In a perfect world, we’d be writing about how four local teams made fabulous runs to the mountaintop of their respective sports this winter season and were crowned state champions.
And though the girls basketball teams from Northampton High School and Hopkins Academy and the hockey team from Easthampton High School came up short in their respective state finals this month, their accomplishments are historic and worthy of praise nonetheless.
Few teams get this far, so the players on these teams — and their coaches, assistant coaches, trainers, parents and others — who dedicated countless hours to their sports should be proud of their achievements.
For Hopkins Academy, first-year coach Mike Prattico guided a 19-7 Golden Hawks team that won its first Western Mass. championship, and earned its first state Division 4 championship berth.
When the clock ran out in the title game against a superior team in Cathedral of Boston, the Golden Hawks said goodbye to senior captains Samantha Jenks and AJ Mitchell. Jenks provided this bit of wisdom when it comes to winning and losing. “Even if we didn’t win a title, even if we didn’t make it far in tournament, the year we had left me with so many memories I can be proud about.”
For Northampton, the march to the finals brought back memories of the championship run the Blue Devils went on 11 years ago. Head coach Perry Messer, who coached many of the 2008 players during their off-season AAU campaigns and took over the Blue Devils program in 2009, guided this year’s squad to a 19-5 record and back-to-back Western Mass. championships.
As time ran down in a tough finals game against Pentucket, Messer removed his two seniors, Kolbie Jones and Lulu Kesin, to a well-deserved standing ovation in their last game.
But their coach also made a prediction: “This is not gonna be the end of us,” he said. Given that a majority of its roster remains intact for next season, the Blue Devils have a great chance to add to the program’s impressive history.
The Easthampton hockey squad advanced to the state Division 3A finals for the second straight year, where history unfortunately repeated itself as the Eagles finished runner-up again this year as they did in 2018.
Easthampton, which finished 13-8-3 for coach Bill Grise, will graduate nine seniors. Many of these seniors helped make history for Easthampton’s cooperative program a year ago. The team, which includes athletes from Easthampton, Northampton, Smith Vocational and Hampshire Regional high schools, won the program’s first Western Massachusetts Division 3A championship over Belchertown en route to the finals. They followed the same path this year.
The Pope Francis hockey team, which includes eight players from Hampshire and Franklin County schools, also fell just short — and we mean just — in its quest to claim the state’s top hockey crown for western Massachusetts.
They lost 2-1 in four overtimes to BC High in the state Division 1A championship.
Odds are the school will be back, as this was the 11th straight year Pope Francis (formerly Cathedral) has either been in the Super 8 or the play-in game. Among the players to return will be sophomore goalie Ben Zarenek, of South Deerfield, who his coach believes is the best backstop in the state.
These teams deserve one final standing ovation.