Category: Jam Session

Cool-hand Luke Merrill’s quest for 2K points fell just short

By Mike Whaley

Note: This is the second in a three-part series on the elusive 2,000-point milestone.

During the winter of 2007-08, Luke Merrill might have been the best kept sports secret in New Hampshire.

The then Pittsburg High School senior was making a serious run at the elusive basketball 2,000-point club – not that anybody knew about it.

Merrill ended up falling just shy in his bid to hit the milestone, finishing with 1,975 points. One more game would likely have pushed him over.

New Hampshire has sixteen 2,000 point scorers, but only one (Mascoma’s Tonya Young, 2007) has reached that milestone in this century.

Merrill laughs. “Everybody remembers (that number). That’s the year my dad’s (team) won the state championship. That makes it easy to remember.”

Merrill’s 2K assault was on nobody’s radar. “It really wasn’t,” he said. “Back then I don’t think we had Facebook. There probably wasn’t any of that stuff. If it was in the south (of the state) maybe it would have received more attention. We’re the northernmost town in the state. Not many people make it up there.”

Certainly not reporters.

Pittsburg is the end of the line up north, hardly a media hotbed. Once you leave town on U.S. Route 3, a winding, two-lane road, it’s nothing but trees and more trees until you hit the Canadian border. There is no daily newspaper that covers that area above Littleton and Lancaster. When Merrill was in school, the only coverage Pittsburg received was from The News & Sentinel, a small weekly newspaper in Colebrook, which is 13 miles to the south.

Pittsburg High School’s Luke Merrill celebrates his 1,000th career point in December of 2006 with his parents, Glen and Wanda. He ended his career at the small northern school 25 points shy of 2,000 points. [Courtesy photo]

“When I scored 1,000 and 1,500 points, (a picture) was in the local newspaper,” Merrill recalled. “I’m not going to say (2,000 points) was overlooked, but it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I don’t really know why.”

Merrill was good enough as an eighth-grader to play on the varsity, something that the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) permits for just the Class S/Division IV schools. “It’s a small school, so if you’re somewhat decent they bring you up because of the numbers,” said Merrill, who as a pretty good outside shooter scored 206 points that year.

To give you an idea of the school’s population, Merrill said at the time the whole school, K through 12, had roughly 130 to 140 students, of which half were in the high school. He had a graduating class of 14.

Merrill’s ability to hit outside shots got him in the lineup, and kept him there. He scored between 350 and 400 points in each of the next two seasons, expanding his game in his final two years as a 5-foot-11 guard.

He scored his 1,000th career point in the first game of his junior year, and then surpassed 1,500 in his last game of that season. His 1,000th point came on a rare four-point play. Perched at 996 points, he hit a 3-pointer and was fouled on the shot. He made the freebie to arrive at 1,000 on the nose. Merrill’s junior season was his most prolific as he averaged in excess of 28 points per game. As a senior he scored over 25 points a contest.

Those 1,000- and 1,500-point milestones are of particular note in the north country where there are no 2,000-point scorers. The northernmost 2,000-point scorer is Cynthia Thomson of Orford, who hit the mark in 1989. Orford, however, hardly qualifies as a northern school. It is located along the Connecticut River below the White Mountains, a 20-minute drive from Hanover to the south. Pittsburg is a two-plus hour trip going north.

With over 1,500 points going into his senior year, Merrill knew he had a shot at the mark. “There was certainly a chance,” he said. “We knew it was close. I was never told how close it was.”

The Panthers made the Class S Tournament that winter. They won their first game in the opening round over Profile, but the road ended in the quarterfinals at Plymouth State University to Colebrook, the eventual champion.

It was a tight game at the half, but Colebrook pulled away over the final 16 minutes to move on. Merrill scored 26 points in his last game, 15 coming from the foul line. He was still unsure what his final count was, although he knew he was knocking on the door.

“I was sitting in the stands with my dad after the game,” Merrill said. “There was another game. Groveton must have been playing because one of the fans from Groveton, someone who followed it closely, told me what I had. He was paying attention. It was 1,975. And my dad said, ‘Well, that’s going to be easy to remember.’”

Pittsburg’s Luke Merrill (3) scored 1,975 points for the state’s northernmost school from 2003 to 2008. [Courtesy photo]

Glen Merrill was the starting point guard on Pittsburg’s 1975 Class S championship squad, a 65-56 winner in the final over old Austin-Cate Academy of Center Strafford. The Panthers have captured four titles in all. Their first came in 1967 – Luke’s uncle Scott played on that team, scoring 1,000 points. In addition they won back-to-back titles in 1985 and 1986, but haven’t won one since. Both of those teams were coached by Glen Merrill’s teammate, Richard Judd, who was also Luke’s coach.

Luke became Pittsburg’s career scoring leader during his senior season, passing two other Judds – Kevin and Vince. He is, of course, believed to be the career scoring leader in the north country.

Merrill went to college where he played baseball for four years – two each at NHTI Concord and Plymouth State. He was pretty good, too. He was an all-conference pick at both schools, and at NHTI he was selected as conference player of the year. In 2019, Merrill was inducted into the school’s inaugural athletic hall of fame.

In 2012, with enrollment numbers dwindling, Pittsburg reached an agreement with neighboring Canaan, Vermont. The two schools formed an athletic cooperative to compete as Pittsburg-Canaan in New Hampshire’s Division IV, which they still do.

The two schools are likely headed to a full cooperative. Pittsburg’s enrollment numbers in 2016-17 were 101 students in K-12 and 33 in the high school.

Merrill now lives in Henniker, New Hampshire, with his wife, Danielle. They have a daughter, Emilia, 3, and are expecting a son later this month. Merrill works as an operations manager in Pembroke for a firm that sells cutting tools.

Now 31, he still thinks about what might have been.

“It’s just a game,” Merrill said. “I don’t care, but I do care. It would have been nice to have one more game to get it out of the way.”

RIM NOTES: Another member of the close-call club is Pelham’s Keith Brown, who played for the Pythons from 2012 to 2016. He scored 1,978 career points while leading Pelham to back-to-back D-III state championships in 2015 and 2016. He later did get some 2K satisfaction as a star at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. He was a four-year standout for the NCAA Division III Gulls, winning numerous honors, while finishing with 2,046 career points. … Another name that recently surfaced is that of Brad Therrien (story coming on him). Therrien was a four-year star at Spaulding High School in Rochester from 1966 to 1970, and still holds the school’s career scoring record with 1,700. What is not as well known is that Therrien played as an eighth-grader for neighboring Farmington HS. Furthermore, he led the Tigers in scoring with 238 points, giving him 1,938 career points. Had he not missed six games due to sickness as a senior, Therrien undoubtedly would have been the state’s first entry in the 2,000-point club. He was also the Class L/D-I career scoring leader for nearly 30 years until a young fellow named Matt Bonner came along in the late 1990s.

For feedback or story ideas, email jamsession@ball603.com.

The evolution and de-evolution of the 2,000-point scorer

By Mike Whaley

Note: First in a three-part series on the state’s 2,000-point high school basketball scorers.

There was a time when it seemed like, well, it was raining 2,000 points.

From 1983 to 1999, 15 of New Hampshire’s 16 double-century point scorers reached that milestone (see accompanying list). One has done it since.

While we may see 2,000-point scorers at some point in the future, there is simply no way that special basketball era will come close to being replicated.

THE GIRLS GOT IT STARTED

There is a symmetry to the list.

The first four players to reach the milestone were all female, and the last to hit the mark in 2007 was also a girl (Mascoma’s Tonya Young). In between, 11 guys hit the mark.

Those first four women all played in Class S/Division IV, and all played in the 1980s.

Henniker’s Karen Wood was the first player in N.H. to hit 2,000 in 1983, and she remains the highest scoring female with 2,677 points, and is second in N.H. overall. Only Nute’s David Burrows has scored more (2,845).

While her career was winding down at Henniker where she led the team to four consecutive Class S championships (1980 to 1984), Epping’s Kerry Bascom and Nute’s Julie Donlon were just getting started.

As was the case then and still holds true today, athletes in Class S/Division IV are allowed to play varsity high school sports in seventh and eighth grade. Wood, Bascom and Donlon, as well as Orford’s Cynthia Thomson, all played varsity as eighth graders.

While Donlon and Bascom had a long history playing against each other, they did meet up with Wood at least once – during the 1984 Class S tournament. Bascom’s Epping team was locked in a close game in the quarters down two points, but with 45 seconds to play Bascom injured her ankle and had to leave the game. Henniker was able to hold on for the win.

Henniker met Nute and Donlon in the final, claiming an easy 74-38 victory.

Mascoma’s Tonya Young scored 2,112 career points.

There is no doubt that these girls benefitted from an extra year to reach 2,000 points. But it should be noted that all five females who hit the milestone went on to play at the NCAA Division I level. Bascom is generally regarded as the state’s greatest female player having taken her college game to UConn where she played for Geno Auriemma as his first big star.

At the time, Donlon and Bascom not only played against each other, but also with each other on AAU teams, at a time when that concept was in its infancy. They played and more than held their own with girls from bigger schools, like Nashua with Celeste Lavoie, Becky Shrigley, and Stephanie Byrd.

“We just played together for five years. … We were playing with all those girls, so we knew we could play,” Bascom told Seacoastonline in 2021.

In fact, the first two years that Bascom and Donlon played AAU, there was no New Hampshire team. They traveled to Massachusetts to play on a team made up of N.H. girls, until Mass. said enough is enough. They had to form their own N.H. team, which happened with Nashua’s John Fagula as the coach

Epping’s Kerry Bascom (center) scored 2,408 career points.

It was a competitive rivalry between the two women.

“We were friends, but we were competitive when it came to Epping-Nute,” Donlon told Seacoastonline last year. “When we got on the floor, that was over. The gym was always packed. Standing room only.”

Bascom said they scored their 1,000th career point a game apart. Ditto for their 2,000th point.

BOYS GET THEIR GROOVE GOING

By the end of the 1980s, the boys started getting in on the act. Tom Brayshaw, who starred at Kearsarge for Marty Brown, was the first to hit the mark in 1989. Kearsarge was well known for its fast-paced style, reminiscent of the Loyola Marymount teams of that college era coached by Paul Westhead that routinely scored over 100 points and led the nation in scoring three years running.

Brayshaw was the state’s recognized top boys’ scorer for all of 10 months. He surpassed 2,000 points in February of 1989, and in December of that year, Burrows passed him, and still holds the record to this day.

It was a deluge at that point. Nine more boys followed until 1999.

“What it is, you had a perfect storm,” said Pembroke’s Matt Alosa, who scored 2,575 points, the most by a four-year player. “You didn’t have the social media scenario you have going on now. Kids only play when there’s some organized event. They no longer live in the park. I lived in the park, every day, 7-8 hours a day.”

Pembroke’s Matt Alosa scored 2,575 career points.

That was a common denominator. Players of that era had a passion for the game at a young age, and spent endless hours on the court. They not only played various forms of pickup games, but also worked individually to hone their games.

“When I was a little kid growing up – spring, summer and fall – I was in the park every day playing,” said Alosa, whose primary hot spots in Concord were the courts at Memorial Field and Fayette Street Park. “I got dropped off there. I wasn’t allowed to leave, but I could stay there anytime I wanted to, all day.”

Alosa said he knew when people were going to show up for games, whether it was full court or 3 on 3.

In the winter, he tagged along with his dad who was a high school coach at Bishop Brady and then Franklin at the time. “I can remember practicing when I’m 6, 7 and 8 years old,” Alosa said. “I practiced with the freshmen and the JVs, but I was in the gym for freshman, JV and varsity practices all day long.”

He recalls at age 13 playing with a bunch of college guys who he’d met in the park in a men’s league at the Concord prison.

As he got older, Alosa had a group of kids he played with. “I can remember being with my group of guys going from place to place to just play and find pickup games,” he said. “I was working out all the time. Sometimes pickup. Sometimes shootaround. I’d eat a sandwich under the basket with a Gatorade.”

Farmington’s Tim Lee recalls a similar upbringing when his dad was the high school coach. “I grew up in the gym at the start of my father’s career,” he said. That is where he developed his confidence and competitiveness.

“Part of that was growing up in the gym,” Lee said. “When I was in sixth and seventh grade, junior high, I was doing drills with the varsity players. … Growing up in a small town, I had the advantage of being able to run with the varsity guys and being around their summer leagues. I was always shooting at half time (of JV or varsity games) and after the games.”

Keith Friel also had a dad who was a coach, but his story is certainly different. Gerry Friel coached the University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team from 1969 to 1989, and the Friel family continued to make their home in Durham, even after Gerry finished coaching.

In addition to being able to walk to Lundholm gymnasium every day to play pickup, the Friels spent eight weeks of their summers in Exeter where Gerry ran the Phillips Exeter Academy basketball camp until Keith’s eight-grade year.

“I was born there during camp,” Keith said. “There wasn’t a ton to do so we did non-stop gyms. We did camp every week. And the girls’ week we would help out with officiating, running the scoreboard. We had a ball in our hand at all times. It was an overnight camp. They’d start at 8 in the morning and go until 9 at night. Since you’re around that, you’re around the coaches non-stop, picking up (things) from lectures from every angle. I was always asking questions.”

Keith recalls always playing against the UNH players when he was in high school, including Alosa and Scott Drapeau when they showed up in the mid 1990s. “They’d call or message with a time and we’d be there,” he said.

Merrimack Valley’s Scott Drapeau scored 2,260 career points.

That was a good challenge when he was younger playing against athletes who were bigger and stronger. “So how are you going to be able to stay on the floor to impact the game?” he asked himself. “So you start problem solving at a young age. I better box this guy out or I’ll have a grown man yelling at me. We have to win this game to stay on the floor.”

But that was a great way to get better. Alosa, Friel and Lee all played against older players, which is humbling but helpful in the long run.

Dave Burrows had two older brothers growing up in Milton. Steve and Scott were stars at Nute. Steve started on the school’s first hoop championship team in 1980 and went on to score 1,000 points, as did Scott, a 1986 Nute grad. “They let me play pickup with them,” Dave said. “My brother Steve would take me over to Farmington and we’d play pickup with the Muchers. That’s how I started understanding the game as far as keeping your mouth shut and playing and having fun.”

The pickup game toughened Burrows up, playing against bigger and older players. “That’s how you really learn,” he said. “I always tell players, 3 on 3 is the best way to learn basketball. You’re moving, you’re understanding how to pick, spacing.”

As he got older, he was always in search of a good game of pickup. “In Milton, I would literally go to the church,” Burrows said. “If there wasn’t a pickup game, I’d go to Rochester. If the pickup was bad there, we’d go to York (Maine) and play King of the Court. I could drive around Farmington, Rochester and see players shooting outside. You don’t see that today. No 3 on 3. No 4 on 4. No King of the Court. That’s how you learn.”

Nute’s Dave Burrows scored a state-record 2,845 points.

While Burrows had his brothers to push him, Keith Friel had his brother Greg, who was a year younger. “He was as hard a worker as I’ve ever seen,” Keith said. “I’d wake up in the summer and love to see that he was already dribbling and shooting and getting some drills in. I wanted to be the first one up.”

Tim Lee’s older brother, Josh, was essential in Tim being able to come into high school and have an impact. Josh Lee and Shaun Lover were talented, savvy senior guards, whose presence made it easier for him to play. “They helped a ton,” he said. “Especially with the attention that they drew. That allowed me to spot up and shoot. I didn’t have that luxury the last three years.”

Lee scored 33 points in his first varsity game, which gave him confidence going forward.

Burrows had those good Burrows genes when he was younger, which allowed him to play varsity in eighth grade. He grew six inches in seventh grade, so he was a skinny, but coordinated, 6-foot-3 in eighth grade. However, he could score from the get-go, regularly dropping 20 or more points. Coach Phil Mollica defined roles in the preseason, and Burrows’ role was to score. Everyone understood that. “Egos were checked at the door,” Burrows said.

Alosa recalls as a freshman beating out a senior who had started for two years. “I had to earn that spot, but it was a no-brainer,” he said as he went on to score over 400 points as a frosh. “It takes a courageous coach to say I’m going to play this kid over a senior. A lot of coaches are just against it. No matter how much better a kid is.”

Another factor, beyond being physically mature enough to play and score as a freshman or an eighth-grader, is that you have to remain healthy for four or five years.

Also, the 3-point shot, which was adopted at the high school level before the 1987-88 season, has helped. Friel and Lee certainly benefited from that shot, and might not have reached the 2,000-point club without it. It helped others as well.

It should be noted that Donlon, who went on to set 3-point shooting records at UNH, played in the era just before the 3-pointer came to high school. She scored 2,502 points without the three. Had she had it, then one can speculate that she would have passed Wood and challenged Burrows..

Donlon and Burrows are the only 2,000-point scorers from the same school to play at the same time at some point. Donlon graduated in 1987, so Burrows got to see her game during his first two years on the Nute boys’ varsity team.

“I loved her game,” Burrows said. “I learned a lot from Julie. She was very generous with her court. She was willing to help. Her ball handling was top notch. Passing and ball handling, she had it all. She was really good. She’s the best basketball player to come out of Nute, in my opinion.”

One point that is made by some of these prolific scorers is that getting to 2,000 wasn’t something they necessarily aspired to.

“It was never on my mind,” Lee said. “I was just trying to be a good teammate; trying to win a state championship and putting a banner on the wall. That seemed to be more significant growing up in that program.”

The same for Friel. “I think I was ultra-competitive,” he said. “That led to not just scoring points, I wanted to win. … The priority growing up as a coach’s son was never the amount of points. It was always ‘who won the game?’”

He added, “My end goal was never who had the most points. Obviously, I loved scoring. I still do to this day. I love shooting and hearing that net snap. That doesn’t change – the satisfaction of that.”

If you look at the 2,000-point club list, of the 16 players on it, 10 experienced at least one state championship, and five were on multiple title squads. “It was always what can we do to win the game,” said Friel, who played on back-to-back Class I championship teams at Oyster River (1995 and 1996).

Another important piece to consider is the evolution of AAU ball. When many of these 2,000-point players were in the game, AAU was in its infancy. In fact, there was just one team for a while for boys and girls, and the best players played on those teams. That’s not like today where there are multiple teams, and you do not see the state’s best together on one team. In some cases, the better players are competing with elite teams from out of state.

Case and point was an AAU team that Alosa, Burrows, Gatchell and Drapeau played on in the early 1990s and late 1980s coached by Frank Alosa.

Oyster River’s Keith Friel scored 2,148 career points.

Alosa recalls at age 13 going to a tryout for the AAU team at Dover High School. All three courts were in use with kids all trying out for the one team.

“That’s what it was,” Alosa said. “We had a group of 12 or 13 guys that went to the nationals and finished sixth out of 100-plus teams at Disneyland.”

Similarly in the late 1990s, Frank Alosa coached an elite N.H. AAU team with Bonner, Lee, and Steve Lavolpicelo from the 2,000-point club, as well as some other big names like Billy Collins, Marshall Chrane and Mark Yeaton. “That team was loaded with Division I and 2 talent,” Lee said. “We finished in the top-eight in the country in Florida.”

Players of that era did not go to prep school at the rate they do these days. Burrows said he has a chance to play with Alosa at Pembroke Academy after his sophomore year. “I just made the decision I was happy in Milton,” he said, which worked out as he led Nute to the 1990 state title in Class S. “To be totally honest, I figured if I transferred, I’d lose my girlfriend.” Burrows has been married to his “girlfriend” (Lisa Dube) for 26 years.

After his sophomore year, Alosa came close to going to DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, a prominent national basketball power. “I started getting a lot of attention,” Alosa said. “I went to the nationals my sophomore year. I played really, really well. The letters started pouring in. We decided I didn’t have to go.”

Bascom contemplated going to a bigger school midway through her Epping career. She was courted by Class L schools in Exeter and Dover (where her dad played), but in the end decided to stay true to her hometown.

Friel had an offer to attend Phillips Exeter Academy on scholarship after eighth grade, but his mom said no to that, not wanting her son away from home at a young age.

Looking back, Friel wonders if maybe he should have gone to prep school for his senior season. “I wasn’t challenged very much from a competitive standpoint,” he said. Although Oyster River defended its championship, Friel recalls many, many blowouts in which he was lucky to play half the game. He felt it stunted his development to some degree. But it still felt good to stay and help Oyster River win another title. Winning, in Friel’s mind, has always been the end goal – not the points.

2,000-POINT CLUB WEIGHS IN ON THE GAME TODAY

Alosa, Burrows, Friel and Lee have their own opinions on why it is harder today to get to 2,000 points.

Here are some of the factors: Kids play less pickup and more AAU. Some of the better players opt for prep school. The game is slower. Kids lack fundamentals. Social media.

“When I played, players were playing,” Burrows said. “What I’m watching today is too structured. You go to a team. You travel around to tournaments.”

“There’s a significant decline in recreational pickup,” Lee said.

“I just don’t see (pickup) anymore,” said Alosa, who coached at his alma mater for 10 years, winning two state championships. “It’s a skilled event. It’s a motor skill that you have to do over and over again. You have to log the hours. If I play seven hours and you play one, I’m going to be better than you in a year.”

He added, “The organization for good or bad is that kids don’t do anything unless their parents bring them to practice for an hour and a half a couple of nights a week. That’s basketball.”

“It has to be organized,” said Friel, who runs Friel Basketball, offering team and individual instruction. “You’re playing in your grade and age group. You’re playing so many games year round. They’re playing all these games. When are they working on their skills? You have four or five games and maybe one or two practices. When are you working on your weaknesses?”

He thinks kids are not taught much about fundamentals. “Everybody has a team,” Friel said. “There’s a lot of dads coaching at a young age.”

Burrows agrees. “I think a lot of the skills just aren’t there,” he said.

In the 2,000-point era, it was more likely that the best players would play together on one AAU team. Not so today. With so many teams, the talent is spread out, or even gone to play out of state with elite regional teams.

Top players are also more likely to go to prep school today. It’s not uncommon to see good players competing one, two or three years of high school and then going prep, often reclassifying.

Farmington’s Tim Lee scored 2,146 career points.

 

Social media may have also played a role as a distraction. Lee said you have young kids before they get to high school, ages 12, 13 or 14, have more pressure to look good for the highlight clip. “Technology becomes a distraction,” he said. “Video games. Cell phones.”

The pace of the game has changed. Games are slower and the scores are lower. As an example, if you added the four 2021 boys championship games together you get a total of 313 points. It is the lowest combined point total for the four championship games since the NHIAA went to four divisions for the 1963-64 season. One team scored more than 50 points, while four scored 40 or more and three scored in the 30s. The overall average was 39 points.

“A lot of coaches like to control the environment more,” Alosa said. “I think some of that has to do with the level of confidence in talent.”

“But with no shot clock and lack of fundamentals coaches think ‘I’ll take my chances. We don’t have as much talent right now. Let’s work the ball,’” Friel said. “You’re seeing these possessions of a minute and a half. I don’t fault the coaches. They’re trying to win. But 4-2, 8-4 quarters. That’s ridiculous. How much fun is that?”

In his era, Lee said the 2,000-point scorers and their peers managed the game clock. “There was little time between possessions,” he said. “The ball was being taken out at a quicker rate. The players had a greater understanding of how to move the ball faster up the court. There’s more dribbling today. It’s more a perimeter, spread-out offense.”

The consensus, of course, is that a shot clock could help remedy the pace of the game. It’s a debate that continues to rage across the state. The financial piece remains a major stumbling block for schools. Whether its implementation would translate into getting some more 2,000-point scorers to surface is anyone’s guess. It couldn’t hurt.

In recent years there have been some close calls. Luke Merrill (story on him next week) scored 1,975 points for Pittsburg, the state’s northernmost school, where he played five years from 2003 to 2008. Keith Brown, a 2016 Pelham HS grad, filled it up to the tune of 1,978 points, leading the Pythons to back-to-back D-III titles. Essentially, one more game would likely have gotten either player over that milestone hump. Almost.

Getting there, however, remains elusive.

Aiden Hefferon: At the point of a ‘Topper turnaround

By Mike Whaley

SOMERSWORTH – Last year was a down year in many ways for the Somersworth High School boys basketball team. The young Hilltoppers, led by sophomores, went a Covid-19 shortened 1-9, losing in the opening round of the Division III tournament to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Coach Leon Shaw believes that was an aberration and that Somersworth has the necessary personnel to return to form, fitting of its winning tradition.

The ‘Toppers have won six state basketball championships since the 1960s. They captured Class I titles under late coaching legend Ed Labbe in 1969 and 1979; went undefeated to capture the 1984 Class I crown, coached by Larry Francoeur, after back-to-back runners-up finishes, and then in 2005 got back to the top again in Class M/Division III, guided by John Langlois.

In recent years, the success has continued. In 2011, Lorne Lucas coached the team to the D-III title, while in the five years preceding last year, Rob Fauci was at the reins as the Hilltoppers made four trips in a row to at least the D-III semis, winning the whole enchilada in 2018.

Shaw feels this team, which is led by a trio of juniors – Aiden Hefferon, Jeff DeKorne and Dante Guillory – has the potential to get Somersworth back to the top tier again.

Hefferon, a six-foot junior point guard, is the key. Early in this season, he has already displayed his vast potential as one of D-III’s top scorers (20.5 ppg), although the ‘Toppers are off to a lukewarm start with a 2-2 mark.

“He’s been handling every challenge that I’ve given him so far,” Shaw said. Hefferon is ready to set into that rarified air with previous all-state players like Bryton Early and Evan Gray, who led the ‘Toppers to the 2018 title.

Shaw said that even before Hefferon was in high school, townspeople were speaking about him in the same sentence with Early and Gray. There has been that kind of expectation.

“He’s had to deal with everyone saying that since he was in seventh and eighth grade,” Shaw said. “‘Wait until Aiden gets here.’ I don’t have to put any pressure on him because everyone in the community is already looking at Aiden as the next marquee player.”

Shaw’s preseason speech to Hefferon was pretty simple: “We’ll probably win or lose based on you.”

Hefferon, who grew up watching Early and Gray play, has embraced that role. Watching those two former stars “definitely inspired me for my future years,” he said. “Watching them, they were the face of Somersworth. I tried to learn from them; seeing how they pushed their teammates. Little stuff that they did off and on the court. I just followed them.”

It’s been a growing process. As a freshman, Hefferon saw time off the bench for a team that advanced to the D-III semifinals. “That was game-changing and fast-paced,” he said. “I loved it. I loved how fast the game was at the varsity level. I definitely had some things I needed to work on.”

Last year was by far the most difficult challenge. “We were focusing on a lot of things,” he said. “It wasn’t just basketball.”

Covid was the X factor. Players were constantly getting sick. He recalls going to some practices with only five or six players in the gym. “We couldn’t run full drills sometimes,” Hefferon said. 

It was a tough stretch for Hefferon who tried to keep his mind in a good place by focusing on basketball, but he admits stressing out over covid.

The team had no trouble offensively, but defense was a different story. Hefferon said they struggled on defense because other teams were able to push them around physically. They had trouble coping with bigger, taller players.

It’s been a point of emphasis going forward, one that is a work in progress. Shaw said two things that need to get better are defensive rebounding and getting back to defend opposing transition offense. “It’s little things we need to improve,” he said.

Which should come with time.

Hefferon will be at the forefront of that renaissance – the point man leading the way.

“Going into every game, (opposing teams) are probably going to put their best defender on (him),” coach Shaw said. “Every game we need you to score at least 20 points. You have to have close to 10 assists a game.”

Hefferon has delivered for the most part. After an overall offensive off night at Conant in the opener (a 56-42 loss), he has risen to the challenge. In a 78-60 win over Raymond on Dec. 14, he nearly had a quadruple double with 34 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists and nine steals.

He followed that up with 20 points and six steals in a 69-51 loss to Winnisquam and 21 points, 10 steals and five boards in a 66-62 win over Berlin.

DeKorne, the quarterback for the state championship football team, has been a solid No. 2 scoring option, averaging 14.5 ppg. He had 21 points in the win over Berlin, and 17 points and 13 boards against Raymond.

Hefferon may need to get to a higher level as the Hilltoppers have a brutal stretch looming ahead in January with difficult games with Campbell, Gilford, St. Thomas and Mascenic.

“Those teams are in the top eight,” Shaw said. “We need to come out of the positive end of wins and losses.”

How the Hilltoppers do will likely rest on Hefferon’s shoulders. “He plays well enough in every game to usually surpass who is guarding him,” Shaw said. “But when he gets irritated, he puts it at a level that is equal to a Bryton or an Evan.”

That is Shaw’s next challenge. “(Aiden) needs to be at that level more often,” the coach said. “Being better than the guy in front of you is great. But how about we be way better than the guy in front of us every time we touch the ball.”

Hefferon is ready to get the Hilltoppers back to the top. He wants to be that guy leading the way. “I always make sure if (my teammates) make a mistake that they’re all good and I make mistakes too,” he said. “No one cares. Work hard on defense. You can get the ball right back. If you shoot an airball, I don;t care. I’ve missed eight shots in a row and I keep on shooting. Leave that behind you. Keep on moving forward.”

That’s the way to success. “I just play at 100 percent,” Hefferon said. “I know I have to play a big role. I always try to get my teammates involved.”

But when Somersworth needs a score, Hefferon knows he has to be that guy. “I’m willing to step into that role,” he said. “I know I need to do the little things. On defense I need to put a body on a guy. I need to go up for rebounds. It’s not just scoring.”

RIM NOTES: Since 1950, Somersworth has appeared in 11 championship games and won six state titles. The first was in 1969, a 66-56 win in Class I over Milford. That was followed by the 1979 title win in I over Pembroke, 77-51; the 1984 perfect 1984 crown, also in I, over Pembroke, 55-51. … Three Class M/D-III championships came in 2005 (55-48 over Conant); 2011 over Bow, 45-39, and 2018 over  Campbell, 53-38. … There was a little bit of controversy with the 2005 win. One of that team’s stars, DJ Gregoire, transferred to Somersworth from Kingswood after the Christmas break, raising questions about his eligibility. He played the rest of the season with the ‘Toppers, and then after the championship win, finished up and graduated from Farmington High School. … Somersworth’s 1,000-point scorers: Chuck Favolise (1976), Marc Roy (1979), Jim Perron (1982), Kyle Hodsdon (1985), Diane Soule (1991), John Coggeshall (1994), Larry Francoeur Jr. (1997), Melissa Heon (2000), Katelyn Rideout (2002), Rachel Hill (2013), Bryton Early (2018).

Lorne Lucas: Handling challenges in life, on the court

By Mike Whaley

ROCHESTER – Lorne Lucas knows all about challenges. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1998, it’s a battle he’s taken seriously. It’s also one that he’s kept private.

Last year, however, with the escalation of Covid-19, he had to go public with his affliction. It affected his job as a wellness and health teacher at Rochester Middle School and head boys basketball coach at Spaulding High School.

His doctors said because of the MS, he could not be in a school setting because he is a high-risk individual. So he taught remotely until April and coached the Spaulding team from his home in York, Maine, for the entire, albeit short, season – from January to March.

Now he’s back in person, his 21st year as a head basketball coach in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and his second at Spaulding.

Lucas, who turns 52 shortly, was fully vaccinated by the end of March, at which point his doctor gave him the greenlight to go back to teaching at RMS in early April. This past summer he was back on the basketball court coaching the Red Raiders during a summer league.

“It’s funny,” Lucas said. “I showed up in April. By April people are definitely pretty tired in a regular year, never mind a covid year. My perspective of being so excited to be in the building and everybody else being ‘oooooh.’”

Lucas laughs. “I was like ‘Let’s go,’” he said. “They’re going, ‘Come on Mr. Lucas, relax.’ Being away from something you love, that just fuels your fire. It makes you realize how important that stuff is to you.”

The same with basketball.

“That’s really what happened to me this year,” Lucas said. “I haven’t taken for granted one minute of being on the floor or being in practice, having our games or summer league.”

Ah yes, summer league. Lucas was ecstatic to be back coaching basketball in person. “I was like ‘let’s go,” he said. “It was great fun being with other coaches. Matt Fennessy (Dover’s coach) was great. He told me how awesome it was to have me back on the sidelines. Things like that were obviously very nice.”

But, again, challenging. During a summer league game in Portsmouth, Lucas said he felt overwhelmed. “It was moving so fast,” he said. “I wasn’t ready. It’s not like riding a bike. You can’t just hop right back onto it. The summer really helped me get my feet wet again.”

Of course, Lucas took his greatest pleasure from being back working with the players. “It was so nice to get back in the gym with the kids and work on the game,” he said.

Lucas can’t say enough about the Spaulding players. “They’ll do whatever you ask them,” he said. “They work hard. They’re pushing themselves and being physical. They’ve been great all along. They figured it out last year. But it’s nice to hit the ground running this season.”

Last year was challenging in so many ways for Lucas and the Red Raiders. “It was difficult,” he said. “This may be a surprise to people, but being a coach at the high school level is not always a lot of fun. Get off the floor and there’s all kinds of things you take care of: schedules, grades, parental issues.”

Lucas said you, of course, preface that with the time coaches get to spend on the court with the players. “That’s why we’re all in it because of the players,” he said. “The energy they bring and how hard they work.”

Last year Lucas had none of that.

What he did have was technology that did not allow him to watch practices live and some games were on a delay.

“I had to sit around during practice,” he said. “Especially early on, that was brutal. Knowing they were there and I wasn’t.”

Then Lucas had to watch and break down film, and remotely pass his observations on to the players. “It wasn’t what I dreamed I would be doing ever in my life,” he said.

When it got really challenging, Lucas would remind himself that “I wasn’t the only person in the world who wasn’t doing what he wanted to do. Everybody was sacrificing in some way or form,” he said.

Games were the worst.

Lucas actually talked about that during his first game of the season with the Salem coach. “We have a lot of control as a coach out there calling defenses,” he said. “You can sub, call timeout. There’s so much we can do. I had zero ability to do everything.”

He was at the mercy of technology, which sometimes was on a time delay.

One such instance was a game against Exeter in which the stream was on a small time delay. Lucas would communicate with one of the assistant coaches via text. One text asked for a play for a quick score.

“How the heck am I going to send a play,” Lucas asked himself. He drew it up, took a picture with his phone and sent it. But they never ran the play.

At halftime, Lucas asked why they didn’t use the play. It was a case of the time delay. By the time the assistant received Lucas’s message the play had already happened.

“I’m sitting on my couch or standing and yelling and screaming at the TV like a crazy uncle watching the Patriots. The weirdest thing was that when the game ended, I’m just sitting in my living room. No one in my family wanted to be anywhere near that room.”

Lorne Lucas on remotely coaching last season

During games, Lucas was in his living room following the stream. “I’m sitting on my couch or standing and yelling and screaming at the TV like a crazy uncle watching the Patriots,” he said. “The weirdest thing was that when the game ended, I’m just sitting in my living room. No one in my family wanted to be anywhere near that room.

His wife made it clear that he was screaming louder (at the TV) than she had ever heard him scream when he was physically at a game.

That it worked at all is a tribute to Lucas’s friend, Rob Fauci, who stepped in to do the in-person coaching. A former head coach at Somersworth High school for five years (D-III championship in 2018) and an assistant under Lucas there before that, Fauci had Lucas’s absolute trust.

“If I didn’t have Rob, it wouldn’t have worked,” Lucas said. “He deserves all the credit. I helped. He knew my system in and out. He knew what I was doing. I told everybody: ‘You don’t have to worry about coach Fauci.’”

While Lucas found the remote practices and games trying, he kept his sanity by exercising. In 2017, when his Oyster River team went all the way to the Division II championship game before losing to Hollis-Brookline, Lucas said he was at 285 pounds. Two weeks after the championship loss, he lost a sister to ovarian cancer at age 56. His dad had died young at 51.

“I’m sitting around at 285 pounds and ‘what in the world am I doing?’” he asked himself. That motivated him to lose weight and get healthy. “I did it the right way,” Lucas said. “I exercised. I ate well.”

Essentially trapped in his Maine home, he exercised often. “That’s the best thing you can do to help yourself is to eat well, exercise and take care of your whole body,” Lucas said. “A lot of research shows that’s good for everybody, particularly people with MS. That’s what I did. That helped me get through the day.”

The Lucas family had built a house on a farm in York. Plenty of space. No social distancing issues. “I just couldn’t wait to get outside,” he said. “I can walk the whole farm. I can snowshoe in the winter. It was great. That’s what helped me get through it.”

Lucas has his MS under control. “I’m doing great,” he said. “I had my checkup. My doctor was thrilled. She actually told me I had to put on a little weight.”

The basketball season is going just fine, although Spaulding has yet to win a game. Lucas knew it was going to be an uphill battle with senior forward Jack Sullivan the only player back who saw significant playing from a year ago. Still, the Red Raiders have been in all five games, losing by no more than 11 points.

“We played pretty well,” Lucas said of the first game against Salem, a 59-48 loss. “It was good to see. I didn’t know what to expect with a lot of kids without (varsity) playing time. We played a great first half. The third quarter we kind of fell apart. … It’s going to be a little bit with the young guys.”

Lucas has also noticed a change in his coaching approach. He was able to take a step back and look at people somewhat differently. The remote experience made him even more observant of how the kids are feeling. “Where they are with what I’m asking them to do,” he said. “I was pulling them aside to talk with them.”

He’s also developed a deeper trust with Fauci. “I always knew I could rely on Rob,” Lucas said. “Now even more. We’re the co-coaches of everything. I know I can absolutely rely on him. I let him run parts of practices.”

Lucas has learned not to be so controlling, to be able to rely on other people. “That’s only going to help me long term,” he said. “It’s exhausting when you have to do everything. . I’ve got guys who proved it to me last year that they could help me out.”

That’s more people to help Lucas to deal with the challenges ahead. Challenges that excite Lucas. “That’s what you want in life,” he said. “That’s what makes life interesting.”

For feedback or story ideas, email jamsession@ball603.com.

Brian Cronin: The ball doesn’t fall too far from the basket

By Mike Whaley

NEWMARKET – There’s this hazy memory of a young, mop-haired Brian Cronin, maybe 6 or 7 years of age. It’s the turn of the century in the Rochester Community Center gymnasium – now “Coach Tim Cronin Court.” While the Spaulding High School boys basketball team practices, Brian is flying around the gym’s periphery, dribbling a basketball like the Looney Tunes cartoon character, the Tasmanian Devil.

The quintessential gym rat, Brian eventually played for his dad at Spaulding, graduating in 2011. His dad retired from coaching in 2020 after building the Red Raiders into a respectable Division I program (five trips to the D-I semis). Now Brian, 29, is a head coach himself, beginning his first year guiding the boys team at Newmarket High School.

He smiles at the memory. “When my dad took over (in 2001), I was there all the time,” Brian said. “There was nowhere else for me to go. My mom was working late. I was just leaving school and going there.”

Brian Cronin, right, hangs with his dad, Spaulding coach Tim Cronin, on the sidelines before the 2015 Division I boys basketball semifinals in Durham. [Mike Whaley photo]

He adds, “There’s an ongoing joke of one of the rec administrators over there that I was born in the rec, in one of the couches out back.”

Tim Cronin recalls bringing Brian along out of necessity. “I always had him with me,” Tim said. “So that went all the way up basically. He always enjoyed being around the gym. He always enjoyed being around the players. They all knew him. It’s a good start to his career as a coach.”

The coach said he never had to worry about Brian during practices. “He was always dribbling a ball on the side,” Tim said. “He always entertained himself.”

Basketball was Brian’s life because he didn’t know anything different. The Community Center was his second home.

Another benefit was that his dad was close with many D-I coaches. It wasn’t unusual for Brian to come downstairs on a Saturday morning and find a coach chatting with his dad on the family couch. Winnacunnet’s Jay McKenna, former coaches Mike Romps (Dover) and Tim Goodridge (Merrimack) are among that group. Noah LaRoche at Integrity Hoops is another influence. Brian is good friends with Great Bay Community College coach Alex Burt. “I became friends of my dad’s friends,” he said. “I was able to get so much knowledge because of that. … Seacoast guys have always been on my side. It was fun when I was in high school. They’d come over and talk to me on the side after a game.”

Although Brian says it wasn’t until he was out of high school in 2013 that he realized he wanted to coach, there were earlier signs. Close family friend Gerry Gilbert recalls coaching Brian on a third- and fourth grade recreation team. “He wanted to be a coach from the very beginning,” Gilbert said.

Tim believes all those years in the gym growing up rubbed off Brian in the right way. It made him a leader. “He would echo what he heard over the years from me,” Tim said. “He’d translate to the players on the court.”

Tim recounts a story during a game in Rochester. Winnacunnet’s McKenna told him the story. “Jay was yelling out some kind of defense that he wanted his team to run,” Tim said. “So Brian told everybody on his team what they were going to do.” McKenna told Tim that he knew his team was in trouble with Brian out there telling people where to go.

“He was like a sponge,” Tim said. “He always listened. He was a student of the game.”

Brian laughs at recalling his high school days at the thought of “being a coach on the floor.” “I don’t think in high school I necessarily believed I was striving to be a coach,” he said. “As much as I was striving to have my dad yell at me less. I’m a product of what he created.”

Although Brian started getting the coaching bug once he graduated from high school, it was not an easy or direct path. After a year of college, he returned home for a year, helping out his dad’s team as a volunteer assistant. Then he returned to college for four years at Keene State before rejoining his dad’s staff for his final two years from 2018 to 2020.

Brian Cronin (in checkered shirt) celebrates a big night for his dad, Tim Cronin, in 2020. Center court was renamed Coach Tim Cronin Court in the Rochester Community Center gym. [Mike Whaley photo]

In between he had to deal with the failing health of his mom, Leslie, who died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2015 at age 63. Brian did not handle that well. “Anyone who was an outlet for me to yell at, I was using,” he said. “I was really bringing only negative things to the table. My attitude as a whole, not just basketball, was very negative during those years.”

Brian was also disheartened by his dad’s final year as head coach at Spaulding. The team started 4-3 but lost its final 11 to end at 4-14 to miss the playoffs, ending a streak of 13 consecutive postseason appearances.

That season left a bad taste in his mouth. “It was constantly discouraging,” he said. “There was never a day that was better.” Then he applied for the Spaulding job, but didn’t get it. That hurt. “I felt kind of hit hard not getting that Spaulding job, even though I didn’t necessarily believe I deserved it,” Brian said. “It went to the right candidate (Lorne Lucas).”

Brian was a little soured with the sport of basketball.

But he took a job with the Raymond High School boys hoop team under Jay Piecuch. It was just what he needed.

“Those are probably some of the best kids I’ve met. Period,” Brian said of the Raymond players. “Having that back; having kids who wanted to be there. Having athletes that were there to be better basketball players and working together as a team. The fact that we had a little bit of skill really brought everything back to me. ‘Oh yeah, this is what I missed.’ This is the way it should have been going.”

Raymond had a solid season, advancing to the semifinals of the Division III tournament. Brian was prepared to come back, but Piecuch got wind of the Newmarket opening when Jamie Hayes stepped down after 18 years. He convinced Brian to go for it. He’s glad he did.

“Now being at Newmarket, I get goosebumps just thinking about it,” Brian said. “These kids are so amazing. Every single one of them is ‘Yes, coach. Thank you, coach. We’ll be there on time. Early. Whatever you need.’”

Brian Cronin cheers on his team in a recent workout session in Newmarket.

He likes that they are ready to work, ready to go hard. They are like pitbulls, a little chippy. “It rekindled the flame in me,” Brian said. “Jamie instilled a mentality in those kids to come ready to work.”

Having his dad in the background as a sounding board has helped. They talk on the phone three or four times a week. They talk basketball, but also about the off-the-court stuff that all coaches must learn to navigate.

What has Brian taken from his dad? “Being prepared,” Brian said. “The fact that my dad was watching game film right after the game, then watching again in the morning. That’s something I just did today “after Friday’s 58-55 opening loss at Holy Family.

“I don’t want questions,” he said. “I want to have answers. It’s something I watched my dad give to the kids.”

There’s also the encouragement piece – compliment and constructive criticism. “These are things you need to succeed,” Brian said. “When I was playing, my dad was prepping me for the real world.”

Another important point of emphasis passed on from father to son is not accepting failure. Brian recalls the early days of the Spaulding program under his dad – tough years with very little success. “That was a constant grind,” Brian said. “We’ve got to change the atmosphere. We’ve got to change the culture.”

Eventually Tim did just that, leading Spaulding to 14 playoff appearances in his 19 years.

When Tim Cronin looks at his son, he sees a lot of good things. “I think he relates to the players very well,” Tim said. “I talked with him at length about all the mistakes that I made in my early years. He learned a little bit from that.”

Tim added, “He’s in charge and he’s very organized. He knows the point he wants to get across.”

One important thing Tim learned from another coaching dad, Dave Faucher, whose son, Scott, is the head coach at Assumption College, is this: “He told me, it’s a big point, ‘I wait for him to ask,’” Faucher told Tim. “‘I don’t say that much unless I’m asked. He always calls me after games and we talk. But I wait until I’m asked.’ I think that’s a good thing to follow.”

Faucher, coincidentally, coached at Newmarket back in the 1970s, before going on to become the head coach at Dartmouth College from 1991 to 2004.

Although Newmarket lost its first game. Brian felt good about the effort. The team trailed by 14 points at the half and by as many as 17 points in the third quarter. They made a run from there, and had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but a 3-pointer rimmed out.

After the game, a Newmarket dad came up to Brian, ecstatic about what he saw. Brian had to smile. “He told me it was awesome to see these kids grow as the game was going on,” he said. “They were getting better every quarter.”

Which, of course, is the product of good coaching.

For feedback or story ideas, email jamsession@ball603.com

📰 Mike Whaley joins Ball 603

Ball 603 just threw down its first slam dunk by landing legendary New Hampshire sports journalist Mike Whaley. With 40 years of experience and two NH Sportswriter of the Year awards to his name, Whaley brings a lifetime of experience and dedication in covering New Hampshire sports to his weekly Ball 603 column entitled “Jam Session – Mike Whaley’s Weekly Take On Basketball”.

Throughout the seacoast of New Hampshire, Whaley has been a staple on the basketball scene for nearly 50 years. His coverage of hoops has been unrivaled, but his impact on the sport in the Granite State dates back to 1975 when he earned a Class M State Championship at Oyster River, the first in program history.

Whaley went on to attend Lyndon State College in Vermont where he amassed 1,364 career points, two team MVP awards and was named all-conference and all-district his senior year. In 2005, he was inducted into the Lyndon State College Athletic Hall of Fame for his efforts on the hardwood and in 2016 he was enshrined into the Farmington Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions away from the court.

It’s clear there isn’t a better man to help us tell the story of basketball in the Granite State than Mike Whaley. Check back each week for a Jam Session you won’t want to miss.