Royer Tabbed as Hazen Head Coach
HARDWICK – Former Hazen Union standout runner Jessica Royer has officially been hired to lead the Wildcat indoor track program this winter as its head coach.
Royer, a junior at the University of Vermont, will take over the indoor track program from Emily Willems. Willems coached Royer’s sister Cassandra to a Division II runner-up finish at states in the indoor 3000m last winter, qualifying her for New Englands. Jessica Royer ran both cross-country and track at Hazen Union, and has been on the indoor women’s track team for UVM the last two years. She will compete for the Catamounts again this winter, coming off a strong summer on the trails where she was the top female finisher in the Danville Bear Crawl 5k for the second consecutive year. Cassandra will join her sister on UVM’s indoor track team as a freshman this winter. When Jessica is unavailable to coach the team because of college this season, Wildcat cross-country head coach Netdahe Stoddard will be on the coaching staff to fill in.
The high school indoor track season is set to officially kick off early next month.
High School Winter Sports on the Horizon
Northeast Kingdom – With the local high school winter sports season less than a month away, Hazen Union, Craftsbury Academy (CA), Twinfield-Cabot, and Danville are set to get official practices underway soon in several varsity and junior varsity sports.
Hazen and CA will continue their official athletic cooperative this winter, but for the first time in both girls and boys basketball. Both varsity programs made it to the state title game as No. 1 seeds for the first time in school history. Head coach Aaron Hill broke into the 400-career win club last winter, guiding his Wildcat program to their third consecutive title game, cutting down the nets for the sixth time in 2022. In his second year on the sidelines, former Hazen hardwood great Randy Lumsden led the Lady Cat program to their first state championship since 1991. Hazen will also offer indoor track under new head coach Jessica Royer and CA will continue to grow the high school bowling program in their third official season. CA will also lead the way with one of the best Nordic ski programs in the state.
Both Kris Bador and Jack Whalen will coach the boys and girls varsity programs at Twinfield-Cabot for a second consecutive season. While Twinfield, Cabot, and Danville have merged their athletic programs under the umbrella of Caledonia Central Supervisory Union (CCSU) Athletics, Danville will continue to field their own varsity basketball programs this coming winter.
Official practices are set to start in the first week of December.
