MARSHFIELD – Head coach Kris Bador cobbled together a successful season in his first year on the sidelines despite a litany of injuries to his Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball team last winter and his young Trojan program looks loaded for bear in 2025.
To say that Bador battled the injury bug in his first year guiding the Twinfield-Cabot boys basketball program would be an understatement. He lost leading scorer and two-time Vermont Dream Dozen selection Tej Stewart to a season ending wrist injury in the second half of the season and navigated a myriad of other injuries that forced him to put 15 different combinations of a starting lineup out on the floor. Despite that, the Trojans battled through to win 10 games, including a home playoff game before falling to top seed and Division IV runner-up Danville in the quarterfinals. He lost Meles Gouge, Caiden Green, Sam Russell, Brayden Cushing, and Dom Hale to graduation, but returns a talented group of underclassmen led by a healthy Stewart, who looks poised to punish Mountain League opponents this coming winter.
“We lost a lot of senior leadership, but we return a talented core of underclassmen who gained a ton of experience fighting through the adversity of our injuries last season. I still can’t believe we don’t have a senior on this team. Chris Hudson built and left me a great program here at Twinfield-Cabot and I do not take it for granted. I love to coach and I’m so excited for the possibilities of this team this season,” said Bador.
Juniors Sam McLane and Eli Russell return to join Stewart, along with the inside presence of fellow juniors Sam Churchill and Thomas Gouge. Highly touted freshman Omar Miksic-Knibb comes off a breakout fall season on the pitch that saw him tally nearly 20 goals for the Trojan soccer team and will look to make the same impact for Bador’s program in what is his favorite sport.
“Eli is our floor general and looks great in practice and scrimmages so far. We should get Sam’s scoring and leadership back sometime after Christmas as he recovers from a late season soccer injury. Tej took the soccer season off and the time he put in on his game and body has been noticeable. He is going to be a problem for teams on our schedule. We were excited about Omar as an eighth grader and have been counting down the days to get him in with this group at the varsity level. He is such a poised and developed kid already and he wants to be coached. Tej and Eli have really taken him under their wing and the sky is the limit for him if he continues to put in the work,” said Bador.
Bador’s squad has already held its own in a scrimmage across the border against a high-powered Woodsville team, as well as a round robin versus Division III opponents Randolph and BFA-Fairfax. The Trojans will be tested with a brutal schedule in the first month of the season that includes the annual Bob Abe Classic in the southern part of the state. Bador wouldn’t have it any other way as he gets his young team ready for their ultimate goal at the Barre Auditorium come March.
“This is a great group of positive kids without egos. They support each other, push each other, and play for each other. We are blessed to have this schedule at the beginning of the season. We will be battle tested early and we embrace the challenge. I wouldn’t want to play us later in the year. I can’t tell you how much myself and our coaching staff appreciates the support we’ve received from the community, and we can’t wait to start the season to show them the hard work this great group of kids have been putting in,” said Bador.
Twinfield-Cabot will once again head south to start the season as they compete in the Bob Abrahamson Tip-off Classic in Proctor for a two-day tournament starting Friday night. The Trojans finished runner-up last season.
