LEBANON — Comfortable that the program is set up for success in the immediate future, Lebanon High girls hockey coach Brad Shaw has resigned from the job he’s held the past 10 winters.
Lebanon athletic director Mike Stone confirmed Shaw’s resignation on Monday, the day after advertisements seeking a replacement appeared online.
Despite an increasingly smaller pool of athletes and rarely having a trained goaltender in residence, the Raiders won at least eight games in each of Shaw’s 10 seasons at the helm. The 61-year-old posted a 110-78-4 record, getting his 100th career coaching win on Feb. 6, 2018, with a 3-2 victory at St. Thomas-Winnacunnet.
“I’ve been mulling it over for the last couple of years,” Shaw said on Tuesday. “I feel like, right now, the team’s in a really good spot. We’ve gotten through the rebuild years, and this year we only lost one senior. … I think our team’s going to be really competitive next year.”
With numbers dwindling, Lebanon ran a three-school co-operative with Stevens and Kearsarge this past season. The only graduating player from that team, Stevens High’s Adrianna Maccioli, saw little playing time as a goaltender because of injuries the last two years. Numbers at the youth ranks aren’t large enough for the next Lebanon coach to field a full high school roster, so the co-op arrangement is going to have to remain for the time being, Shaw said.
It bore fruit this past winter. With Kearsarge’s Marissa Pickman scoring an Upper Valley-leading 35 points, the Raiders earned the 10th seed in the NHIAA Division I tournament, and defeated No. 7 Souhegan in the first round before an 8-1 loss to eventual state finalist Exeter in the quarterfinals.
“The Kearsarge girls were really a huge help to the program, several good girls and really good kids; the same with Stevens,” Shaw said. “Youth hockey is just not where it used to be. There are six or seven good girls coming up next year. The following year, there’s a few more. We’re going to be OK for a while, but we’ve got to try to get back into the youth programs and get some more development.”
Shaw assumed the Raiders’ reins in 2009, a year after former coach Bob Ceplikas guided the squad to its first D-I championship game appearance. With senior Jackie Goodell in goal, Shaw’s first Lebanon team finished 11-6-1; two years later, Lebanon would post a 17-2-0 mark, its only defeats coming to archrival and now 10-time state champ Hanover in the title game, 5-1. The Raiders made the postseason every year of Shaw’s tenure despite having to train someone new to tend the net nearly every year after Goodell’s graduation.
“When you don’t have a goalie that can go out and steal you games, you really have to put all of your eggs in one basket,” Shaw said. “(You have to) really work your offense, really work your backchecking and really design your team around that one position to stay competitive. I think that speaks for itself that we did a pretty good job achieving that record.”
Shaw — who works as a building inspector for the city of Lebanon when not at the rink — isn’t ruling out staying involved in hockey. He noted that he has a 3-year-old granddaughter who could very well end up on skates someday.
“My goal was I wanted to do at least 10 years,” Shaw said. “It’s still hard for me. I don’t know if I’m ready to retire or not. I’m going to miss the game. I’m going to miss the girls. I’m going to miss watching the girls take practice to the ice and see them actually make things happen that you worked on in practice.
“Especially this team; their backs have been against the wall for several years now. And to watch the way they come out and fight really hard against your top one, two, three, four teams, even those they’re losing 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-0 sometimes … they’re skating with every team. They just never gave up.”
MVL Hoop Stars: The top two scorers in Upper Valley boys basketball this season, Woodstock’s Harrison Morse and Windsor’s Robbie Slocum, front area representation on the all-Marble Valley League teams.
Morse led the region with an 18.19 points per game average, while Slocum’s 395 points scored (17.95 ppg) topped the region. Both landed on the MVL B Division first team with Hartford’s Shea Bean (13.15 ppg). Windsor’s Owen Abrahamsen (12.74 ppg) earned honorable mention.
On the girls’ side, Hartford’s Kennedy Mullen joined Windsor’s Olivia Rockwood and Adi Prior on the MVL B Division first team. Rockwood creased the 1,000-point mark for her career early in the campaign and ultimately finished second to Lebanon’s Rebecca Wright in Upper Valley scoring by three one-hundredths of a point per game. The Jacks reached the VPA Division III semifinal with Rockwood and Prior leading the way. Mullen was at her best down the stretch, averaging 13.5 ppg over Hartford’s final seven contests.
The Canes’ Jasmine Jenkins and Windsor’s Evelyn Page made the honorable mention roster.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.
Correction
The Lebanon High girls hockey team reached the NHIAA Division I state championship game in 2012, losing to Hanover, 5-1. An earlier version of this story incorrectly recounted the number of times the program has reached the state finals.