Rebecca Wright is taking another New Hampshire Basketball Coaches Organization player of the year award with her to college. And this time, she has some Upper Valley company on the hardware front.
Wright, the Lebanon High senior who broke the school’s all-time career scoring record and guided the Raiders to the NHIAA Division II state final, earned her third straight girls player of the year honor from the NHBCO recently. In addition to recognizing Wright again, the state’s coaches association bestowed D-II boys top player honors upon Hanover High senior Charlie Adams.
A four-year first-team all-stater, Wright continued to improve and vary her skills this winter, her last with the Raiders before she enters Southern New Hampshire University this fall. The lanky senior led the Upper Valley in scoring at 22.7 points per game, capped by a 32-point outing in last week’s come-from-behind 60-56 NHIAA Division II semifinal win over Hanover. The output was the second-most in a single game for her career.
“I think this is the first time in our division that there’s ever been a winner three years in a row,” Lebanon coach Tim Kehoe noted. “That’s pretty incredible. …
“She’s improved every single year; that’s helped her game out every year. She’s bigger and stronger. Her defense is a lot better. This year, she averaged over four blocks per game, and she’s improved her scoring every single year. She’s a special kid.”
Given all the skills she possesses, Wright is likely to play what Kehoe calls a “stretch 4” with the Penmen. That calls for someone who can play inside but also step out to the perimeter for 3-pointers.
“It’s a good fit,” Kehoe said of Wright, who leaves Lebanon holding the school’s all-time scoring record — boys and girls — of 1,795 points. “They run a lot of four-out and five-out motion, and she’ll be suited for that kind of offense.”
Adams’ future lies on the soccer field, having committed to Brown University some time ago and having earned All-American honors after guiding the Marauders to the NHIAA Division I championship last November. But Adams has also proved to be a dynamic presence for Hanover boys basketball coach Tim Winslow.
As a point guard, Adams made sure of utilizing scorers Hank Pikus, Nolan Gantrish and Jai White on a nightly basis. But the senior was also capable of carrying the scoring load when required, as exhibited by his season-best 38 points in an 82-70 defeat of Kingswood on Jan. 3, part of the Marauders’ season-opening 15-game winning streak.
“When we were talking about our kids (at the postseason coaches’ meeting) and presenting them to the rest of the coaches, they’ve known about him for a long time,” Winslow said. “They know that … when you try to stop him, he still can make the others around him look good. I remember talking to the Manchester West coach, and he said, ‘We knew we had to stop him, and he still scored (32) against us.
“He’s just a challenge to coach again. He also kind of makes everybody else better. When you think you can forget about him, he goes off for two or three minutes and has a run.”
Hanover senior Maddie McCorkle also earned an award, named D-II’s defensive player of the year. The Marauders’ top scorer at 14.5 points per game, McCorkle led a Hanover defense that averaged fewer than 40 points allowed per start; the Marauders were undefeated in NHIAA D-II play until their semifinal loss to Lebanon.
McCorkle and Wright made the all-state first team for girls, as did Adams for the boys. The Upper Valley’s other NHBCO selections:
D-II girls: Second team — Sally Rainey, Lebanon; honorable mention — Willa Parkins, Stella Galanes and Melissa Whitmore, Hanover; Sydney Miller, Stevens.
D-III girls: Honorable mention — Michaela Dowd, Mascoma.
D-II boys: First team — Jon Willeman, Lebanon; honorable mention — Caleb Smith, Lebanon; Jai White and Nolan Gantrish, Hanover.
D-III boys: Second team — Ben Seiler, Mascoma; subvarsity coach of the year — Denver Greene, Mascoma
Puck plaudits: Both Lebanon High hockey teams joined the Hanover girls in placing players on the New Hampshire all-state team earlier this week.
The Marauders put junior juniors Sage McGinley-Smith and Natalie Morhun on the girls roster, with McGinley-Smith on the first team and Morhun on the second. The Raiders’ Marissa Pickman, a senior who attends Kearsarge High, also made the second team. McGinley-Smith led all Upper Valley girls hockey scorers with 26 goals and 19 assists, Morhun was among the top blueliners in points (13-8-21) and Pickman (24-11-35) posted strong numbers for a third straight year while leading the Raiders to the state tournament.
On the boys side, Lebanon’s Jon Cloud and Toby Cromwell both earned Division II honorable mentions. A captain, Cloud had an Upper Valley-best 32 points (15-17) and led the Raiders to a 4-2-1 finish to the regular season to clinch a D-II tourney invitation. Cromwell, a sophomore netminder, solidified the Raiders’ goal and posted four shutouts, including a 5-0 blanking of top-ranked Keene to close the regular season and secure a playoff spot.
Matitude: Newport High’s Josh Sharron became the first athlete in program history to twice place at the New England Wrestling Championship when he claimed third in the 138-pound weight class at Methuen (Mass.) High School on March 8-9.
The opening day saw Sharron earn a 6-4 win over Simsbury, Conn.’s John Malrano before Massachusetts competitor Mike Glynn knocked Sharron to the consolation bracket with a 5-3 decision. Over the next day and a half, Sharron won six straight matches — three of them by fall — to claim third in the division. He capped off his New England run with a 6-4 defeat of Mount Anthony’s Keegan Coon.
Sharron was sixth in the 132-pound division New Englands last year.
Notes: Mascoma High has stopped advertising for its first varsity girls soccer coach and will soon begin the interview process, athletic director Rodney Brown indicated in an email this week. The Royals are hoping to field their first varsity team this fall after having girls play on the boys varsity for years. … The Penn Relays canceled their April 23-25 meet earlier this week, with organizers saying they hope to run a pared-down event for youth, high school and open runners in late May or early June. Newport High coach P.J. Lovely had hoped to bring the quartet of Darshawn Chesser, Jagger Lovely, Ryder Lovely and Mason Martell along with teammate Sean Moody to compete in a pair of high school relays at Franklin Field.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.