Hanover High girls basketball coach Dan O’Rourke approaches every season differently, a mindset that has kept him loose over the past 15 seasons.
Next season will be no different, though perhaps for a much more unfamiliar reason. News reached O’Rourke two weeks ago that Hanover starters Silke Milliman and Caroline Merguerian are leaving the Marauders for prep school. Milliman, who led the team with 14.9 points per game in her freshman season, was offered a position on Northfield Mount Hermon’s girls basketball team. Merguerian, a junior, is headed to Kimball Union Academy.
“The way I look at it, everyone has choices to make,” said O’Rourke, who led Hanover to the New Hampshire Division II championship game before falling to Goffstown. “I’m excited to coach the team that’s there.”
News of their departure was first reported by Jeremy Leveille of NHNotebook.com.
In Milliman, Hanover loses its youngest offensive threat from last season. The Marauders heavily featured its young, talented freshmen last season, including Julia Golder, Lois Schwarz and Diana Schwarz. Milliman scored 41 points in four playoff games last season for Hanover, though only six in the team’s 37-31 loss in the final.
“It just means the returning kids will have to step up,” O’Rourke said. “With Silke, she was the focus of all the other teams. Now, we won’t have that. The other kids will, both individually and collectively, step up to do that part. We’ll move on. Honestly, I’m excited about the challenge.
“Our feeder program is still very strong. The foundation is there. Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day, and neither will our basketball program.”
Merguerian was second on the team with an 6.5 points per game, including seven in the championship loss. But Milliman’s departure hurts more, only because she was younger. Rhetoric after the championship game anticipated the potential of a Milliman-led Marauders over the next three seasons. Now, that potential will be left unrealized.
“We still have Lois, Diana,” O’Rourke said. “To me, they’re all-state players. Julia Golder was great for us last year. We’ll just be young again, and inexperienced. We have two seniors coming back, five returning kids in all. But this is why we built the feeder program.”
O’Rourke couldn’t remember having any other defectors to prep school, at least not during his tenure. But the fact that Milliman and Merguerian were recognized speaks to the caliber of athlete that Hanover has been able to nurture.
“From a notoriety perspective, I’m not sure that we were on people’s radar before this past year,” he said. “I think the program is well-respected throughout the state. It may vary as far as talent, but when teams play us they know they’re going to have to play their A-game.
“In my mind, I don’t think anything has changed.”
Windsor High track and field coach Patrick Gordon thinks his program’s status has already been elevated over the last few seasons. The notion was solidified last week after senior thrower Katey Comstock signed on to continue her athletic career at NCAA Division II Franklin Pierce University.
“There was a lot of information to digest, that’s for sure,” said Gordon, who assisted in the process. “She was really looking to make an impact instantly.”
Comstock, who won the state title for throwing in Vermont’s Division II, will be on the Franklin Pierce bowling team and the track and field team. Being able to do both was important, Gordon said. Comstock, who is receiving a partial athletic scholarship, held a ceremony at Windsor High last week to sign her letter of intent.
“Katey is a talented athlete who will help both track and field and the bowling team,” Kim Berit, bowling coach at Franklin Pierce, said in an email.
“She is one of the top talented bowlers in northern New England and we’re excited to see her talents unfold in college.”
For Gordon, Comstock’s work ethic has driven his track and field team to be more successful. Being given the opportunity to compete at another level can only motivate his future teams to meet the high standards that she’s helped leave behind.
“I can’t wait to see what she does at the next level,” Gordon said. “She’s never had the truest competition she’ll have competing in Vermont. I just can’t wait to see what she does when the difference between her and her competitor are inches rather than feet.”
Sunapee point guard Matt Tenney just wanted a chance to play, not sit on a bench competing for playing time. He hopes two years at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine, will help him get more noticed than playing four years of New Hampshire Division IV basketball.
“That was definitely one of the most important factors,” said Tenney, who made his decision two weeks ago. “I really liked the campus. It’s right on the ocean. The teammates and coaches were supportive.”
Southern Maine had pursued Tenney, who was Sunapee’s leading scorer this past season, pretty heavily, attending several Laker games to watch him play. Tenney averaged 18.5 points per game this season, scoring 425 points. The Lakers were 18-5, falling to Groveton in the D-IV quarterfinals.
“He was recruited hard by them,” said Ed Tenney, Matt’s father who stepped down as Sunapee’s coach in March. “The opportunity to play immediately was big. He can play two years and transfer. We’ll see what he wants. Right now, he wants to go somewhere to get right on the floor.”
For Tenney, being on a consistently competitive Sunapee squad over his four years of varsity basketball has helped him hone his skills. It’s something he’ll never forget.
“Being able to start as a freshman, having my dad coach me, being able to play with all my friends, it’s been a blast,” he said. “It was a memorable experience, something I’ll take with me.”
The Seawolves are a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association and the Yankee Small College Confernence.
Vince Molesky’s departure for a new golf professional job in southern New Hampshire leaves two-time NHIAA Division IV state champion Newport in need of a golf coach for this fall.
In a phone interview last week, Molesky said he’d taken over as head pro at nine-hole Hidden Creek Country Club in Litchfield for what he expects to be his last job before retirement. Boosted by players he’d groomed as junior golfers, Molesky led the Tigers to D-IV title the past two years; Newport shot a team 354 at Center Harbor’s Waukewan Golf Club last October to win its most recent NHIAA plaque by 19 strokes.
With Cameron Gebo returning for his senior season, Molesky said he expects Newport to be in the championship conversation again this autumn. … The Vermont Principals Association and Vermont State Athletic Directors Association is seeking golfers for its annual VPA/VSADA golf tournament on June 22 at Montague Golf Club in Randolph. The event is a fundraiser for the Kevin Riell Scholarship Fund and the VSADA Leadership Conference. The tourney is open to the first 30 foursomes to sign up at a cost of $80 per person for a day that includes the 18-hole scramble tournament, carts, lunch, pin prizes and more.
Contact former Windsor High athletic director Bob Hingston at rwhingston69@gmail.com or bhingston@vpaonline.org by June 12 to register.
Valley News sports editor Greg Fennell contributed to this report. Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or at 603-727-3306.