By Mike Whaley
(This is the first story in a series on the eight 2025 NHIAA state championship basketball teams.)
The Groveton High School girls began the 2024-25 season trying to reverse a recent trend. The most dominant girls program in the history of New Hampshire high school basketball with 16 state championships, the Eagles were in the midst of an unusually long dry spell. They had gone 11 years (2013) without claiming a crown – easily their longest hiatus since winning their first title back in 1988. Although Groveton was a contender in the previous two tournaments, it stumbled at or near the wire – a 47-33 loss in the 2023 championship to Colebrook and a discouraging 29-26 setback in the 2024 semis to Newmarket.
The Eagles were returning to their former level of play but the question was – could they reach the D-IV summit? The answer, when the D-IV dust settled, was an emphatic “yes,” courtesy of a thrilling 36-33 championship win over North Country rival Littleton. But it certainly wasn’t easy.
Veteran coach Tim Haskins recalled that the loss to Newmarket in the 2024 semis did not sit well after the 2023 championship loss to Colebrook. “We were right on track to get back again last year,” he said. “Newmarket played a great game in the semis and we didn’t. I think that loss, to be honest, was kind of hanging over us or in the back of our minds. We were pretty motivated to get back to at least that point – back to the semis. And then get a chance to win that game and then get a chance to get ourselves back to the final.”
The Newmarket game certainly motivated the girls. “It really upset me,” said senior point guard Aspen Clermont. “There were a lot of things that went wrong. We didn’t play to our full potential.”
Junior forward Delaney Whiting hit the 1,000-point mark this season, led the team in scoring and was named Division IV All-State First Team. “The biggest thing last year is we weren’t a team when we went out on the floor,” said the Eagles’ go-to player.
Mylee Kenison was a freshman forward last year. She admits she put too much pressure on herself. “It was a lot. I had a part on the team,” she said. “I had to try my best to get to the championship.”
Assistant coach Kelley Brown, a four-time champion during her Groveton playing days, said everyone played as individuals. There was no teamwork. When the team saw the game video, they all agreed: “We didn’t play as a team. We were playing one-on-one with the Newmarket girls. I kept reminding them this year that we need to play as a team.”
The Newmarket game served as a strong incentive for this past season. The Eagles were certainly a pretty good team. Were they good enough to make a run to the championship was the looming question.
What helped early on was beating Littleton in their own holiday tournament, as they had done in 2023. Groveton stopped the Crusaders, 37-28, a game that flew under the radar with little press coverage. But it served to boost the team’s confidence for the rest of the season. “It helped us,” Whiting said. “It made us aware that we can beat them. It didn’t count as much in everyone else’s eyes. But it showed us we have what it takes to beat an undefeated team.”
The first part of the season before Christmas was the weakest part of Groveton’s schedule. After the holiday break, the schedule definitely toughened up. “It was literally five straight weeks where every team we played had a winning record,” said coach Haskins. “There just weren’t any breather games at all on the schedule. We’d win one and say, ‘Well that’s good.’ There was no time to celebrate. We had to turn around and get ready for the next one.”
Part of that brutal stretch included two games with Littleton, which the Eagles lost – 52-36 and 40-37. It stung, but it wasn’t the end of the world. In both games, Littleton used a big fourth-quarter surge to pick up the win. “In both of those games we were upset emotionally and frustrated,” said Clermont, a second-team all-state selection. Upset for sure, but not defeated. Underneath that frustration, they still had confidence. They knew what was possible.
Along with the two Littleton losses, the Eagles had some hard-fought wins during that stretch over White Mountains, 50-44; Pittsburg-Canaan, 48-38 and 54-41; Farmington, 50-48; Colebrook, 62-49, and Woodsville, 40-34.
Haskins said the goal at the end of the regular season was to be a top-three team, which would allow them to host the first two playoff rounds, and to stay out of Littleton’s side of the bracket. It took some work, but they were able to accomplish both goals.
Once you earn one of the top four seeds, the accomplishment is immediately relevant. Unless you get a first-round bye, there is the potential to host two playoff games. The Eagles took advantage of their friendly home court to roll through the first two rounds over Lin-Wood, 72-32, and Portsmouth Christian, 69-40.
“We knew pretty much what we were going to get with those games,” said coach Haskins. “Those rounds make me the most nervous. You’re the favorite and by a lot. What if we mess up? The farther we go, the less nervous I get personally.” If Haskins had any nerves in those first two rounds, they quickly dissipated.
That set up a semifinal game against No. 2 Holy Family, whose only loss had been to Littleton (47-40). Haskins had been able to scout the Griffins at Franklin. “We felt it was going to be a challenge because they had girls who were a bit bigger compared to what we had,” the coach said. “We were ready. We got back to the same point where we got knocked out last year. The girls were pretty determined that it wasn’t going to happen again.”
Clermont recalls Holy Family walking into the Bedford HS gym for the semis. “I said ‘Oh my god.’ They were pretty tall. It was a little intimidating.” Indeed, the Griffins were an imposing unit with five girls 5-foot-8 or taller led by six-foot freshman Lizkenza Yonkeu. Whiting was one of only two Eagles 5-8 or taller.
The difference was that Groveton’s secondary players really stepped up. While the Griffins were able to limit Whiting’s scoring chances, holding her to five points, Mylee Kenison and Julia Chappell picked up the slack, scoring 13 and 12 points, respectively, in a convincing 51-29 win. Clermont also tossed in 12. The Eagles held a slight 19-16 lead at the half, but used a 16-5 burst in the third quarter to take control of the game.
“We felt whenever we can we like to play a pretty fast-paced, up and down the floor game,” Haskins said. “We felt it might give some of their big girls a little bit of a problem.” Groveton also held its own on the boards, despite being undersized. Another big factor was that the Eagle defense was able to hold HF sophomore all-state scoring ace Ryenn Pedone to 10 points, well below her 22.0 average.
“We showed that we weren’t just a team of one or two players,” the coach said. “We had different girls who could step up if the occasion dictated.”
Myle Kenison understood the situation and that she needed to be ready to contribute. “I knew I had to step up and when I was open I had to shoot. When I had my drive, I had to make a drive,” she said.
Groveton had advanced past the semis to the championship for the second time in three years. Their opponent was not a surprise – the unbeaten No. 1 seed and defending champions from Littleton. “It was two coaches and two teams that knew each other pretty well,” said Haskins of himself and the Eagles and Littleton and their coach, Dale Prior.
Littleton had won three games to get to the finals, but their path had been a little more difficult. No. 8 Farmington had pushed them in a 52-41 quarterfinal win and then they held off pesky Newmarket in the semis, 37-31.
The championship was just as everyone figured it would be at Colby-Sawyer College – tightly contested and down to the wire. It was tied after the first quarter, 7-7. The Eagles led at the half, 20-16, and then jetted ahead 33-24 after three quarters. As in its two previous losses to the Crusaders, Groveton found itself succumbing to a fourth-quarter outburst that reduced a nine-point lead to one with 32 seconds to play, 34-33, after a 3-pointer by Juju Bromley. Were the Eagles headed to loss number three?
Littleton fouled Mylee Kenison with 15 seconds to play. The sophomore forward had already stepped into the spotlight as an unlikely star in the semis with a game-high 13 points. Now she had two foul shots to give the Eagles a chance to maybe put the game away. “I knew we were up by one,” the sophomore said. “I knew they were going to foul us. They wanted the ball back. When I got to the line, my heart was beating really fast. I knew I had to at least make one of them. I usually just take a deep breath and shoot. I just took a breath. I knew if I made one we would be in a pretty good spot. I made both.”
Now leading 36-33, the Eagles did not let Littleton put in the tying basket and won their first state championship in 12 years. That ended the longest championship drought since the Eagles won their first state crown back in 1988, increasing their girls’ state record total for state championships to 17. It was the sixth title under Haskins who has coached the team for 19 years, and has been a part of the program for 39 seasons (and all the state championships). He got his start in 1986 as an assistant and JV coach under coaching legend Gary Jenness, who has more wins than any other high school girls basketball coach in the state with 641. From 1988 to 2013, Groveton had one of the most dominating runs in state history with 16 titles in 26 years. Only the Nashua girls are in the same stratosphere, capturing 15 crowns during an impressive span from 1982 to 2004.
Once a perennial contender in D-IV, Haskins noted it has gotten harder for Groveton to stay consistently competitive with the town’s declining population, an affliction that runs across the North Country. That makes this year’s championship run all that sweeter.
Mylee Kenison once again led Groveton in scoring with 10 points. Julia Chappell had another big game with eight points, and Mylee’s younger sister Makalyn also had eight. Littleton’s defense held Whiting to five points and Clermont did not score. For the Crusaders, Addison Pilgrim had 10 points, while Addison Hadlock chipped in with eight and Bromley tossed in seven. Two other players who supplied invaluable playoff contributions for the Eagles were seniors Kandrah Savage and Kaycee Chappel. Freshman Makalyn Kenison was a consistent force all year long as the team’s No. 2 scorer behind Whiting and its top offensive rebounder. She received all-state honorable mention.
To further drive home the point that Groveton’s secondary players expanded their roles during the playoffs, one need only look at the increased scoring numbers of Mylee Kension (6.9 to 10.5 ppg) and Julia Chappell (3.8 to 10.3 ppg). When it mattered most, they delivered.
Whiting did a commendable job adjusting her game, especially later in the playoffs when opposing teams really focused on shutting her down. “Rather than get super frustrated because she wasn’t scoring, she’d grab rebounds, play defense, get assists, and just was a good teammate out there,” said Haskins. “She did her role well in that respect.”
Haskins noted that when Groveton lost in the finals in 2023 and the semis in 2024, the team went six players deep in both games. During this year’s championship run, they embraced a seven-player rotation. “We were a little bit deeper and more versatile,” Haskins said. It was just enough to get the Eagles over the hump and onto the championship podium.
In addition to holding down Littleton’s long-range shooting game, the Eagles did not let them run. Clermont said they made sure to keep an eye on Bromley who is very good at getting breakaway baskets. “Whoever was closest to her when a shot went up, just went with her,” Clermont said. “It kind of worked. I feel like our defense didn’t give them a chance to break out.”
Ditto, of course, for the Groveton offense, which also likes to run. Littleton limited those opportunities.
Perhaps the biggest difference was the insistence by Clermont that Groveton use its 3-2 zone versus a 2-3 matchup that Haskins felt would stymie Littleton. For most of the season, the Eagles had used the 3-2. “I raised my hand and asked ‘Haskins, what do you think about trying the 3-2 and if it doesn’t work switching to the 2-3 matchup?’ He said ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ For the whole game, we played a 3-2 defense. It worked. We had really good communication during that game. Realistically, the entire year we did play a 3-2 against most teams.”
Clermost’s value to the team went way beyond what she brought to the court. She was Haskins’ team liaison, keeping him in the loop when problems were on the horizon. She was equipped to deal with any drama that might surface. “Being a captain on a girls varsity basketball team is a very difficult thing to do,” she said. “In high school there is X amount of drama. There is so much that comes up. Sometimes you’re not prepared for it. Last year prepared me because I knew what was going to happen this year. Who causes the drama and who does this and that.”
She added that she and Whiting, as captains, were in constant communication. “We talked about how to fix things,” Clermont said. “Before the playoffs started, we were in a very good place. We had very little drama. A lot of the girls were there to support one another.”
Clermont said that her role was there to set up the offense and “get people where they need to be and position people; keep it positive and all the attitudes in line. Sometimes Mylee would get down on herself. I would have to go over to her: ‘Dude, you’re fine. Let’s go.’ We’re not going to win with this attitude. There were times when I would say ‘Relax, we’re winning the game. There is no need to freak out.’”
Clermont’s presence will be the biggest void to fill next year, both her ability on the court and her strong leadership skills. Savage and Kaycee Chappell are also moving on. Haskins pulled the three seniors to the side fairly early in the season to make a point. “‘These three graduate next year,’” he told the rest of the team. “‘I don’t know who it’s going to be, but one of you is going to be the fifth starter (next year).’ The eight to 12 players this year will prep for maybe that role next year.” That, of course, is a story in the making. For now, the Eagles will savor a championship that, in a town used to winning championships, was well worth waiting for.
Whaley can be reached at whaleym25@gmail.com