How do you decide between two teams from different eras when both enjoyed tremendous successes?
That’s the job we’ve decided to undertake, unfortunately, and today we embark on Sweet 16 matchups in the Recorder’s Greatest Teams Tournament. There’s input from many people in the community taken into account here, and our selection committee has worked tirelessly throughout these two weeks in our inaugural tourney.
Now we’ve got the big guns. The best of the best. The remaining teams are all historic squads, ones referenced any time a local team reaches a state final or wins one.
Greenfield High School led the way with six teams in our Sweet 16, followed by Frontier Regional School with four selections. Turners Falls is next with three teams remaining, followed by Pioneer with two and Mahar with one.
Let’s dive in…
• No. 1 Turners Falls baseball (1942) def. No. 4 Greenfield field hockey (1999)
• No. 3 Greenfield baseball (1984) def. No. 2 Frontier baseball (1978)
Right off the bat, we’ve got ourselves a Turners-Greenfield showdown of epic proportions.
Top overall seed Turners Falls baseball (1942) has quietly gone about its business through two rounds (think Gonzaga basketball in this year’s NCAA Tournament). But when the lights brighten, the Powertown Nine rise to the occasion. Such was the case here.
Turners has received contributions from throughout its lineup so far, and the team’s Sweet 16 victory over the 1999 Greenfield field hockey team was no different. This time it was Ted Mucha, who helped kickstart the famous rally in the 1942 state final against Arlington. Mucha turned a double into a triple against the Greenfield field hockey team, sparking a big inning to send the Powertown through to the Elite 8.
The Green Wave, led by future Olympian Kelly Doton, had enough in the tank to make a Sweet 16 appearance.
• In the other Goodnow semifinal, Greenfield’s 1984 baseball team gets a slight nod over Frontier’s 1978 baseball team – the only state championship-winning baseball team in school history – in a battle of diamond dusters.
Frontier’s MIAA Division 3 state championship broke a 36-year drought for baseball state titles in the area. The one title before that? Oh, that would be the aforementioned 1942 Turners baseball team. Those teams are tied together historically, but unfortunately will not get a chance to battle in the Elite 8.
Why, you ask? Sure, Greenfield’s ’84 side may not have won a state title – due to a 5-2 loss to Stoughton in the state Division 2 title game – but according to one insider, the Green Wave gets the nod.
“Both teams were great. Both teams could hit the ball. But I think Greenfield had a slight nod in pitching,” this person said.
We shall see if the team has enough pitching to get past another state champion in the Elite 8 when it squares off with the 1942 Powertown squad.
• No. 1 Turners Falls softball (2005) def. No. 4 Greenfield football (1979)
• No. 3 Greenfield football (1987) def. No. 2 Pioneer boys basketball (1997)
Winning came naturally to the 2005 Turners Falls softball team. The Franklin County League champions by five full games over the next closest team, the Powertown then allowed just two runs in five postseason games en route to the program’s second consecutive state championship. That was even more impressive considering the fact that once it got to the state tournament, Turners did not allow a run.
Pitcher Julie Girard and her squad went a perfect 25-0, jumpstarted a dynasty that has the most state titles in Massachusetts history, and the rest is history.
So, yeah, that team is still marching on.
Turners gets into the Elite 8 with a win over the 1979 Greenfield football team. The fourth-seeded team in the Gary Mullins Region, the Green Wave went 9-2 overall, capturing the Suburban League championship to go along with a 35-7 thumping of Turners Falls on Thanksgiving. While the season came to an end with a 14-7 loss to Holyoke in the Super Bowl, it was undoubtedly one of the best seasons in GHS history.
“We really are a family here,” said Greenfield center Doug Dobias to the Recorder after winning on Turkey Day some 40 years ago.
“We’ve stuck together this season and it’s paid off,” guard Allan Clapp offered.
• In the other regional semifinal, a Greenfield football team did break through into the Elite 8. That would be the 1987 edition, which started the season 10-0 and returned to the Super Bowl before falling to Westfield, 35-14.
Quarterback Ken Suhl was the stemwinder no doubt, but that Wave team had talent all over the pitch. Skill position players like Paul DeNofrio, Spenser Bovat, Kyle Boston and Kyle Phelps were aided by a veteran offensive line of Kevin Moore, Matt Kempf, Jim Dowling, Doug Patterson and Paul Hill. The defense up front of Moore, John Hyde, Jim Holden and Eric Hawkins paved the way for a unit that pitched six shutouts on the year, including a 35-0 win on Thanksgiving over Turners. All told, the team won its 10 games by an average of 23 points.
Second-seeded Pioneer boys basketball (1997) saw its tourney run come to an end in the Sweet 16. The team’s second of back-to-back undefeated state championships was perhaps more impressive in that the Panthers lost a significant portion of its core until from the 1996 team. Led by senior co-captain Kota Denton as well as stars Adam Harrington and Kyle VanNatta, the Panthers capped a 50-game winning streak thanks to a 68-56 win in the Division 3 state title game against Bishop Stang High School of Dartmouth.
The Panthers became just the second team in Franklin County history to win back-to-back state titles, following the Frontier field hockey teams from 1975 and 1976.
• No. 1 Pioneer boys basketball (1996) def. No. 4 Frontier girls basketball (1988)
• No. 2 Greenfield field hockey (1989) def. No. 3 Turners Falls softball (2004)
One Adam Harrington team is out, but another is into the Elite 8.
That would be the 1996 team, the program’s first-ever state championship squad. Pioneer carries on as the No. 1 seed in the Tom Suchanek Region, looking to make a deep run similar to the dream season 23 years ago when the Panthers won the Division 3 state tournament after knocking off Winchester, 75-68.
Pioneer’s win came at the expense of perhaps the best girls basketball team in Franklin County history – 1988 Frontier. Vi Goodnow’s best chance to win a basketball state title, the team methodically marched through the postseason and reached the Division 3 state final before falling to Cohasset, 54-44.
Leading scorer Juliane Danielski was joined in the rotation by Althea Danielski, Kathy Smith, Kristy Paciorek, Jamie Zagrodnik, Becky Plimpton, Wendi Raffa and Brenna Smith.
• Elsewhere, Greenfield’s 1989 state champion field hockey team is through and will tangle with Pioneer in the Elite 8 after knocking out the 2004 Turners Falls softball team. The Green Wave are deserving of a postseason run. That team’s offense was led by Ann Brissette and Tara Jelley (two of the best athletes to ever come out of GHS), with Jelley scoring both goals in Greenfield’s 2-1 win over Danvers in the Division 1 state championship game. Add in junior midfielder Melanie Conant and goalkeeper Cheryl Canuel, and you had perhaps the best team in the history of the program.
The ’04 Powertowners made it two teams from the dynasty in the Sweet 16, though elder Julie Girard will have to continue carrying the torch in our bracket with the 2005 version.
• No. 1 Frontier volleyball (2010) def. No. 4 Mahar boys basketball (2012)
• No. 2 Frontier boys basketball (1987) def. No. 6 Greenfield boys basketball (1994)
From one dynasty to another, the Frontier volleyball program has a team into the Elite 8. That would be the 2010 version, which dominated throughout the course of the season and wound up an undefeated state champion.
The Red Hawks had enough offense to knock out the 2012 Mahar boys basketball team in our Sweet 16 matchup. While the Senators turned it into a slow, grind it out affair, Frontier offensive dynamo Cassidy Stankowski rose to the occasion and powered Frontier into an all-South Deerfield Elite 8 showdown.
• The best game of the Sweet 16 wasn’t Duke-UCF… it was Frontier-Greenfield. In a knock down, drag-em-out battle between two teams loaded with talent, the 1987 Frontier boys basketball team scored a victory over the 1994 Greenfield boys team in our bracket.
The end of this one played out much the same as the Duke-UCF game on Sunday. Trailing by three points with time ticking away, Frontier used the play of standout big man Mark Chmura to claw back. Chmura, doing his best Zion Williamson impression, drove to the basket, drew a foul and hit a tough shot. The foul? Turned out to be the fifth and final one for Greenfield center Angelo Thomas (his team’s version of Tacko Fall). In the blink of an eye, Thomas was on the bench for the final seconds (after scoring 27 points), and Chmura was at the stripe looking to tie the game. He missed, but teammate Mike Smith swooped in for the offensive rebound. His putback gave Frontier an 83-82 lead. Down the other end with one final attempt, Greenfield’s Ross Burns weaved through traffic and put up a contested bucket, only to watch as the ball fell off the rim and time expired with the boys from South Deerfield surviving and moving on to play in the Elite 8.