On to hoops....FINALLY!!

I like HS football as much as the next guy, but I'm so glad hoops season is finally here.

Admittedly, I follow the girls side more than the boys, these days...and there are some interesting questions on the table.
* Who will be coaching the Memorial and Winnacunnet girls, two programs that historically make deep D1 playoff runs?
* Will Lebanon still dominate D 2; given the rumor that Trina Schei will not be playing this year?
* How quickly will Bedford adjust to D 1 play? (Calendar alert: Bishop Guertin @ Bedford on 12/14 - a don't miss game)
* While everyone is pegging Bishop Guertin to repeat, pay special attention to Londonderry. Coach Fagula had a key player transfer back (Holland); has a tremedous amount of size, speed and shooting ability, and he has last year's playoff loss in the finals as a motivational tool. Look for the Londonderry @ BG game on 1/8 to be a playoff finals preview and a standing room only sellout. Get there early!
* Lastly, most folks figure Bedford, BG and Londonderry to advance to SNHU....who will join them? Don't be surprised if it isn't Salem. Coach Alosa has quickly put together a talented squad that has been working extremely hard in the offseason.

* Who will be coaching the Memorial and Winnacunnet girls, two programs that historically make deep D1 playoff runs?
NHRamFan

One would think these 2 positions have been decided upon given "time of the essence" with regards to the start of the season. I saw the minutes from the upcoming Manchester Athletic Agenda meeting last week. The minutes said that Maureen LaRoche's confirmation as the Memorial girls varsity coach was being voted on. Maureen was the head coach at Mass Bay CC and coaches in the NE Crusaders AAU program.

I have not heard anything on a replacement for Coach Beattie at Winny.

I was told today that Maureen Laroche is the new Memorial girls coach. An excellent, high energy individual...a great pick up for the Crusaders. (And she won't have to buy any new gear!!!)

Long time assistant Cassie Turcotte is the new girls coach at Winnicunnet:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121122-SPORTS-211220395

Coach Cassie always did a good job with the JV team, so she should transition very nicely to coach the Varsity team.

Congrats to her.

Both Winnacunnet and Memorial will have very knowledgeable and capable coaches at the helm. It will be interesting to see what they will accomplish... Both teams will have some strong returning players to build around; though there will be a lot of question marks as well.

I have to admit Coach Laroche, while having a competitive team this year, probably Top 6 or 8, will have quite a challenge in the future years at Memorial. The ramifications of the town of Auburn voting to send their students to Pinkerton is going to have an adverse effect on the Memorial girl's basketball program. 2 years ago when Memorial gave eventual champion Winny a tough game in the semis before losing, 3 of their 5 starters were from Auburn. 4 of their top 6 players were from Auburn. The Auburn feeder system for girl's basketball players has been phenomenal over the last decade. Don't forget Pinky's Kayla Stacy was at Memorial and from Auburn before she transferred to Pinky.

Pinkerton's JV team has 7 girls from Auburn on it. Their varsity will have 3 to 4 players from Auburn depending on JV swinging players. That's a lot of basketball players from a town of under 6K people to help feed a basketball program. Many of these Pinky players would be at Memorial right now, if the Manchester School district hadn't been so inept with the way things are handled with funding, class size and reduction of teachers. Auburn was ahead of the curve and voted to send their students to Pinkerton after growing tiresome with the same issues that were presented by the MSD year after year.

There is no sports program that will be more adversely effected by the cut off of Auburn athletes than Memorial's girls basketball team. The Auburn jr high team has won their jr high championship for the last few years and stands a good chance of winning it again this year. Memorial graduates Hartford and Fletcher after this season. The talent and depth drop will become evident in this program next season. Coach Laroche will have her work cut out for her in the next couple of years, unless a couple of Peace Kabari's fall into the Crusader district.

Coach Quirk might have said the right things to say he wanted to go back to boys for the challenge of coaching that level and that he had done all he could do with the girls program..... But, you would have to assume Coach Quirk saw the signs of talent drying up with the Auburn decision to go to Pinkerton and losing the valuable Auburn feeder system. Coach Barry of Pinkerton, pardon the pun, must be tickled pink over the Auburn voting decision and Pinkerton having primary dibs on the girl basketball players coming out of Auburn.

Now, as far as the Hooksett athletes go and if the Hooksett SD pulls out of Manchester and how that would effect sports teams at West and Central...... Pfffft... there's another can of sports worms opening.....

T and F

Couldn't agree more. Fletcher may be the last Auburn student to play for Memorial. The girls teams there have never been deep...and the loss of Auburn students may very well relegate Memorial to Manchester West status: i.e. petitioning down to try to stay competitive. The Hooksett/Central trail may dry up as well. Manchester's school woes deserve its very own forum...not worth discussing here.
Suffice to say that the real issue is that there has never really been much of a feeder system or program in the state's largest city.
Years of relying on feeder towns for a) $ and b) athletes seems to be nearing its final chapter...

So very true Ram Fan. Quirk has basically gone with 6 or 7 players the last few years because of quality depth issues and that was WITH THE BENEFIT of having a lot of Auburn players. Take away the Auburn players and the depth of the Memorial girl's program will be compromised for the foreseeable future. You can already see sign as the memorial girl's soccer team lost over 90% of their games the last 2 years.

Will the Memorial girl's team ever have to petition down to D2 in the future? Tough to say. If the MSD keeps getting misguided leadership by the political heads of Manchester and some of the good Southside and McLaughlin girls player's parents decide to send their daughters to Trinity, BG or Derryfield, then you could see Memorial being in the 12 to 16 range in D1 for a long time and if they sunk to 16 to 20, then a petition down to D2 could be in the cards.

Ram Fan, I will some what disagree with you on the feeder system. The JR highs have been a very important feeder system for the high schools sending many quality players from Hillside, Parkside, McLaughlin and Southside to West, Central and Memorial. Now, that system is being compromised. Last season was the first one where the Manchester jr high teams did not play outside of Manchester. There were no $$$ in the MSD budget to pay for transportation. The Manchester jr high teams used to play Bedford, Concord, Nashua etc. Now, Manchester jr high teams just play each other. Talk about STAGNANT !!! So, Hillside will play Southside 2 to 4 times, Parkside 2 to 4 times etc. etc. It makes for a boring season and stagnation of the feeder system.

Keene has new boys' and girls' coaches this year. The boys coach is David Sontag, a Souhegan and Keene State product. He is a phys ed teacher at Monadnock. The new girls coach is Cameron Fisk (nephew of Pudge), a Keene High and also a Keene State product. He is a teacher at the Westmoreland School (Westmoreland is northwest of Keene; their students go to high school at Keene).

Here's the article from the Keene Sentinel in September:

http://www.sentinelsource.com/sports/local_sports/keene-high-names-former-keene-state-players-hoops-coaches/article_e77797ff-c45e-5b80-a2a1-d3d83b79b870.html