{"id":43008,"date":"2023-03-23T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=43008"},"modified":"2023-03-23T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:01:00","slug":"zingarella-picks-up-the-pace-in-second-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/03\/23\/zingarella-picks-up-the-pace-in-second-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Zingarella picks up the pace in second half"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Most student-athletes who revere their chosen sport(s) do it with a pure love for the game and a desire to take their performances up to the highest level possible.<\/p>\n

Wachusett Regional High senior co-captain Anthony Zingarella is arguably all of that and quite a bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always really enjoyed playing, and basketball has been my life\u201d said Zingarella, from Holden. \u201cThat\u2019s all I do is play basketball, think basketball, and I love watching it, too. My mom coached at Paxton Middle School, and I used go with her to practices when I was little and shoot around. From there, I\u2019ve played both high school and a variety of AAU teams. It\u2019s pretty much a yearround commitment, but I don\u2019t care because I love the game so much.\u201d Zingarella\u2019s performance in the early season, he admits, hit a bit of a speed bump. Much of his unbridled enthusiasm was somehow lacking, resulting in a slow start for himself and his team. He managed to pick up the pace in the second half of the season, which led to a number of big wins that kept playoff hopes alive. In late February, he was second overall in Mid-Wach A scoring with a points-per-game average of 16.7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got off to a slow start. I had a couple of bad games,\u201d Zingarella explained. \u201cI wasn\u2019t playing the best that I could play. Once the start of the second half of the season came around, I feel like I got back to the level of play I should be at. I was scoring more and became the type of leader that the team needed. I just needed one good game, and after that, things just clicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches have always been hard on me, telling me that this was my team and I had to act more as a leader. I try not to be negative with the other kids, rather I like to keep things positive. That\u2019s how they\u2019re going to get better and get back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost important to me is winning. I look to win every game we play, and I\u2019ll do everything I can to win. When I was younger, I used to get really nervous before games, but now it\u2019s more like I\u2019m anxious to play. Once I score my first basket, everything just slows down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnthony worked very hard in the offseason,\u201d said Mountaineer head coach Tom Gibbons of his 6-foot-4 power forward. \u201cHalfway through the year, he really turned it on and recognized that it was time to step up and be a leader, and he has. The team\u2019s built its identity around him. Off the court, he\u2019s a nice kid, quiet and well-mannered. He goes about his business and is wellliked by his teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zingarella has done his share in showing quality leadership to the younger teammates. He\u2019s quick to offer advice and share with them technique and nuances of the game that will help them approve. Although he competes year round on various travel teams, it\u2019s back at his school gym where it all began in earnest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take a lot of pride in playing for Wachusett because I\u2019m playing for a lot of people. There\u2019s a big history of Wachusett basketball. I wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s pressure, but there\u2019s a big aspect of going out there and doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 Most student-athletes who revere their chosen sport(s) do it with a pure love for the game and a desire to take their performances up to the highest level possible. Wachusett Regional High senior co-captain Anthony Zingarella is arguably all of that and quite a bit more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}