WOODSTOCK — Steve Landon has the Woodstock High boys basketball job, he just won’t be coaching the team this winter.
Landon accepted the position this fall after Tom Avellino left his role as the boys soccer and basketball coach weeks before the start of the school year.
But days after Landon accepted, Jason Johnson resigned as coach of the Wasps’ girls basketball squad. Last season, Landon stepped in as the interim coach so Johnson could take the year off due to a family matter.
Realizing they needed a new girls hoop coach, the Woodstock administration reached out to Landon with a new plan. He will stay with the girls squad this winter, and Jason Tarleton will coach the boys team in the interim.
Tarleton is the boys baseball coach at Woodstock and served as Landon’s junior varsity coach with the girls last winter.
Next year, Woodstock will have a new girls coach in place and Landon will take over the job he previously accepted.
“We’re going to try and get creative with our practices this year so the varsity teams can practice back-to-back, and I can be involved with both,” Landon said Monday. “For those girls, we didn’t graduate anybody last year and the girls coming up are promising, so happy to be back with them.
“If we don’t have game conflicts, I’ll be at boys games. But for this year, my first commitment, if they play on the same night, is the girls team.”
Before joining Woodstock athletics last year, Landon was at Hartford the previous seven seasons coaching the boys team. Before that he coached the Hurricanes’ girls squad for six years, which included a 2012 state title.
The Woodstock girls team finished 1-18 last season, while the boys were 2-18.
Landon said he’s not quite sure what this season will look like. He knows masks will be worn at all times, and he’s planning to make an effort at practice to space out players.
On Tuesday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott halted all winter sports “until further notice.” Teams were going to be allowed to practice Nov. 30, but that has been pushed back. A Jan. 11 start date for competition is still on, but that can change depending if or when practices begin.
Windsor’s Jody Wood was named Southern Vermont League B Division co-coach of the year, which is voted on by her peers. In her fourth season at Windsor, Wood has compiled a 42-10-2 record and led the program to its second consecutive VPA Division III state title this fall. The championship is the Yellowjackets’ eighth overall.
“It’s all about the commitment, dedication and hard work of the players,” said Wood, who has won the award each year she has coached. “It really takes a lot of passion and a love for the game from everyone to make a program what it is. I surround myself with knowledgeable assistant coaches, too.”
Yellowjackets Glenna Ricard, Peyton Richardson, Alyssa Slocum and Hannah Wood were also named to the SVL all-league team.
The rest of the Upper Valley crew chosen all-SVL:
A Divison: Hartford’s Zoe Pfieffer.
B Division: Woodstock’s Lily Gubbins, Lili Sorrentino, Anna Steele and Lilia McCullough.
Check out who represented the Upper Valley on all-state selections:
Division II boys: Hartford’s Ian O’Brien and Woodstock’s Taylor Plourde.
Division IV boys: Rivendell Owen Mansur and A.J. DeBois; Sharon’s Erik Younce and Riley Eastman; White River Valley’s Carder Stratton and Jacob Barry.
Division II girls: Hartford’s Katie Blood.
Division III girls: Thetford’s Madi Powers and Emma Berard; Windsor’s Elliot Rupp and Evelyn Page; White River Valley’s Blake Southworth.
Division IV girls: Rivendell’s Cora Day and Kylie Taylor; Sharon’s Lydia Eastman and Abigail Gross.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.