BRISTOL — James Naples made a statement last year when he was named All-State as a sophomore and led the Naugatuck Valley League in goals for the season. However, that was just the beginning for the promising St. Paul Falcon.
Naples was named All-State for a consecutive year after improving his goals scored from 21 to 31 and leading the Falcons to a second round appearance in the Class S State Tournament.
After leading the NVL in goals again, leading the team to an impressive season and accomplishing his individual goal of having at least 30 goals in a season, Naples said he’s proud of what he and the team accomplished this year.
“It was definitely a goal this year of mine to get there so I was very happy that I achieved that for the second year in a row and I'm going for it next year also,” Naples said. “I would definitely like to hit the three in a row. I think that would be a very good thing.”
He said as far as the season overall he believes the Falcons shocked a lot of teams. Behind Naples' playmaking ability, the Falcons finished second in the NVL standings at 11-2-3.
The Falcons only trailed behind Holy Cross, who finished 13-2-1.
“One of our biggest goals was to get into the NVL tournament, which we did and we were all excited for that” Naples said. “We just played our hearts out for those games, but unfortunately we just couldn't get all the way there to the finals.”
The Falcons fell short of reaching the finals in both the NVL tournament as well as the Class S State Tournament after falling to St. Bernard, however, just like last season Naples is already plotting his goals next year and putting in the work.
Naples said after scoring 21 goals as a sophomore his goal heading into his junior year was to score 30 goals. He said now that he’s done that, he needs to score even more as a senior,
“I've been working a lot on the off season and my goal going into this season was for 30 goals since I hit 20 last season,” he said. “It was definitely a goal of mine to get up there just to beat my past record.”
He said next season he’s not just shooting for All-State, but All-New England.
“I would just like to beat my scoring record from this year for next year,” he said. “So getting more than 30 goals and also making All-State or All-New England, if possible, would be definitely a goal going into senior year.”
