NEK – As local high school basketball teams officially tipped off practices this past week, there are plenty of juicy entrees to put on the holiday hoops plate this coming month.
Head coach Randy Lumsden and his Hazen Union Lady Cats headline the upcoming high school basketball season and will begin the program’s first state title defense in over three decades later this month.
Caitlyn Davison and Kelsie Rivard led Hazen to a Division III state championship this past winter with record setting performances at the Barre Auditorium. Davison graduated in the spring with nearly 1,200 career points as an all-time Lady Cat great, but Rivard returns with a group of fellow ultra-talented underclassmen that will once again be a favorite in the Mountain League.
Hazen tips off the season at home against Danville on December 17 and will raise their first championship banner since 1991 at the Cat Den against Lyndon Institute two nights later. Lumsden and his Lady Cats return to the Barre Auditorium on January 4 for a match-up against Peoples Academy in the second edition of the Winter Solstice Tournament.
The Hazen Union boys’ basketball team will look to get back to the Division III state title game for an unprecedented fourth straight time under legendary head coach Aaron Hill this coming season. The Wildcats won their sixth Division III state championship under Hill in 2021 and suffered a second consecutive narrow loss in the title game last March. Hill notched his 400th career coaching win last season before the age of 50 and has led his Wildcat program to 59 wins the last three seasons.
Hazen tips off their season and will raise their runner-up banner, December 18, hosting the Ninth Annual Dave Morse Classic, a tourney the Wildcats have dominated five years in a row. They then travel to the Aud to square off against Peoples Academy in the Second Annual Winter Solstice, January 4, and will once again don the Purple and Gold of the Terriers against Thetford Academy on Hardwick Academy Night, January 10.
The Twinfield-Cabot boys and girls basketball programs will look to build off successful seasons under second year head coaches Kris Badore and Jack Whalen. Badore’s young Trojan squad battled injuries to win 10 games last season, including a home playoff win before falling to top-seeded Danville in the quarterfinals. He returns a talented group of underclassmen this year that will look to make some serious noise in the Mountain League. They tip-off the season once again at the Bob Abrahamson Classic in Proctor, December 13, where they were runner-up last winter. Badore’s squad will square off against Williamstown, January 3, at the Barre Auditorium.
Whalen led the Lady Trojan program (13-8) to their first winning season in over a decade in his first year on the sidelines in Marshfield. They earned a first-round home win in the Division IV playoffs and came up three points short of advancing to the Final Four at the Barre Auditorium. His upstart program tips off their season at Peoples Academy, December 17, and will clash with Mountain League foe Williamstown, January 3, at the Barre Auditorium.
