Trinity head coach Dave Keefe laughed when I congratulated him on his 64-58 state championship victory over Pembroke Academy on December 7th. It may have felt like a season was on the line that Saturday night in Hudson but I can assure you both teams walked away to play another day.

 I can just as assuredly tell you the state championship game isn’t going to be decided this evening at McHugh Gymnasium either. While the thought of Manchester Central & Trinity playing in a season opener and possibly twice before New Year’s Day feels like Ohio State/Michigan football in early September or Duke/North Carolina basketball the day before Thanksgiving it what it is. One team goes home 1-0 and the other is immediately the best 0-1 team in New Hampshire. Either way there are 17 games left to go in the regular season.

 The Division I championship will take place on Saturday March 15th at UNH and there are eighteen other teams with a say on which two teams are there in the end. Today we take a look at the Division I landscape three months before we get there..

 Division I Predicted order of finish
 

1. Manchester Central
2. Trinity
3. Merrimack
4. Bishop Guertin
5. Bedford
6. Exeter
7. Winnacunnet
8. Londonderry
9. Salem
10. Alvirne

 Lurking outside the top 10: Keene, Manchester Memorial, Pinkerton, Spaulding, Nashua North & Nashua South.

 When David ‘Doc’ Wheeler’s Manchester Central (coverage sponsored by 900 Degrees Pizzaria) team walked off the floor after an overtime loss to Bishop Guertin in last season’s quarterfinals they knew that a team that relied heavily on the scoring of senior Troy Pelletier was going to be in search of some answers during the summer of 2013. The answers might lie in the improvement of Brett Hanson, a player who has gone from steady to spectacular in a short amount of time. In the backcourt combo of their leader Dawson Dickson and the always steady Mike Plentzas. In the defense and rebounding of Tyler Kelly and Nick Makris, two football players who carry that attitude into the winter. The answers also might just have resided in Florida.

 In Florida??

 “We have had more than a few kids over the years move into the district to come out to play,” said Wheeler, “ and to be honest a lot of them never end up playing for us. Their ability and knowledge of the game doesn’t usually line up with what they have told people it was. So when I heard about Jon & Joey (Martin) moving in from Florida I honestly didn’t think much of it. Until I saw them play…” Wheeler describes the elder Martin Jon as an elite passer and brother Joey as a legitimate knock down shooter. “ They have fit in with what we are trying to do from day one,” said Wheeler. “ The consequence of their coming in is that it makes us deeper as a team and now there are nine or ten guys fighting for minutes every day in practice. As a coach it makes it very easy for me to come in and say ‘Hey fellas..we need to clean up our mistakes or there are guys on the bench who will be more than happy to come in and take your spot. I have eight guys, who includes Nick Makris and Mike Plentzas, who I feel l very excited to get out on the floor. We haven’t had that kind of depth in years.”

 As noted earlier the defending champs started their defense a little earlier and a little more publicly this winter than usual but the real test comes in working four or five players who did not play significant minutes a year ago into the rotation forTrinity (sponsored by The Auburn Pitts). “ We have a lot of experience in the starting five, four players back from last year but you can’t win in March without contributions from your 6 through 10 guys,” said Trinity head coach Dave Keefe, “ and that is what we are searching for now.” Patrick Keefe, Carmen Giampetruzzi, Wenyen Gabriel and Ryan Otis return to the starting lineup and are joined by likely fifth starters Brad Rhoades and Pinkerton transfer Luke Testa. The question marks are few & far between with this group.. “For Luke it is a whole new environment that he has to adjust to,” noted Keefe. “ Both his teammates and my style of coaching. With the other guys there is a lot of chemistry there and players who I think have proven themselves.”

 Keefe has talent coming off the bench as well; club level member Connor Walsh will be a big factor this season as  a sophomore as will all-state football player Ryan Boldwin. Both players have the size and strength to be factors down low. “ The practices so far this pre-season have been battles and that is such a good thing,” said Keefe. “ How we come together as a unit will ultimately decide it. I’m not interested in being the best team in December and hoisting Holiday tournament trophy’s as much as I am being the best team at UNH in March.”

 It was two short years ago that Merrimack was the last team standing and with arguably the best player in Division I and a veteran coach highly regarded amongst his peers the Tomahawks have a very good shot to get back to the winners circle again. “ We have really good senior leadership,” head coach Tim Goodridge told me at the jamboree. “ Mike Gasper, (Mike) Conlin etc. are those unsung kids that don’t get all the credit that (Eric) Gendron and (Austin) Franzen do because they are doing it on the defensive end.” Gendron will again run the point and create offense with high sets and pick & rolls. 6’4 center Shayne Bourque is much improved and has added a reliable jumper to his arsenal while junior shooting guard Austin Franzen will be targeted by opposing defenses on a nightly basis after a break-out season a year ago. “ Anytime you have maybe the best player in our division and a veteran head coach like Timmy you have to be considered one of the favorites,” added on Division I rival.

 Head coach Jim Migneault of Bishop Guertin has been to the finals two of the past three years and in 2014 he will have to sort through a very talented roster to find the right rotation players to get back for a third time. Big man Joe Marandola along with John Noon, Kyle Gavin, Jack Zimmerman, Andrew Williams, Costas Niarhos and point guard C.J Boykin will lead a very balanced attack that promises to throw a lot of bodies at you on a nightly basis in an effort to wear you down by the finish. Chad Olivieri and talented freshman Mike Rinko should provide depth and scoring off the bench.

 Bedford (sponsored by HK Photography & Bedford Dental Care) took very little time acclimating themselves to Division I in their inaugural season and Mike Fitzpatrick’s team has the pieces to make a run to Durham. “ They’re big and athletic,” noted one rival coach. “ Add to that a very smart coach and that makes them a very tough out.” Taylor Grande returns to run the point alongside Cameron Meservey & Jake Capistran. Protecting the paint will be George Mokas and power forward Ryan Brown as the Bulldogs have the depth to go nine players deep with very little drop off.

 Exeter (sponsored by Chad Fletcher at Blue Water Mortgage) was the team no one wanted to play in last year’s first round and proved it by knocking off defending champion Merrimack. In 2014 Jeff Holmes’ team looks poised to avoid getting on the bus in the first round. “We need to be able to control tempo of the games and we must be able to execute and rebound”, notes Holmes. “We have 7 seniors who have worked real hard this past offseason and we look forward to the season.” Point guard Zack Holler will lead a talented backcourt that includes Joe Scheidler and Jordan Dickenson. Center Max Medley and forward Matt Vigars will start in the frontcourt while Holmes works two very talented sophomores, Bryant Holmes (the coaches’ son) and Ben Swett into the mix. Exeter will push the pace with all that depth and wear teams down with full-court pressure. “ Holler is just a dynamic player for them,” said one Division I rival. “ They are going to be very good, Jeff has built this team up to the point where they are a real threat to win it all.”

 The style of play Winnacunnet head coach Jay McKenna intends to throw at you is meant to wear you down and when teams are worn down they tend to be careless with the basketball. In 2014 part of McKenna’s success will have a lot to do with who is handling the ball for his own team. “ Over the course of the summer and into the fall I’ve seen Richie Ruffin and Sam Knollmeyer do things off the dribble that we didn't see that often last year, that all has to do with how hard they have worked and because of that we have an extreme amount of confidence in what they are capable of this season.” Ruffin will run the point with Knollmeyer alongside him in the backcourt. A very good rotation will include Alec Boucher (still recovering from a thumb injury suffered during football season), Chris Doyle (“People forget he started for us as a freshman, we expect him to have a good year, added McKenna”), Patrick Witt, Michael Mawson and McKenna’s best rebounder, Seth Edwards. “In all my years of coaching I’ve never coached anyone with Richie Ruffin’s ability,” said McKenna of his senior guard. “There are a lot of very good teams out there but I really like the group we’ll send out there every night.”

 Every year there is one team in Division I that seems to ‘win’ the summer, in that they are the team that gets the most amount of buzz and love on the NHsportspage forum. The 2012 summer champion was Winnacunnet..your 2013 champ resides inLondonderry where new head coach Nate Stanton takes over a promising lineup. Point guard Cody Ball leads a backcourt that includes Max Coleman and Drew Convey for a team looking to get back into the top 10 after a three year absence. “ Those kids can shoot it and boy are they athletic,” noted one Division I rival. “ They are just another very tough team to deal with on the schedule.”

 Salem’s Rob McLaughlin makes it very clear to his players’ day one that they won’t get on the floor if they are a defensive liability, no matter how many points they can score, and with that the Blue Devils remain a 32 minute test every time you face them. This is not a team that is going to apologize for beating you 46-42. “ I like the athleticism we have and yes I think we have a chance to be very good defensively,” McLaughlin told me at the jamboree. “ We always have one or two kids step into bigger scoring roles and we’ll need that again.” Isiah Latham steps into the point guard role and will be joined by Jacob Slepian and Tim Dodier. Scoring may come from F/G Michael Felix, he along with Brent Barrett should provide points in the paint.

 Alvirne is consistently good under head coach Seth Garon and that will not change in 2014. Garon has more depth than recent years and will look to 6’5 forward Tyler Brown to become a big time scorer in his senior season. Alex Wetmore has greatly improved and will contribute on the low block while Tommy O’Hearn will run the point.

 The worst part of the drive to Keene has always been the drive out, the drive back usually included a win in the books, that may all change in Dave Sontag’s second season as head coach. The Blackbirds feature one of the more underrated guards in the division in Brian Boulay along with 6’6 Emmett Kiernan. “ They are always big, always physical and the Boulay kid is a player,” remarked one rival coach.
 
 Pre-Season First Team All-State
 Eric Gendron of Merrimack
 Carmen Giampetruzzi of Trinity
 Brett Hanson of Manchester Central
 Richie Ruffin of Winnacunnet
 Tyler Brown of Alvirne
 
 Second Team
 Jordan Lates of Nashua North
 Cam Meservey of Bedford
 Jon Martin of Manchester Central
 Wenyen Gabriel of Trinity
 Zach Holler of Exeter
 
 Pre-Season Player of the Year: Eric Gendron