By: Mike Whaley

Discussions about contenders in New Hampshire Division I boys basketball rarely include Keene High School. The Blackbirds are normally a D-I outlier, both in location and expectations. But not this year.

Led by senior captains Javon Massiah and Fitch Hennessey, Keene has worked its way into the upper echelon of D-I with a 9-1 record, The Blackbirds are looking to make a run to the championship, which the program has never won in five previous tries going back nearly 90 years. Their last trip to a Class L/D-I championship game was over 30 years ago in 1992, a 48-43 loss to Winnacunnet,

The team has found an inner strength in dealing with the recent deaths of Massiah’s dad Stacey (cancer in September) and older sister Lydia (auto accident in November). The tragedies have brought the team even closer together and reinforced its resolve.

Through all this, third-year coach Ray Boulay (2009 Keene grad) has effectively kept the Blackbirds on course. The bigger tests loom as Keene faces the iron of its schedule in the coming weeks: Portsmouth (10-1) on Jan. 31, at Trinity (8-3) on Feb. 4, and at Bedford (9-2) on Feb. 11.

The most difficult task has been navigating grief in the aftermath of the deaths in the Massiah family that has affected the team and the Keene community at large. “It’s been tough emotionally,” Boulay said. “Everyone is going to have days when you’re not in it. To have to bury your dad three weeks before your season, yeah, it’s been tough. … Javon lost his dad and his sister. Everyone else lost a role model and a friend in Javon’s sister. Stacey was such an essential part of our community.”

Stacey Massiah played basketball at Keene State College in the late 1990s and then stayed and made his life there. He coached the boys freshman team at Keene and then the girls varsity squad. His son got a taste of the Keene programs growing up being around his dad and the Keene kids. Boulay recalls the younger players would stream into the recreation center to see Stacey dunk the ball. “He was the super hero of Keene,” Boulay said. “He made everyone feel welcome. He was a giant in presence (he stood 6-foot-7). He had a giant personality as well.”

It’s been difficult for Javon, but basketball has helped to lessen the pain. “My dad was great,” he said. “I did everything because of my dad. I played basketball because of my dad. After his death, I knew what I wanted coming into this season. I knew I had to try even harder to make him proud. All the hard work I’ve put in is really helping.”

When Lydia died, Javon knew he had to go even harder. “Me and my sister were best friends,” he said. “Me, my dad and my sister, we were all close. I knew what I had to do. I feel like basketball is helping a lot; my teammates, my friends, my family. When I go to basketball, everything in my head goes away and I feel like I can be free on the court. I feel like that’s helped a lot.”

Still, it hasn’t been easy. “My mom has been great,” Javon said. “Any time I’m having a hard day, she talks to me. We sit down. My sisters are great. All my family and friends, they make sure I have everything I need. … I just try not to let my emotions get to me. Sometimes there’s not much I can really do – just talk to my family and friends about what I’m feeling.”

The team unity that has grown from this tragedy is quite special. “All of us are best friends,” said Hennessey. “So all of us have been there for Javon. We’ve been right at his door. We’re always hanging out. It translates right to the court. Honestly, we know that Lydia and Stacey are looking down on us and down on Javon. We also take some pride in that we’re playing for Javon and everything that he’s been going through. … It was a big loss for the whole community. Everyone loved Stacey. And Lydia, she was really super sweet. It really hurts losing them, but we  know what we have to do.”

Boulay said that from tragedy has sprung a necessity for increased vigilance to take care of each other. “Me and the other coaches have made an emphasis to be there,” he said. “We eat with them a little more. Send them an extra text. That’s kind of trickled down with everyone. I’ve talked to Javon’s mom. There’s three or four players there (at the Massiah home) every night. It’s made us a closer family. We’re all doing it because it shows how much Stacey and Lydia meant to us, and how much Javon means to us too.”

Every day there is grief, but basketball has been good therapy to help lessen the anguish. It provides a common goal and experience to keep the Blackbirds busy trying to be good teammates in a positive and successful team atmosphere.

Keene has been building toward this season. When Boulay took over as head coach three years ago after seven years as the JV coach, there was a strong sophomore class led by Massiah and Fennessey that knew this day was coming. That first year with some strong seniors, they went a respectable 5-13 and missed the playoffs by a game.

While Keene is in second in D-I just behind Portsmouth, Boulay knows that the regular season means nothing if they cannot make some noise in the postseason. Last year, the Blackbirds were a surprise, winning seven of their final eight games to finish at 11-7 and earned the No. 7 seed in the D-I tournament. Sadly, it was the same old Keene in the playoffs as it lost to No. 10 Alvirne, 51-42. It was the Blackbirds lowest scoring output of the season.

“We came out and played tight,” Boulay said. “We played exactly like everyone expected: a Keene team that hadn’t been there before. It was a disappointing loss. But you learn more from your losses. We’ve really taken that lesson and remembered it. So far at least.”

It fueled Keene. They did not lose in league play through the spring, summer and fall months. Their only D-I loss was to Manchester Memorial in the second game of the season.

Looking back on the Alvirne loss, Javon put it pretty succinctly: “We were all just really nervous and not ready for that game whatsoever.”

But as Hennessey noted it hurt but they moved on. “As soon as it ended, we all understood that we had a huge opportunity, bringing most of our main guys back,” he said.  “We all went right to work when the summer started and it just grew from there.”

Which brings us to the present. Keene is near the top of the D-I standings trying to make a statement that they are a contender and not a pretender. Boulay knows all about Keene’s basketball history. It’s part of his DNA. “Growing up in Keene was all about baseball and more baseball,” he said. “The community wasn’t involved in basketball really at all.”

Boulay said there was a change in the late 1990s when Phil Hebert took over the program. Part of it was linked to the success that Keene State College was having and the popularity of the KSC camp. “Every kid in the community wanted to go to that camp,” he said.

Most importantly, the parents in the community started to see the work that Hebert was putting in. Crowds at high school games were bigger as the Blackbirds were enjoying success. “He was, in my eyes, one of those guys who started to build a program outside of just the winter season,” Boulay said. Hebert wanted Keene kids playing in summer leagues and going to hoop camps. 

Hebert coached through the 2006-07 season, the last year the Blackbirds went to the final four. There was a period after that where coaches were there for a year or two until Kevin Ritter took over and brought stability back to the program. At the time he took the program over in 2015, Boulay was just out of Plymouth State looking for work in the special education field. He got a job as a paraprofessional at Keene HS. Ritter asked him to coach the JV team. Boulay had played four years of football at Plymouth State, serving as a captain as a senior. But he had also played high school basketball and been recruited by Plymouth. “I knew the game,” he said. “I didn’t know how to coach it.”

He spent six years under Ritter as a JV and assistant coach. “I learned so much from him,” said Boulay, who now works in special education at a private school across the border in Brattleboro, Vermont. “He’s one of the best coaches I have been around in all sports. I owe so much to Kevin Ritter in taking my next big step in coaching. He  taught me so much. How to run a program. How to handle the booster club.”

Ritter left to take a job as an assistant coaching position at Keene State where he had played. Matt Azzaro, an assistant under Hebert, was hired as the varsity coach. He was there for a year, but in October of 2022, he decided not to come back. The school asked Boulay if he was interested in applying. “I had interest. I love coaching,” he said. “I was scared, though, to take that step as the head of the varsity program. You’re not just the varsity coach. You’re in charge of it all.”

He had seen those close to him coach. He’d been a college football captain. He’d captained his high school teams. The leadership trait was embedded.

“It’s my alma mater,” Boulay said. “I feel very comfortable. I know teachers there. I know the school. It’s funny when a kid thinks he can get something by you. You’ve been in that same situation in that building before. It’s easy to make those connections to the Keene kids.”

Javon remembers as a sophomore being unsure if Boulay was the right person for the job. “We weren’t too sure how he would be. We were wondering what our season was going to be like, how good we were going to be,”Javon recalled. “I feel he was the perfect (person) for that spot. He knew what he wanted right away, which was for us to make playoffs, have a home playoff game, which happened. He’s great. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Practices are awesome. We all love him.”

Hennessey has liked Boulay from the get go. “He’s a great leader, he really knows when to rile us up and when to really get into us. He knows us so well. How to coach us and handle us.”

Now New Hampshire gets to see what Keene is made of as they get ready for the stretch run. Boulay has been in Keene long enough to read the body language of others. He knows that the team’s 9-1 record is not enough. There are those who doubt the Blackbirds are for real because it’s in their history. “When I talk to people, they don’t say it,” Boulay said. “But I’m a Keene guy from 35 years. I know that’s what they feel. We feel the same way. Honestly, we embrace it. ‘Would you guys change your mind because we’re 8-1, 9-1 overall?’ We could lose games in the next couple of weeks. Even if we do, it’s still all about learning and getting better. When playoffs come, it will be time to put up or shut up. They still have a legitimate reason to think that. They have a right to their opinion. And we’ll see them on the hardwood. That’s our feeling. We’ll see you on the court.”

The players are well aware of Keene’s history and outside perception. “We always play with a chip on our shoulder knowing that we’re always being overlooked,” Hennessey said. “We know that other teams think less of us. ‘Oh, we’re playing against Keene tonight.’” Case in point: You could tell Hennessey was a bit irked when he mentioned that he and Javon were cut from an underclassmen all-star game last year.

Then, of course, there is the location. Keene sits all by its lonesome in the southwest section of the state, at least an hour’s drive from all D-I schools, and nearly two hours from the five Seacoast schools. Boulay laughs when other teams complain about their one “long ride” to Keene. “Yeah, well, we do that 12 times a year.” – which included a trio of three-and-a-half-hour round trips in as many days to the Oyster River holiday tournament in Durham.

This is a well-balanced, talented team. Javon is the leading scorer with his 19.0 average, but he is far from the only option. Keene has four players averaging in double figures and a fifth (junior Kasen Abbott) checking in at 9.2.

Javon at 6-5 can score from deep, but he can also slash, throw one down and he can finish with finesse. He also handles some of the point guard duties. Hennessey (11.7) can score, but his true value is as a defensive stopper. “He’s going to guard your best player,” Boulay said. “He’s going to rebound. He’s like a second coach on the floor.” Javon plans to continue his education next year and play basketball at either a prep school or college. Hennessey is also a baseball player. He plans to play that sport in college.

Jamal Stanley (11.8 ppg) is a 6-1 junior, who Boulay says is a lot like Javon. “He’s a  better overall player. He’s going to rebound, defend your best player, and score the ball.”

One of the big surprises has been 6-6 senior Will Fontaine, who spent the previous three seasons on the JV team. “He worked so hard in the offseason that he went from not playing varsity at all last year to now he’s starting and averaging 11 points per game (10.8 to be exact). He’s so long. He’s not a center. He’s a  guard/forward. He can make the 3. He just makes our defense so versatile with his length.”

The fifth starter is Abbott, a  5-10 guard. In addition to sharing the point guard duties with Javon, he is an accomplished shooter. “He can really shoot it,” Boulay said. “He gets us set up offensively.”

That’s the starting five. The first player off the bench is 6-3 Alex Holmes, who is just getting back into things after missing some time with sickness and a rolled ankle. “He can shoot it deep and defend down low,” said Boulay. “We’re expecting big things from him.”

This is the year that Keene has been waiting for. The Blackbirds have proven their resilience in how they’ve handled and continue to handle their grief. It has drawn them closer together rather than breaking them apart, making them stronger. How much stronger remains to be seen, but this team is making some noise. Division I is taking notice. “We’ve done the work,” Boulay said. “Stop talking about it. Let’s show up and play. You can say all you want. Who cares about the preseason rankings? If you look at every score week to week, it’s really about who shows up, plays defense and gives the best effort. And then it’s who has the best talent.” Keene definitely feels it’s one of those handful of teams in the contender conversation.

That being said, the Blackbirds have kept their head down and focused on what game is next. In the preseason, Boulay said, they made their goals for the season: make the playoffs, get a home playoff game and get to UNH (the site of the final four). “Then win,” he said. “That’s been the goal since Thanksgiving. That hasn’t changed.” With those goals set, Boulay said the team has put the blinders on to focus on what is next and what is next only. “Because we are starting to get a little more attention,” the coach said. “‘Oh, Keene is 9-1. Are they for real? Blah, blah, blah.’ It still doesn’t matter. You still have to win in the playoffs. We’re trying to keep our heads down. ‘Thank you for the compliments, but we’re going to keep moving on.’ We know exactly what our history is. You can say all those nice things . You’re trying to butter us up. We want to get it done in crunch time.”

Last year, Keene learned something new every day from the games they lost. “Now this year, those close losses have turned into wins,” Boulay said. “We’ve shown up every day, challenged each other. We’ve taken our lessons from whatever happened in the previous games and tried to work on that in practice. We’re trying to be the best version of ourselves every single day in practice. Hopefully that will translate into winning games on Tuesday and Friday nights.”

Boulay can’t emphasize enough how important Keene’s practice sessions have been in growing the team this season as well as being a safe haven. “In some ways, whatever is going on in the world, when we’re together for those two hours on the court, whoever is texting you right now, it’s in the locker room. Nothing can bother us right now,” Boulay said. “We’re just together on the court. Let’s work out and get better for two hours.” It’s a recipe that seems to be working for the Blackbirds.

Mike Whaley can be reached at whaleym25@gmail.com