Claremont
While no one person can win a championship, there is no doubt that the 33 goals that Noah Spaulding scored for the soccer team and Henri Bourque’s 20 touchdown passes for the football team were huge contributing factors. And with both athletes having high school eligibility remaining, there was reason to believe that perhaps more championship runs were in the future.
If so, it will be without Spaulding or Bourque taking part. They will be enrolling in private schools this fall, Spaudling up the road at Kimball Union Academy and Bourque to the south at Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts.
While Bourque and Spaulding are three-sport athletes, both are taking to next step to improve their chances to play in a Division I college atmosphere in their favorite endeavors — Bourque in football and Spaulding in soccer.
Both young men had been rumored to be on the move for a year or more, particularly after the successes piled up. Each athlete, when they start classes in the fall, will repeat the grade they are in now — Bourque will be a sophomore once more and Spaulding a junior.
The decision for both was not an easy one, but the fact that it has been done with the support of their teammates and coaches is expected to make the transaction easier.
“I will miss having both Henri and Noah here at Stevens and on my teams, but I understand they are talented young men, both on the field and in the classroom,” said Paul Silva, who has coached Spaulding in baseball and Bourque in football and baseball. “Ultimately, we as coaches want to see our players go and play at the next level. I will support their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future.”
Spaulding said that leaving his friends was a difficult decision, but he knows if he’s going to be playing serious college soccer, he had to make a move.
“Leaving everybody I grew up with will be a difficult thing,” he said. “But if I’m going to get the exposure and some scholarship help, I need to do this.”
Spaulding added that he has been told by KUA boys soccer coach Mike Doherty that if he maintains a 3.0 GPA and plays good soccer, he thinks he would have a good chance to get scholarship help at the University of New Hampshire.
“It’s a small investment,” said Spaulding, who would someday like to get a masters degree in business administration.
Stevens boys soccer coach Jason Stone admitted to reservations about Spaulding’s size (5-foot-7, 140 pounds). Stone said he isn’t sure this is the right move for Spaulding, even though he is a two-time all-state player who received consideration when Stone nominated him for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s All-America team.
“I go back and forth on this,” said Stone, who was the NHIAA Division III boys soccer coach of the year. “I think he’s really a special kid. I don’t know how he processes the things he does from his brain to his feet. He just does things other kids can’t do. Still, I hope he’s not putting all his eggs in the wrong basket.”
Spaulding is aware that his size could be a factor as he moves along. Even in high school, he sometimes took a beating.
“Especially from schools like Conant that do not have a football program, they really roughed me up,” he said. “Still, I’ve accomplished all I can here. … It’s time to take on a new challenge.”
Stone also said that without Spaulding, the Cardinals’ chances for another title run are diminished.
“I haven’t addressed this with the team yet,” Stone said. “Hopefully, they will rally and want to show they can still win it without him.”
Both Spaulding and Bourque are going to schools with hefty price tags, and both have arrangements that have lessened the financial budren.
Bourque also had the opportunity to go Connecticut’s Hotchkiss School, which his brother is attending.
“Williston was a better fit for me academically,” said Bourque, who wants to be some type of engineer after college.
While both athletes felt remorseful about moving on, it appears the switch is definitely gnawing at Bourque.
“I’ve built up a nice relationship, and the kids are definitely trying to change my mind,” said Bourque, whose 2,010 passing yards and 20 TDs last season were school records. “Football is a big deal at Williston, and I will get to play in a level higher than Stevens. This was a very hard decision.”
Students leaving public schools to better themselves academically and athletically is not new. It hadn’t been a factor at Stevens until several years ago, when St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass., drew Kaleb Tarczewski and Concord’s St. Paul’s School attracted Kevin O’Connor. Both had played on a Stevens basketball team that had lost in the NHIAA Division III semifinal.
Tarczewski and O’Connor certainly enriched their lives by moving on. The 7-foot Tarczewski went on to start a record 114 games for the University of Arizona men’s basketball team and is currently playing professionally in Italy. O’Connor went on to tremendous national success in the sport of crew, where he rowed on the United States national team.
The common bond here is that Spaulding and Bourque, like Tarczewski and O’Connor, are not only gifted athletes but academically blessed as well, Bourque with a 3.80 GPA and Spaulding at 3.60.
As difficult as it may be to lose both, Stevens coaches who have worked with Bourque and Spaulding understand their motivations.
“What we have here,” Silva said, “is the true definition of student-athletes.”