Dave Chase takes over at Concord and other coaching news…….

 Hopkinton’s Dave Chase stepped down as the Hawks basketball coach after 19 years and will take over at Division I Concord next season.

 Chase has won 193 games the past 13 seasons as the boys coach (he previously coached the girls) and led his Hawks to the Division III Final Four last season for the 3rd time in the past 6 seasons.

 Chase is a very good hire for a once proud Concord program that has not been a factor in Division I in over a decade. He takes over for John Finnegan who was preceded by current Windham head coach Todd Steffanides.

 2017 will be a down year across the state, particularly in Division I where Division II champion Portsmouth walks in as the favorite on day one. Still the job ahead of Chase is a difficult one and it begins with the current team members, and possibly some athletes who have not come out for the team previously, buying in. “I don’t know if I’ve ever walked into a situation where the team was already good and ready to win,” said Chase. “You understand that most jobs open up because the team has struggled. I have experience in turning programs around and so I don’t walk in blind to the process and the challenge.”

 One of the obstacles Chase immediately faces is competing against the best collection of head coaches in the state. Division I & Division IV stand out amongst the four divisions in that coaches tend to stay at their schools for decades. Coaches like Merrimack’s Tim Goodridge, Manchester Central’s Doc Wheeler, Bishop Guertin’s Jim Migneault, Jay Mckenna of Winnacunnet, Mike Romps of Dover and Tim Cronin of Spaulding have been manning the sidelines long enough to know the tendencies, style and even the out of bounds plays of nearly every coach they face.

 Chase now walks into that mix a well-established coach himself, but also the new kid on the block. “I’ve had some really good interaction with people like Tim (Goodridge) and Doc (Wheeler) in the past and hopefully they look at me as a coach with some pretty good success at the lower (Division III) level. My team has had Jay McKenna and Winnacunnet traveling to scrimmage us the past few years and I always saw that as validation that we had a pretty strong program at Hopkinton.”

 The Hopkinton team Chase leaves behind may be the pre-season #1 team in the division next season with a strong freshman class joining returning starters Cam Cyr, Henry Yianakopolos and Jacob Rockwood. “This is not about what I am leaving, Hopkinton has been a terrific experience and I expect them to compete next season again, it is about the opportunity to coach at the next level,” said Chase. “I made the decision a long time ago to start a family instead of starting out as a low level college assistant and that was the right decision for my wife and I. Now with my son graduating and my daughter in college we both realized it was the right time and I've got to tell you, I am excited every single day about this challenge and opportunity.”

“The Division I game is the most intense basketball in the state and obviously is played at its highest level and that’s a challenge I’m ready for.”

 Chase will build his 2017 team around all-state guard Matt Giroux (16.1 ppg) as well as brothers Tyler & Teddy Blodgett. Talented freshman Tyler Brun who impressed Chase during last season’s Holiday Tournament could also play a major role for Concord.

 Chase, notorious for his scouting and preparation, has a lot of film to watch division wide but his initial assessment of his new team couldn’t be simpler. “We have to get them to play harder, it begins there.”

“Youth programs are going to be essential to building a program that competes every single year and so you want to build the model where the high school kids are working with the middle school players and investing in the program.”

 Chase will remain at Hopkinton as a PE teacher and baseball coach. That means adapting to not being in the school every day with his players. “That will be a challenge, not having that open door policy where kids can come in or I can find them in the hallways every day. At the same time (Conant head coach and Con Val teacher) Eric Saucier told me it can be a benefit having space from the kids during the day so I don’t think it will be a huge obstacle.”

 Division III teams like Conant, Hopkinton, Campbell and Berlin can annually pick out 6 or 7 easy wins on the schedule before the games even begin. That’s just the reality of a division with 25 plus teams. In Division I teams ranked 13 and below annually knock off top 5 teams over the course of the season. It’s an illustration of the parity that comes at the highest level.
 

 Chase’s first mission after meeting his players should be to comb the hallways for that 6’2 lacrosse or football player who may have chosen not to play basketball in the past. In a school with over 1,500 students it’s a luxury Chase will be happy to grow accustomed to. “I’m excited to learn about my team and the schools we’ll be facing every year. That’s a step I was really ready to take and I couldn’t be happier to get started.”
 
 Dave Sontag has stepped down at Keene after doing a very good job in his short tenure. With Ed Tenney’s retirement at Sunapee and Sean Young stepping down at Epping to take over as head coach at Great Bay Community College that leaves three big openings yet to be filled.
 
 The transition to our new website…..

 Eliot Bless and I have been busy behind the scenes beginning our transition to our new website.

 We are on course to have all of our content and videos moved over in the next month or so and those who registered will be getting their login information to have uninterrupted access to NHsportspage.

 Bear with me on the t-shirts, they will be coming to you in the mail as well, I promise you will have them in the very near future. As a guy who struggles to get his Mother’s Day card in the mail on time mailing out 155 NHsportspage shirts is like traveling to the moon but I will get them out to everyone who registered. Thanks for your patience.

 If you haven’t registered…consider this your extremely friendly final warning
 
 The New Hampshire Twin State Team is set……

 Laconia head coach Steve McDonough will be the head coach of the New Hampshire senior all-star team that looks for its third consecutive win over Vermont on Saturday June 25th at NHTI in Concord. Exeter head coach Jeff Holmes will assist McDonough and take over as head coach next season.

 We will have full coverage of the game including a preview plus video highlights & post-game interviews. I will handle play by play duties while Pete Tarrier is preparing for our coverage of the CHAD East-West All-Star game and Justin McIsaac is covering Roller Derby (Not a misprint..).

 Pelham head coach Matt Regan and Conant head coach Eric Saucier will join me in the three man booth as will our new videographer Rich DeSimone.

 The New Hampshire Roster
Bryant Holmes (Exeter)
Brennan Morris (Pinkerton) 
Jaylen Leroy (Central)           
Joe Bell (Brady)          
Joe Simpson (Manchester West)      
Austin Whaley (Lebanon)     
Keenan Carron (Manchester West) 
Keith Brown (Pelham)           
Dana Bean (Franklin) 
Trent Noordsij (Kearsarge)
Nate Hale (Nashua North)    
Matt Tenney (Sunapee)