I've been happy to bear witness to some exciting moments in local high school sports over the years. Every season there are a few compelling backstories that don't make it into the sports pages. Here are just a few from what turned out to be an exceptional 2007-08 winter sports season.
Best Basketball Game of the Year: Mohawk beats Pioneer in overtime in Buckland
I don't think we'll ever see a regular season game like this again. It was an end-to-end nail-biter, packed with more raw emotion than most teams get to experience in an entire season. Mohawk held the lead all the way to the final buzzer, when Pioneer's Cody Snow nailed a three-pointer to force overtime. From there (then future) 1,000-point scorer Alex Klepadlo nailed several key free throws to send the Panthers sneaking out of Buckland with an improbable win that will be remembered in both communities for years to come.
Gutsiest Comeback: Frontier v. Bromfield in the Division III state semi-finals
I've said all season that I don't believe the Frontier Regional School boys' basketball team can be beaten—they can only beat themselves. But for at least one quarter of this game, it looked like the Bromfield Trojans were going to prove me wrong.
The Central Mass. Division III champions dominated the Red Hawks on both sides of the ball during that quarter, opening up a 17-point lead midway through the second quarter. But that's when senior forward Jamie Bell decided to put his team on his back, hitting several key shots that helped Frontier shake off the cobwebs and roar back to Win 16. That performance earned Frontier a berth in the state finals and cemented their legend as one of the best teams ever to lace up in Division III.
Most Improbable Performance: The South Hadley Boys' Basketball wins the Western Mass. championship
After years of dominating Division II, it looked like 2007-08 was going to be a rebuilding year for the Tigers. But apparently someone forgot to tell them that, because they not only managed to make it into the tournament as the number-10 seed (albeit with a losing record because of the 70 percent rule), but they ended up running the table, shocking number-one-seed Taconic in the finals.
Coach of the Year: Mike Duclos of the Greenfield High School Hockey team
There hasn't been a lot to cheer about in Greenfield these days. From a burgeoning school budget deficit to divisive political rifts, there's a bit of a pall hanging over my hometown these days. But one of the bright spots of this winter was the performance of the Greenfield Green Wave hockey team, which captured the school's first-ever Western Mass. Hockey Championship in the newly-created Division 3A tournament. The win marked the first hockey championship in school history and put an exclamation point on the resurgence of a program that languished in mediocrity for nearly 20 years.
Most Heartwarming Moment: The union of the South Hadley "6th Man" and the Frontier "Super Fans"
The South Hadley Tigers and the Frontier Red Hawks have the most vocal, passionate basketball fans in all of Western Mass. For years those fan bases locked horns when Frontier and South Hadley met when the latter was still a member of the Hampshire League.
I often wondered what would happen if these two cheering sections ever ended up on the same side. We found out at the state semifinals at the Mullins Center, when fans from both groups showed up and cheered in tandem for both teams' efforts to bring a state championship back to Western Massachusetts. It was a rare moment when kids united not only behind their respective schools, but the region as a whole—providing us with yet another example of why high school sports are still the best ticket in town.
