Feb. 26, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

It was not a mighty Hurricane that the Champlain Valley Union High girls basketball team ran into Tuesday night in White River Junction, but eighth-seeded Hartford High used a strong second half to eliminate the ninth-seeded Redhawks, 48-39.

“It was a tough game,” CVU coach Stan Williams said Wednesday morning. “They (Hartford) jumped out early and we could never get the lead.”

After trailing the Hurricanes 15-7 going into the second period, the Redhawks closed to within 20-19 by halftime.

“It was a one- to four-point game through most of the second half,” Williams said. “We would get to within a point, then Hartford would hit a big shot.”

CVU, hampered by chilly 11-for-52 shooting from the floor, could not engineer a serious run of points that might have gained momentum.

Hartford took advantage of necessary CVU fouls in the final minute to pull away.

Junior Allison Gannon and senior Renick Lalancette led CVU scorers with 13 points each.

It was the final appearance in the Red and White for forward Lalancette, guard Kate Bashaw and forward Becca Russ. The Redhawks ended the season with a 10-11 record.

Hartford (14-7), will meet top-seeded Bellows Free Academy (20-1) in the quarterfinal round Saturday in St. Albans.

 

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Team already looking forward to next winter

Feb. 26, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

The still youthful Champlain Valley Union High girls hockey team had a difficult trip to St. Albans on Saturday, but the outlook for next season appears to be very hopeful.

The hosts, fourth-seeded Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans, knocked the Redhawks out of the playoffs with a 5-0 quarterfinal victory, leaving CVU with a 10-9-2 season mark.

BFA led 2-0 into the final period, where it put the game away with three more scores. The Comets launched a total of 26 shots at CVU net minder Nicole Bonneau.

Coach Tom Ryan’s Redhawks had tied BFA 3-3 in an early season game at Collins-Perley Arena, but the Comets came to CVU’s home ice at Cairns Arena in South Burlington in early February and bopped the Hawks, 5-0.

On Monday night in Northfield, top-seeded Spaulding High of Barre nipped BFA 1-0 in a semifinal contest and will meet Essex High for the title on Friday night. Essex took out South Burlington in another Monday semifinal.

Ryan loses just three seniors from the current squad. They are co-captains Bonneau and defense specialist Amanda Kaminski, along with forward Marissa Parente.

Bonneau, who has been in the CVU goal mouth for the better part of four seasons has, by her dad’s count, more than 2,000 saves. She will, no doubt, be missed, as will Kaminski and Parente.

Leading the returnees will be the top scorers — sophomores Molly Howard, Amanda Armell and Alyx Rivard and juniors Maggie Ryan and Addie Peterson. Also back on defense will be junior Emmaleigh Loyer and sophomores Amanda Lacillade and Kate Ford.

In addition, junior KK Logan, a top scoring threat a season ago, should be back after missing the campaign while recovering from a field hockey knee injury this past autumn.

Others back and looking to have big seasons when they next lace up the skates are freshman Lexie Milliken, sophomores Gillian Shelley, Lizzy Betz and Hannah Johnson, along with juniors Chrissi Whitaker and Sasha Gunther.

 

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Feb. 26, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

Hotter than a desert heat wave and averaging better than 78 points in their previous three games — all wins — the Champlain Valley Union High boys basketball team rolled into a Division 1 quarterfinal contest Saturday at Rice Memorial and got cooled down by an unrelenting, man-to-man defense.

For the third straight year, the Green Knights knocked the Redhawks out of the playoffs. This time, the 59-46 victory put 20-2 Rice on track for an appearance Tuesday in the Division 1 semifinals against Rutland High at the University of Vermont’s Roy L. Patrick Gymnasium.

CVU finished with a 13-9 record and a positive final month.

Prior to Rice, coach Scott Bliss’ squad had three straight games of better than 50 percent shooting from the floor, highlighted by a lights out, roof-raising 91-49 home playoff triumph over North Country Union in which the team shot 60 percent, including an incredible 15 pops in 18 tries from beyond the arc.

That output gave Rice coach Paul Pecor some anxious moments as he planned for the quarterfinal match.

“I told our guys that they would have to guard their men outside, way outside,” said Pecor after the victory over CVU. “We didn’t want to face them (CVU) right away. They are a good team that can put up points in a hurry.”

Bliss had been concerned about the Rice defense and rightfully so.

“They (Rice) are a good team and have the best defense in the division,” Bliss said. “We had been putting up more than 70 points in our last three games and I was worried about getting as many as 40 against Rice.”

The Redhawks got 46, but they all came hard — as in 13-for-46 shooting. The Knights never trailed, but also never got out to where Pecor could feel comfortable, the coach no doubt remembering CVU’s ability to heat up from downtown and score in flurries.

Rice led 30-21 at the break and extended the lead to 47-31 before John Donnelly and Will Hurd (eight points off the bench) knocked down consecutive treys to take some of the air out of Hammond Gymnasium and pull the Hawks within 10 points with about 4:30 left.

But Rice then got to the foul line and ran off eight straight points to regain its edge.

“They are a good team,” sophomore starter Jake Donnelly said of Rice. “I was able to get to the basket a couple of times early, but then they collapsed back on defense and prevented it.”

Donnelly garnered 12 points, including a pair of threebies.

Old reliable senior John Donnelly bagged 20 points in the face of the furious Knights’ defense and hauled in 12 rebounds to lead scorers and board men.

Intent on stopping Rice’s 6-foot-6 Nick Meunier inside and smooth Jon Goldberg and Marcus Dutkiewicz outside, Bliss had his CVU defenders back off 6-foot-2 forward David Gagne, who had not hurt CVU badly in two previous games (Rice wins).

This time Gagne hit the open shots, hitting three from the right side in the first quarter en route to a 17-point day.

“We put it out for him to be the one to beat us, and he did,” said Bliss.

Goldberg was held to four points while Meunier got 18, eight in the final period.

Sharpshooting lifts Redhawks over North Country

In making their way to the quarterfinals, the Redhawks had a brush with murky Vermont high school hoop history in trouncing North Country and leaving the visitors shaking their heads at a rarely seen exhibition of superior marksmanship.

In crunching the Falcons for the second time in less than a week, CVU got 24 points from Ryan “Intercontinental” Poirier, 19 by Jake Donnelly, 16 from John Donnelly and 26 from the improving bench.

Poirier, who missed his first three-point shot and said he was off during warm-ups, then swished seven of his next nine tries from international waters. To round out the evening, Poirier also contributed five rebounds and three assists.

Jake Donnelly (4-for-4), John Donnelly (2-for-2), Chris Nigh (1-for-1) and Hurd (1-for-1) also cashed in from outer space.

The starters went a blistering 22-for-32 from the floor, while the reserves were only slightly cooler, a still notable 9-for-18.

BOX SCORES

Opening round

North Country Union (49)

Ingram 3-5 4-6 13, Pinard 6-14 1-3 13, Patten 2-3 0-0 4, Grondin 1-1 0-0 2, Batista 0-7 4-4 4, Royer 1-2 2-5 4, Medley 1-3 0-0 3, Kennison 1-7 0-0 2, Warner 1-3 0-0 2, Miller 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 17-47 11-18 49.

CVU (91)

Jesset 2-3 0-1 4, Ja. Donnelly 6-10 3-5 19, Jo. Donnelly 6-7 2-2 16, Poirier 7-10 3-3 24, Duke 1-2 0-0 2, Beaton 3-3 3-4 9, Nigh 1-3 0-0 3, Hurd 1-2 2-2 5, Gale 1-1 0-0 2, Rensch 1-3 1-2 3, Lambert 0-2 0-0 0, Leckerling 0-0 0-0 0, Clayton 2-3 0-0 4, Lambert 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 31-51 14-19 91.

NCU    8    14    19    8 – 49

CVU    22    20    31    18 – 91

Quarterfinals

CVU (46)

Jesset 0 0-2 0, Ja. Donnelly 4 2-3 12, Jo. Donnelly 5 7-9 20, Poirier 2 0-0 6, Nigh 0 0-0 0, Gale 0 0-0 0, Hurd 2 2-2 8, Beaton 0 0-0 0, Lambert 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 11-16 46.

Rice (59)

Goldberg 2 0-0 4, McCormick 4 0-5 8, Meunier 7 4-7 18, Gagne 5 7-8 17, Dutkiewicz 4 2-4 12, Hayes 0 0-0 0, Lovering 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 13-24 59.

CVU    8    13    6    19 – 46

Rice    17    13    10    19 – 59

 

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Feb. 26, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

The second-seeded Champlain Valley Union High boys hockey team was speeding around the ice at the University of Vermont’s Gutterson Arena on Wednesday night, hoping to put down sixth seeded Spaulding High of Barre for the second time in 10 days and advance to Saturday night’s Division 1 championship game.

On Feb. 14 in Barre, the 12-6-3 Redhawks laid a 5-0 licking on the 11-9-1 Crimson Tide. Spaulding had nipped the Hawks 2-1 at Cairns Arena earlier in the season.

Winner of the Wednesday’s contest, which was played after press deadline, got the ticket to Saturday night’s title test at Gutterson. The opponent will be the winner of Wednesday’s match between Essex High (13-6-2) and Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans (12-8-1).

As CVU coach Doug Hopper has warned, “The division is evenly matched this year.”

The Redhawks swarmed past seventh-seeded Burlington High 4-2 on Saturday at Cairns to earn the spot in the semifinals.

It was seniors who found the net, as Brady DeHayes scored twice while classmates Ben Soll and Sam Spencer also collected goals.

The Redhawks had their wings flapping early on, cruising around the Burlington cage in the first eight minutes of the game, but only DeHayes could sneak the puck past Seahorse goalie Justin Delibac. Kyle Logan and blue liner Owen Smith set up Dehayes.

But for Delibac and fate, the Redhawks might have had at least two more counters in that initial eight minutes. A hard slap shot by Wes O’Brien clanged off a goal post and a scampering Robbie Dobrowski was denied point blank opportunities three times in the first five minutes.

Having out-shot Burlington 13-4 in the first period, CVU took a 1-0 edge into the second reel, only to see the Seahorses tie it with 8:05 left when Jackson Danbridge poked in a rebound past Hawks’ net minder Mark Albertson.

CVU then essentially put the game away in the final 3.5 minutes of the middle stanza.

Spencer sped down the right side and deftly passed left to Soll, who laced the puck into the Burlington net to put the Red and White up 2-1 with 3:19 remaining.

A minute and 14 seconds later, Smith uncorked a blast from out front that rebounded to DeHayes in front of the cage. The well-positioned forward alertly nudged the puck past Delibac.

Spencer put CVU up 4-1 in the final canto before Burlington got a late tally by Steven Ushakov.

Smith, as did many others, had a solid two-way game for the Redhawks with two assists and expert work on defense, where at least once he broke up dangerous BHS’ two-on-one runs in the CVU defensive zone.

Albertson had 13 saves in the CVU cage.

Burlington ended its season with a 10-11 mark.

 

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Frameworks Committee offers 11 choices

Feb. 26, 2009

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

In its last meeting before next month’s teacher and community forums, the Williston Conceptual Frameworks Committee narrowed down the configuration proposals it will bring to the meetings. Now it’s up to parents, teachers and community members to weigh in.

After deciding on two building configurations the administration said were possible, the committee came up with six different configurations for grades one through four, and five options for grades five through eight. Teachers and community members will be able comment at the forums with opinions about their choice for the best configuration.

Both forums will take place on Monday, March 9. The teacher’s forum will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The community forum will follow, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The forums were originally scheduled for earlier this month, but were postponed in light of new information pertaining to building configurations.

Participants will also be able to give their opinions on the two building configurations. One option keeps the grades where they currently are — pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and grades one through four at Allen Brook School, and grades one though eight at Williston Central School. Another configuration would put all students from grades one through four at Allen Brook, and put pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and grades five through eight at Williston Central.

Much of the Frameworks Committee’s meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19, was spent discussing how the presentation should look for the forums, as well as debating the merits of certain grade grouping configurations.

“We’re getting to a point where we need to narrow some options down,” committee facilitator Mary Jane Shelley said at the meeting. “But the more things on the table, the harder it is to be able to cut back.”

Committee members engaged in an occasionally spirited debate on certain configurations, arguing for and against the options. Most of the proposed configurations have grades grouped differently than the current four-year house structure. Also, there are configuration options with different grades looping through houses with the same teacher or student group. Looping refers to an educator teaching students for more than one year.

For instance, some configuration options have two-year grade grouping structures, with transitions occurring after a two-year period. Also, these groups loop for two years with the same teachers. Other configurations focus only on different grade groupings or different looping options, such as single-grade or multi-age looping. Some configurations combine all the possibilities into one house, or “small learning communities” as the Frameworks Committee calls them.

The committee faced challenges when it came to developing upper house configurations, since some teachers are licensed to teach only fifth and sixth graders or only seventh and eighth graders. That forced the group to remove two configuration options that would have had unequal student numbers in the houses.

The presentation for the forums has already been designed by the committee with the help of member Kevin Mara, and is available on the school district’s Web site, www.wsdvt.org. The presentation explains all 11 configuration options, and has a key to understanding each option.

Shelley will give a one-hour presentation on the configuration options at the forums. The committee chose Shelley as the presenter since she is seen as a non-biased presence in the group. In the second hour of the forums, the public will be able to give feedback at stations set up under each configuration option. Members of the committee will record both positive and negative comments about each configuration.

Even with the postponement of the teacher and community forums, Shelley told the group they were on target to present recommendations on configuration to the School Board by April. Meetings about equity across the houses would occur afterward, with recommendations being presented by May or June, she said.

If the recommendations are approved, the changes could be implemented for next school year.

 

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