NORTHFIELD – The defending Division III champion Hazen Union girls’ basketball team put a bow on a busy summer by attending the Norwich University Team Camp last week.
Head coach Randy Lumsden made it a point to prepare his young team for their championship defense this coming winter, starting with their first season in the highly competitive Lamoille Summer League. He ended his team’s summer basketball activities over the weekend with a three-day trip to the Norwich Team Camp under first year head coach Ute Otley.
Otley stepped down from her coaching duties at CVU to challenge her coaching skills at the collegiate level after leading the Lady Redhawks to back-to-back Division I state titles this past March. The former Dartmouth point guard created an absolute dynasty in Hinesburg, winning seven titles, including five straight from 2013-17. Otley’s CVU program set the Vermont state record, winning 96 consecutive games. Her 268-17 high school coaching record reads like a misprint.
Lumsden won 40 of his first 43 games in his two seasons on the sidelines, including the program’s first state championship in 33 years. He was thrilled with the tutelage Otley and her staff provided to the 13 high school teams that attended the camp, as well as what she added to his own coaching toolbox.
“What she was able to build at CVU is unbelievable and for our girls, as well as myself to get the chance to better ourselves was a great opportunity. We spent an entire afternoon learning some favorite drills that she likes to run. We’ll try to implement some of those into our own program and we definitely left the weekend a better team for attending her camp,” said Lumsden.
Thirteen high schools attended the camp, mostly Division I, that included CVU, St. Johnsbury Academy (SJA), MMU, Middlebury and Lamoille, with Hazen being the only Division III team. Playing without their reigning Mountain League Freshman of the Year Kelsie Rivard, the Lady Cats went 3-0 on Friday and Saturday to earn the No. 2 seed for the single elimination tournament on Sunday. They defeated Spruce Mountain out of Maine in round one before running out of gas against SJA in the second round.
“We beat a really good team from Maine that lost to top seeded CVU by two points. The girls did a great job of competing hard all week and with only six players on Sunday we got a little tired and maybe a little intimidated against a big program like SJA. We’ve started to develop some really good chemistry this summer and different girls have stepped up at different moments to lead, which is great to see. They’ll get a nice break from me and the game as they get ready for the upcoming soccer season. Between the competition we faced in Summer League, AAU, and the Norwich Camp we have a really good start on getting ready for the challenges we’ll face this winter,” said Lumsden.
Joining Lumsden and his team over the weekend was Burlington’s Mae Yenkavitch and Colchester’s Anya Davis. Davis is the daughter of former Craftsbury Academy great Jeff Davis, who now coaches the Colchester girls’ varsity program.
