Just like their counterparts in Orange, the Athol girls basketball team will have a new coach next winter.
Peter Whitmore was hired and will replace Conor Morrissey. He brings plenty of experience in the leadership department to Athol.
Whitmore began coaching at Athol in 2000, when he served as the assistant boys basketball coach under Chris Sullivan until 2002. He took over after Sullivan’s retirement and coached the boys from 2002 until 2006. He got back into coaching basketball when his daughter, Thea, reached the high school level at Mahar, serving as an assistant with the Senators the past four seasons.
Having spent the last 25 years teaching special education in Athol, Whitmore is excited to get back to coaching at the school he is most familiar with.
“I’m super excited,” Whitmore said. “I started coaching basketball a long time ago with Chris Sullivan. I took time away when we had kids but when my daughter came through the Mahar program it drew me back in. That competitive edge doesn’t go away. I love being in the gym with the kids and I love the game of basketball. I’m very excited for this opportunity.”
While the Bears have struggled in recent years, Whitmore has been around the school long enough to understand the history of the Athol girls program — and the success it has had.
His goal is to reach back on that tradition and bring the program back to life.
“I have the luxury of remembering the days of Kathy Horrigan and Chris Sullivan coaching here,” Whitmore said. “The tradition is there. There are athletes in the building and it’s just a matter of breathing some excitement into this program and excitement about basketball. There’s a lot of good people in Athol. It’s a matter of taking the wheel and someone having the leadership to bring those people together. It’s very doable. I want to get back to those days.”
A quick turn back to the best days of the program might not be a reality but through building the existing feeder program and creating a buzz, Whitmore is confident he can turn things around.
“We have over 400 kids in our high school,” Whitmore said. “We’re not going to turn this around overnight but hopefully we can start being competitive as the feeder program develops and kids come up who are playing basketball more than a few months out of the year. That’s when you turn things around. I’m an energetic guy and I enter the gym with energy and hopefully that helps bring the kids along. The goal is to breathe excitement into the program.”
Whitmore is also hoping to tap into a large alumni base to help rejuvenate things.
“We have a strong, strong alumni group,” Whitmore said. “We want to build off the tradition they set. I want to get those faces in the gym, get the gym load and get fans to come back to the games.”
Whitmore is looking forward to coaching in the building he works at. That helps with recruiting and having a better understanding of the players he’ll be working with.
“I’ve been in the building for 25 years,” Whitmore said. “It was hard being in that building and leaving to go coach at Mahar. You have such an advantage being in the building you coach at because you’re further connected to the kids. It makes things so much easier to communicate with them, recruit and to hold them accountable.”
The Bears are already hard at work, playing in the Franklin Tech Girls Summer League to improve in the offseason. Athol also held a camp recently that had a strong boost in numbers.
“We have a good nucleus of kids,” Whitmore said. “We have to build off of what’s there. There’s some good things going on but it’s sporadic. We need to get that to be the norm rather than the exception. It’s about building the feeder program we already have to capitalize on the building process.”
The Athol-Mahar rivalry is one of the oldest in the state and having coached on both sides of it, Whitmore said he is hoping to see the rivalry come back on the court.
To do that, he said the program has to get back to a point where games are competitive between the two.
“To put it bluntly, it hasn’t really been a rivalry because it hasn’t been competitive,” Whitmore said. “The rivalry isn’t there right now. If we can do our job, get in the gym, be committed to challenging ourselves — both coaches and athletes — we can rebuild it.”
Whitmore won’t just be coaching the Athol girls next winter, as he will still be coaching the Athol unified basketball team in the fall. Unified basketball brings students with and without intellectual disabilities together to compete on the court, a program Whitmore is proud of.
“It’s been great and has created lasting friendships,” Whitmore said. “It’s an MIAA sport and kids can’t compete in other fall sports if they compete in unified. Last year was our first season doing it and we’re hoping to build off that as well. It’s a great program. The kids compete and the students are role models and peer buddies.”
The Athol boys basketball team spent last week working at the annual Bear Basketball Camp. The camp hosted 36 participants ranging from grades 4-8, with the focus being on skill development. The camp wasn’t solely players from Athol, but players from surrounding towns like Orange and Baldwinville also attended.
“We’ve been doing this for so long,” Athol boys basketball coach Brian Patria said. “It’s good to keep the kids playing and interested in basketball which will end up being a good thing for our program. This is something I look forward to every year.”
The camp ran from June 30 until July 3, running from 1-4 p.m. each day. Campers ran different stations to work on passing, ball handling, shooting, rebounding and defense while also featuring fun competitions like 3-on-3 tournaments, knockout tournaments, dribbling course competitions, hot shot competitions
“We try not to just teach skills and those things but to teach the kids about work ethic and the value of it,” Patria said. “We want to teach them about responsibilities, being a better leader, team work. We do some fun things but some competitive things as well. You want them to compete but have fun as well. I think the kids enjoyed it.”
While the camp is a good learning opportunity for the campers, it’s also a chance for Athol varsity players to give back and teach the next generation.
Not only were some of the campers current Athol players but recent graduates like Ben Kearney, Angel Castillo and Ethan Bacigalupo came back to volunteer their time as well.
“Every year we try to get the upperclassmen to come in and give back to the community,” Patria said. “Especially those who went to this camp when they were younger. Now they get to come back and participate as a counselor. It’s a fantastic thing. It teaches them leadership, responsibility and giving back.”