We take a look back at the 2017-18 season in Part I & II….Part II will be posted tomorrow morning.

 

Lingering thoughts from the four championship games…..

 No team in New Hampshire counted down the minutes until opening night quite like the Pittsfield Panthers.

 With Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I in attendance, 4th seeded Pittsfield was upset in the first round of the 2017 tournament on their home floor by 13th seeded Portsmouth Christian. A 16-2 regular season suddenly feeling very hollow, and the sudden realization you were now going to have to be a spectator for three more rounds of your own tournament.

 Jay Darrah’s team never made excuses, they simply got back to work. If you were a team playing in and around New Hampshire last summer Darrah would drive nine kids to play you. In a gym, an outdoor court or an old barn…did not matter; Pittsfield would show up and play you.

 As December turned to January and then February it became more & more obvious that Division IV was the most top-heavy division in the state.

 What was also clear was that the separation between Derryfield-Pittsfield-Littleton-Woodsville-Newmarket was a very thin line. So it was going to come down to executing in March; something Pittsfield hadn’t done a year earlier.

 The Panthers cruised to Plymouth State behind a pair of easy wins. Against a sophomore led Littleton team Pittsfield’s size and execution were too much as runs to end the second quarter and begin the third quarter put the game away early.

 The only hill left to climb would be the only team that beat them during the regular season; Newmarket.

 Back & forth they went on a sunny afternoon in Plymouth and every time Pittsfield crawled ahead Jamie Hayes’ Mules came right back.

 In the fourth quarter, Cam Darrah decided he was going to make his final high school game one without any regrets. His steal and lay-up while being fouled ignited half of the gym decked out in Pittsfield colors and his free throws in the final seconds would end up being the game-winning points.

 As his teammates before him, Casey Clark, Josh Whittier, Garrett Guerrero-Hadley, Dylan Bocash, Matt St George…all got their medals from head coach Jay Darrah it was Cam that went last. As he was greeted by his father at center court he took his medal off and put it back around his dad’s neck in front of 1,800 people.

 The perfect final act for what was a great high school career.

 When Somersworth walked into the gym a few minutes past 11 am to take on Division I Alvirne in our Coaches for a Cause Jamboree you could read the look on head coach Rob Fauci’s face from 100 feet away.

 The Hilltoppers had been run out of the gym in early scrimmages and with all-state forward Evan Gray left back home & pre-season player of the year Bryton Early in street clothes with a bad ankle it had become obvious that anything that could go wrong in the pre-season was.

 Seemingly all at once.

 As the season began though the pieces started to slide into place. Early was as good as advertised, Gray was playing up to his potential, Tyler Clark was the player everyone wanted on their team and both Colby Grant & Ethan Johnson were contributing on a nightly basis.

 Somersworth went up to Berlin on a Monday night and behind 32 points from Early, walked away with a marquee win. There was a road loss at Gilford and a home loss in the rematch against Berlin, played in front of a packed house, but heading into the tournament Somersworth looked nothing like the crew that limped into NHTI back in early December.

 There was an easy first-round win against Fall Mountain followed by a double-digit win over a good Belmont team in the quarters.

 Round 3 of Somersworth-Berlin was one-sided from the beginning. The 3-hour bus ride to Exeter having something to do with it but not as much as Gray’s ability on the boards and Early’s from beyond the three-point line.

 In the championship game, the very next day Somersworth battled fatigue and were the fresher team in the late 3rd quarter/early 4th when the game was decided.

 As they had from December to March Somersworth finished strong in the biggest game of their lives, proving again that your finishing kick is the most important one you possess.

 Amongst all the ‘When are you covering our game again?’ and ‘You don’t respect us,’ tweets and emails we heard very little from the group quietly putting together a 16-2 season over at Hollis-Brookline.

 Having known Cole Etten for 5 years this is exactly as he wanted it….let the rest of the state talk about Kearsarge and we’ll be over here getting ready.

 Because of a combination of cancellations and lack of videographers we never saw Hollis-Brookline after Jonathan Brackett beat Bedford with a late jumper in our jamboree.

 Coaches talked about the great frontcourt work of Matt Simco and Matt Dowling, the point guard play of Brackett, who was a revelation after sitting out his sophomore & junior seasons to concentrate on other sports. There was the glue guy mentality of Scott VanCoughnett, the emergence of sophomore Grant Snyder and the steady hand of their first-year head coach who had returned to his alma mater after former head coach Mike Soucy left to take over as the athletic director at Merrimack.

 Hollis-Brookline never dazzled anyone they just kept beating everyone.

 A quarterfinal win over Milford was followed by a win over Merrimack Valley at UNH that took 32 minutes and every bit of discipline they could muster as Tim Mucher’s team came at them in waves of pressure.

 After the semifinal win, Justin McIsaac & I were in the locker room with the players for about 15 minutes as they waited for Matt Dowling to get done an interview upstairs.

 Not one mention of not covering them during the season. Not a comment about a power poll ranking, staff picks or the fact we spent most of the season describing Kearsarge as the team to beat.

 Just a team happy with their 18th  win and focused on getting one more.

 There were no interview revolts, no ‘ you slept on us’ comments or even a mention of disrespect. They were genuinely excited about their win and the team interview that was soon to follow as Matt Dowling finally came bounding through the door.

 On Saturday afternoon they put a cap on the 2018 season with another polished end to end performance. Simco was unstoppable in the post, Dowling was in on every offensive board, Brackett again handled every combination of pressure Oyster River Coach Lorne Lucas could throw at him and Grant Snyder calmly buried free throw after free throw to ice the game.

 Cole Etten won his second title in four years as a head coach and at a second Division II school.

 Hollis-Brookline was the best team in Division II for three months and we never realized it until it became obvious in Durham.

 They proved that on the court, and off it as well.

 The first time I ever met Portsmouth’s future all-time leading scorer he was a 4th grader hurling a basketball up at the rim at the old Connie Bean Center at halftime of one of his father & my men’s league games.

 The first words he ever spoke to me seemed to be directed at the wood floor at that same Connie Bean Center as his dad told him to look up when he spoke.

 The direction of the words started to get higher off the floor year by year but they were usually delivered in some sort of mumble, as in ‘ Cody I heard you scored 30 points in your 6th-grade game?’

 ‘ Uh huh.’

 That would be where the nickname ‘Mumbles’ was born and as we formed a relationship over the years the mumbles went away but the ‘ Uh huh’ s' never did.

 Regardless of what Cody Graham was doing in middle school, he took it like a kid where you’d say ‘ I heard you passed art class?”

“ Uh huh…yeah.”

 I knew I was seeing one of the best players to come through the state in a long time and also possibly one of the worst interviews.

 His dad would say to me ‘ He just doesn’t seem to get excited about anything…he’s just mellow about everything out there on the floor.” While his dad was in the stands decidedly not.

 I told his dad ‘ That’s the exact demeanor you want him to have when someday he is standing at the foul line in the final minute of the state championship game at UNH shooting free throws in front of 3,000 people.’

 I said that to his dad five years ago…and last Saturday that exact scenario played out in front of us.

 Dover cut the Portsmouth lead to 40-38 with under a minute to go and was told by their coaches to not foul Cody Graham. The only problem was the Portsmouth point guard wasn’t giving the ball to anyone else.

 Cody walked to the line with the look of a kid who knew all the answers before the quiz was even handed out and promptly buried two free throws. After a stop on the other end, he again made sure he went to the line and buried two more.

 When it was over seconds later, after teammate Alex Tavares made the final score 46-38 and the Clippers 6 for 6 from the line in the final minute, Graham was handed his third state championship plaque in four years.

 He shared a moment with his head coach Jim Mulvey, as they spoke into each other’s ear about what they had meant to each other for four years that was not always hugs, kisses & roses, but gave them a bond few player & coaches have in this lifetime.

 Calvin Hewitt was the glue guy, Max Lincoln had a huge three-point play when all the momentum was leaning towards the 2,000 people dressed in Dover green, Mike Sanborn again made the defense follow him all over the floor and Alex Tavares was one of the five best players in Division I all season long…Jim Mulvey was a champion for the fifth time, and maybe the last.

 When it was over Cody looked right into the camera and told the thousands of people who would watch the championship video what it meant to him and how it felt going out a winner.

 The same kid who was chucking shots from his hip at the Connie Bean was the calmest person in a room that held 3,000 people last weekend.

 He leaves as one of the great winners in New Hampshire high school basketball history.

 And a pretty special kid too….

 

The 12 seniors I’d send to represent the state of New Hampshire against Vermont………..

 

 Bill Simmons yearns to be an NBA GM; I yearn to be put in charge of naming the New Hampshire Twin State Team.

 The very future of the game against Vermont (which we have covered three of the last four years) seems to be in jeopardy…if so we are happy to step in and put a game together against a worthy foe…just let us know…

 For the purposes of this exercise, this is the team of seniors I would send to play Vermont, Southern Maine, the Russians…whoever came in our path.

 For coaches  (picking from coaches that haven’t coached the Twin State team yet) give me Nate Stanton of Londonderry, Eric Saucier of Conant, Rob McLaughlin of Salem, Trevor Howard of Littleton, Rob Bradley of Derryfield or Matt Regan of Bishop Guertin.

 

 Team New Hampshire

 Center: Matt Simco of Hollis-Brookline

 Simco is an old school post-player and a beast on the glass ( Oyster River & Merrimack Valley would be happy to write him a recommendation). Perfect for our starting center.

 Forward: Max Bonney-Liles of Alvirne

  Bonney-Liles is a terrific shooter and with his size at 6’4 he going to be a very tough match-up for the Russians (I hope we end up playing the Russians…they have it coming to them…)

 Forward:  Ian Cummings of Merrimack

 Cummings is terrific in the open court and this is a team that will get out and run. There might not be a better player in the state at getting to the rim in the half court.

 Point guard: Cody Morissette of Exeter

 Consummate leader & floor general. Can shoot it from NBA range and no one is faster with the ball in his hands.

 Shooting guard: Cody Graham of Portsmouth

 I’m pretty happy with our starting backcourt…………..

 

 The reserves:

 Bryton Early of Somersworth

 Early is instant offense and on this team we want him playing off the ball and on the wing…he can score from anywhere and he can do it in a  hurry.

 Evan Arsenault of Berlin

 I’d be fine with him as our starting point guard if we didn’t have Morissette because of baseball….another great leader and a college level passer.

 Cole Britting of Londonderry

 I'm going to assume the Russians have a high scoring shooting guard......here is our lockdown defender....

 Max Chartier of Bedford

 The Bedford all-state guard can play either backcourt position and defend point guards as well. A very smart player who has maybe the best mid-range jumper in the state.

 Manny Alisandro of Manchester Memorial

  On a team like this, you want Alisandro running the baseline and wreaking havoc near the rim. He has a good pull up jumper as well and if you get him out in the open court….look out…

 Cam Darrah of Pittsfield

 Darrah is going to be our sniper on the wing….he has a very quick release and gives us another shooter to spread out the defense.

 Tommy Johnson of Kearsarge

 I’ll go with Johnson in the final spot for his ability to create his own shot and knock down three’s….tough call over Zach Waterhouse and Kyler Bosse.

 

Coming tomorrow: Part II which will include an open letter to parents and a ton of the thoughts from our 10th season of coverage.