Just as the snow transitioned to rain on Sunday, signaling the upcoming change in seasons, this weekend also marked the end of the winter high school sports season on the local stage.
It was another exciting winter for area fans, as three local teams made Curry Hicks Cage, the area cooperative hockey team again made a run in the playoffs, local wrestlers made their presence felt throughout various tournaments, and skiers (both downhill and cross country), swimmers and indoor track & field athletes all performed well at the highest stages.
Greenfield High School’s 56-46 loss to Hoosac Valley in Saturday’s WMass Division 3 girls basketball championship game marked the final event of the winter season. Aside from All-Star basketball games — on Friday, the IAABO Boiard 28 All-Star game will take place at GHS with the girls game at 6, and the boys game at 7:30, and the Hall of Fame Basketball Games will take place on March 22 — the season is officially done and athletes get a week off before the first day of spring practice begins on Monday.
The Monday after Thanksgiving seems like a long time ago, when fellow sportswriter Jeff Lajoie and I began working on the winter previews. At the time, we thought we might be traveling to Curry Hicks Cage for a game or two, but here we are after four games at the Cage in the past week. A few thoughts from the week that was. Call it the random ramblings of a guy who covers the local teams if you’d like.
First things first. I recognize that our local pages have been full of coverage of the Greenfield girls basketball team in recent days but for good reason. Winning a western Mass. basketball title (or even making the finals) is no easy feat. That’s evidence by the 29-year drought between title-game appearances for the Green Wave. It takes special players and special seasons to make it that far. Basketball is one of the most competitive sports, which makes the tournament all the more exciting. As was pointed out on more than one occasion in recent days, I can still remember the rumblings when Raegan Hickey and Samantha Smith began their careers five years ago. We all knew it was going to build to something area fans could be proud of, and the entire Green Wave girls team did not disappoint. As Recorder news writer turned one-day sports columnist Josh Solomon pointed out on Monday, the run by the Wave girls was something that unified the entire town.
And how could it not? As someone who has covered many of the core players from the team throughout their five years, it was hard not to root for them. I still remember making a trip to Drury in 2016 when Hickey and Smith were freshmen. Drury’s Molly Moulton helped lead her team to a 47-36 win over the Green Wave that day (current Drury senior Brooke DiGennaro had 7 points in the game) but the foundation was set for an exciting four years in Greenfield. Each year, the Wave lost one round later, falling to Mahar (by upset) in the quarterfinals in 2017, losing to eventual WMass-champion Hampshire in the semifinals last year, and falling to Hoosac in the finals on Saturday. The loss denied the seniors a chance to win a western Mass. title in each of the three major sports they play in (along with field hockey and softball), but these teams and these years will still go down as some of the finest in Green Wave history.
Earlier last week, area hoop fans were also treated to a pair of boys basketball thrillers at the Cage with Frontier and Pioneer both coming up just short in their bids to make the WMass finals. Due to how late the Pioneer game was, we were unable to write a sidebar with the game that night but it may have involved the final minutes of overtime when Drury nearly allowed Pioneer to win in thrilling fashion for the second straight season. After a Garrett Cote 3-pointer with 15 seconds left helped Pioneer cut the deficit to 74-72, Drury inbounded the ball to Scott McGuire Jr., who fell to the ground. At first glance, I felt it should have been a travel call on McGuire, who slid across the floor, instead, a jump ball was signaled, which gave the ball to Pioneer. This proved to be important, because when Pioneer inbounded the ball, the Drury stole the pass. Pioneer was able to tie it up, but this time the alternating possession arrow gave the ball back to Drury.
The Blue Devils were not done trying to give Pioneer a chance to tie or win the game, because when Drury inbounded the ball, McGuire Jr. received it and according to the story in Wednesday’s paper, “tightrope-walked the end line,” although that was honestly a bit of a stretch because it appeared that he actually stepped on the end line with a generous portion of his foot, something that was reaffirmed to me when Greenfield’s Hunter Campbell, Turners Falls’ Tyler Lavin and former Turners player Ricky Craver came up to me after the game. Those three said they were in great position to see it, better in fact than the officials at the time. Instead, there was no whistle and McGuire was fouled and knocked down his free throws to seal the 76-72 victory.
While some people were upset by the non-call (which was understandable), it’s hard to blame the officials for the loss when Pioneer had an 11-point lead in the second half. Still, it would have been a cool story if the whistle had blown and Pioneer had gotten a final shot to once again stun the Blue Devils. Either way, after losing to Drury by 30 in the regular season, it was a good showing for Pioneer, and with all the turnover from a year ago after winning a WMass title, it was quite the feat for Pioneer to get back to the semifinals.
Just as many said that night, Drury’s win over Pioneer was essentially the WMass final, as both teams would have been favored against Ware on Saturday. Drury proved that prediction correct, with a 65-49 victory in the finals.
As for Frontier, it also had a great showing in the postseason after a dismal end to the regular season. After dismantling Palmer in the quarterfinals, Frontier had a memorable game against Narragansett in its first trip to Curry Hicks Cage since 2009. I must admit, after beating Palmer in the quarterfinals, I wrote in the paper that it was Frontier’s first trip to Curry Hicks since winning a WMass title in 2008. By 8 a.m. the next morning, I had already heard from a pair of former players reminding me that Frontier had in fact gotten to the Cage in 2009. Chris “Skinny” Williams was a member of the 2009 team that lost to Sabis at the Cage, and sure enough he texted me around 6 a.m. that morning to get after me. Within hours I also had an email from Brennan McKenna, who was a senior on the 2008 title-winning team, letting me know I would probably be hearing from Williams.
Frontier’s trip to Curry Hicks may have come up empty, but the Hawks also did well to represent their school and towns at the Cage. Playing against a Narragansett team that was among the top schools in the central part of the state, the Red Hawks led much of the way but a late run by the Warriors helped them to a 60-55 win. It ended the careers of several Frontier players, including Carsten Carey, who has been a dominant big man in the area for the past couple seasons, I was also blown away by Kalen Evans, who had what you might call a great “hustle” game.
And although we did not crown a champion at Curry Hicks this weekend, all four games featured plenty of drama. Many of the main faces from the Cage will not be back again next winter, but each of the three local qualifiers also feature bright young stars, so we will see which ones can make new memories.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder Sports Editor. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com.