SPRINGFIELD — Western Mass celebrated its own March Madness this weekend, when two state championship basketball games brought fans and families from all over Hampshire County to Springfield College, the “birthplace of basketball,” on Saturday.
There on the James Naismith Court, fittingly named for the founder of basketball, the Easthampton Eagles boys basketball team went toe to toe with the Watertown Red Raiders in the Eagles’ first-ever state championship game.
Then the Hampshire Regional Raiders girls basketball team played against Archbishop Williams in the Raiders’ only trip to the tip-top game since 2005.
It was a Division 3 title shootout, and fans from all over filled the gym to support the local teams, swaths of students dressed in maroon and red standing stubbornly for the duration of each contest in the packed bleachers.
The boys game tipped off first.
Easthampton High School sophomores Kayla Dagenais and Aubrey Fugiel said they had worked to get a fan section together for the game.
“We’re just really proud they made it this far,” Dagenais said of the Easthampton team. “Even if they don’t win, we’re so proud they made it.”
“It’s such an accomplishment. They haven’t made it this far in … a while,” Fugiel said.
Saturday’s game against Watertown was the first time the Easthampton boys basketball team has made it to the state title game, winning its only other sectional title in 2003 when the Eagles lost to Brimfield in the state semifinal.
Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, standing on the sidelines with other fans unable to find room in the bleachers during the boys’ game, said the championships brought together many people, not just from Easthampton but from communities all around western Massachusetts.
“This team is amazing: the hard work, the teamwork, it’s amazing,” she said. “People from all walks of life in the community are standing behind this team. The fact they’re playing at this level is astounding and historic.”
A championship wasn’t to be, though, for the Easthampton boys, who lost 72-53 to Watertown, but their fans stayed true.
South Hadley High School students Ajanai Lopez and Kylee LeClair said they’ve been going to the team’s games all season.
“It’s kind of upsetting seeing how well they played and knowing they’ve worked really hard to get here,” LeClair said of the loss. “It’s literally been 24/7 basketball for them.”
Fernando Tenesaca, a junior at Easthampton High, and his brother Marcus Tenesaca, a freshman, said it was a sad loss, but an exciting game.
Marcus said it was especially so for him, to be able to cheer on the team at a state championship in his first year of high school.
“There are parents and middle schoolers and even elementary schoolers who have nothing to do with the team here to support them,” Fernando said. “It was just a great season.”
Easthampton City Councilor Homar Gomez said, “To see the court this packed is amazing. This is a memory that these kids will have for their whole lives.”
Easthampton junior Jaquy Perez said she was on her way back to Easthampton High for a reception for the team, where she said they would celebrate making it to the historic championships with pizzas and games.
After the boys’ game the stands emptied, but many Easthampton supporters stuck around to watch the Hampshire Regional girls fight for their championship, including Easthampton Fire Chief David Mottor, whose son Ronan played for Easthampton.
Mottor said the community has been incredibly supportive of the teams, adding that an Easthampton resident picked up the tab for the boys’ team’s breakfast that morning.
The stands refilled for the girls’ title game, with a change-up from maroon Easthampton shirts to Hampshire Regional red.
More than a dozen people in the bleachers wore white “lady Raider basketball” shirts with Pickunka #12 on the back to support the only senior playing in Saturday’s championship, Katelyn Pickunka.
Morgan Mitchell, a strength training coach at Easthampton High School in head-to-toe maroon Eagles gear, said he’s worked with members of the boys basketball team, and his daughter attends Hampshire Regional, so he had a change of shirt ready for the second game.
“Listen, we made it here,” he said. “These kids have worked hard, for four years, some of them. It’s great to have made it here.”
His daughter, Taylor Mitchell, a senior at Hampshire Regional, said Pickunka is one of her best friends, so she has been following all of her basketball games and, with other fans, doing spirit fingers, “kind of like casting a spell,” for every free throw.
“We’re all really nervous and excited,” she said at half-time. “We’re really a second-half team; usually we come back.”
Hampshire Regional High School Athletic Director John Plourd said the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association made the entire weekend one to remember for the teams that made it to the championships. The girls’ team toured the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield and stayed in hotels sponsored by local businesses.
“It’s really a whole experience,” he said, adding that some of the girls said they felt like celebrities for the weekend and that he was glad the community came out to acknowledge their hard work.
As athletic director, he said, he couldn’t be more proud that the Hampshire Regional girls basketball team won the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Team Sportsmanship award, which was awarded to the team during half-time of the boys’ title game.
“There are moments when the team look like their natural selves,” he said while watching the girls’ game closely. “But Archbishop’s one hell of a team.”
Again the student section stood through the entirety of the game, yelping and cheering in equal measure and throwing up hands at every hint of a play or call.
At the end of the game, the crowd of students began clapping and cheering “thank you KP” as Pickunka finished the game with 18 points scored out of the team’s total 42, losing to Archbishop Williams’ 77.
Filing out of the gymnasium after a bittersweet day of basketball, the indomitable western Massachusetts supporters stopped to chat and greet neighbors, friends and fellow fans from around Hampshire County.
As South Hadley student LeClair said, “We’ll definitely win next year.”