busier-than-a-bee routine repeats itself.
When does she fit in enough shut-eye? “I sleep on the bus,” Untiet answered.
And let’s not forget her part-time jobs at an animal shelter and a dog kennel, which consume a chunk of her weekends. That’s an FFA requirement that meshes well with her passion for animals.
“I bring a lot of snacks,” Untiet explained, “to eat throughout the day to keep me energized.”
Welcome to the life of a vo-ag basketball player.
And she is not alone.
Of the 21 players in the Nonnewaug girls hoop program, seven are out-of-district vo-ag students. Besides Utiet, the others are senior Abby Scheurich of Oxford, senior Emily Wisniewski of Southbury, junior Ashley Hennessey of Seymour, sophomore Skyla Starziski of Beacon Falls, and freshmen Allysa Calabrese and Jordyn Padilla, both of Watertown.
Through its doors every day, Nonnewaug welcomes 235 vo-ag students (more than one-third of its total enrollment) from outside the Region 14 towns of Woodbury and Bethlehem. They arrive from 14 towns stretching from Bethel to Bethany, the state’s largest vo-ag district.
The daily influx is why the CIAC classifies Nonnewaug as a “school of choice” for the state tournament, a status that will get the Chiefs bumped to a larger division if they happen to advance a couple of rounds in the state tournament.
Certainly, Nonnewaug is more competitive because of its vo-ag program; two or three of the vo-ag players will start for the Chiefs this season.
But let’s be clear: These girls endure the extended daily grind because they want to be vets, not basketball stars.
Hennessey, a returning starter at guard, has the luxury of arising a bit later in the morning since she obtained her driver’s license and can skip the bus. But she confessed to napping on the gym bleachers after school as well as on the bus in prior years.
“My bus driver had to wake me up once,” she added.
Nonnewaug coach Adam Brutting has had to be understanding of the multiple stresses his vo-ag players are under.
“We have to manage things,” Brutting said. “But in our experience, the girls are pretty responsible and work hard at budgeting their time. (Basketball) is a big commitment, and the girls work hard at figuring it out.”
For Scheurich, her days somehow aren’t full enough with basketball (one of three sports she plays), her studies and a job at a dog training school in Bethany. So she breeds sugar gliders on the side.
No, sugar gliders aren’t a new confectionary creation at Dunkin’ Donuts. Rather, they’re a tiny, nocturnal animal with a striped face that’s sort of like a possum, sort of like a flying squirrel and sort of like a kangaroo since the babies like to hang out in a pouch after birth.
Scheurich has owned the marsupials for four years and has been breeding them the past two. She advertises on websites, including her own, and has sold the exotic pets for between $150 and $600.
“Some people will pay up to $1,000 for a rarer color,” she noted.
When they decide to attend Nonnewaug, the vo-ag players leave behind their middle school friends for a new school full of girls who have grown up together, on and off the court.
It’s up to the new kids to fit in.
“It was hard coming in as a freshman,” said Wisniewski. “No one else from my town played, but (basketball) was the best decision I ever made because I made so many friends.”
No one would blame Wisniewski or the other vo-ag players on the team if they decided their days were too hectic to play a sport. You might even think Mom and Dad would enjoy a break, too.
Nope. That will not happen.
“My resume would be fine without it,” Untiet said, “but I love playing basketball.”
“It’s my passion,” Hennessey added. “Without it, I don’t know what I would do.”
Reach Steve Barlow at sbarlow@rep-am.com.