HANOVER — Stella Galanes dreams of playing NCAA Division I college basketball. For now, however, the Hanover High junior settles for dominating the ranks of NHIAA Division II.
A diminutive point guard who flashes a winning smile and playful demeanor off the court, Galanes is a stone-cold assassin when the whistle blows. She can score in any number of ways, claws for rebounds and plays tenacious defense.
Ask how tall she is, and Galanes quickly replies 5-foot-7. An opposing coach swears she’s only 5-5, and Hanover coach Dan O’Rourke guesses 5-6. The bottom line: Her height makes no difference whatsoever at the moment because there’s not a team in New Hampshire that’s proven it can stop her once the ball goes up.
“Stella came into the program as an outside shooter, but she’s developed into a multifaceted player who can hurt you in many different ways,” said 21st-year coach O’Rourke, whose team faces Bow at 7 p.m. Sunday at the University of New Hampshire in the D-II state title game.
“She can score in transition, she has an outside game with three-point range, she likes the pull-up jumper and she can finish at the rim. This year, she’s added rebounding and put-back (shots).”
Galanes is averaging 21 points per game, best in Division II, for a second consecutive season. She recently became only the second Hanover player during the past 26 years to surpass 1,000 points in her career and has evolved from a curiosity to one of the best-known players in the state.
Hanover graduated only one starter from last season’s team, which lost narrowly in the semifinals, and is gunning for its first championship since 2019, its second since 2008 and the fifth of O’Rourke’s career.
The team is 20-0 in NHIAA play, its only two losses coming in a New York holiday tournament.
Hanover entered the playoffs with a 65-game winning streak in regular-season play and beat visiting Bow by 22 points in mid-December, a game during which Galanes scored 14 points. Unimpressed? That’s the danger of going up against No. 3, who later dropped 31 points on defending Division I champion Bedford during a victory over the Bulldogs.
Hanover is so balanced, with forward Melissa Whitmore averaging 12 points per game and center Jane Lackley 10, that Galanes doesn’t have to go off every night. If a foe face-guards her, it might be one of a half-dozen teammates who now score a little more often.
Even better, Galanes is poised and her reactions are mature. Being the division’s top scorer brings all sorts of defensive attention. Arms and hands constantly extend and grab. Feet and legs are kicked into her path, and irritated victims sometimes issue nasty comments.
It’s bad enough to be beaten by an opponent, but when Galanes exhausts you by moving nonstop without the ball and is willing to scrap for it on the floor, that’s more than many can quietly bear.
“It started last year, and I was frustrated,” Galanes said. “It made me upset and angry, but this year I’ve just released those emotions. I’ve realized I have to roll into them, and whatever comes, comes. I definitely have confidence, but it’s a more quiet confidence.”
Said O’Rourke: “When she catches the ball in rhythm and has a free mind, she’s a deadly shooter.”
Galanes, an only child, is the daughter of Sharon resident and physician Sari Argillander Galanes and Norwich lawyer Joe Galanes. They were elite athletes during their younger days and are members of the University of Vermont’s athletic hall of fame.
Sari Argillander Galanes was a three-time member of Finland’s national Nordic ski team and won two individual NCAA championships and a team title with the Catamounts, for whom she also competed in cross country and track and field. Agillander Galanes won UVM’s 1989 Wasson Athletic Prize “for maintaining the highest level of achievement, both athletically and academically.”
Joe Galanes earned the same award a year later. The Brattleboro, Vt., native competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics and helped the Catamounts win back-to-back national Nordic ski championships, earning All-American honors in the process.
“I’ve been surrounded by really hard workers and lifelong learners my whole life,” Stella Galanes said. “I’m a competitive person, and I want to put myself 100% into whatever it is I’m doing.”
Galanes started out playing soccer and tried to quit basketball after her first practice, in third grade. Three years later, she was the point guard on a boys team guided by legendary Norwich elementary school teacher and recreational coach John Girard.
She and her father spent hours on the concrete court at Norwich’s Marion Cross School, not leaving until the girl could drain four consecutive shots from long range.
“It led to a lot of frustration and staying for way more hours than we meant to spend,” said Galanes, who imposed the exit rule on herself. “What drew me to basketball was seeing myself get better.”
O’Rourke said Galanes’ constant dribbling away outside of official practices and games has made her one of the few players he’s coached who can create a shot in almost any situation. The guard’s quickness is a key component, but she can also take the ball through traffic in ways that cause most players to fumble the rock.
“She’s worked on that skill nonstop since she was a kid, and it shows,” O’Rourke said.
Hanover’s Whitmore, who has committed to play at NCAA Division II Stonehill (Mass.) College next season, said Galanes’ work ethic and humility drives and inspires her teammates.
“She’s such a hard worker, and I thank her for that,” said Whitmore, who has pulled down more than 1,000 rebounds in her high school career.
“It helps everybody else get hyped and ready, and we all play better when Stella’s on the floor. She scores all those points and she doesn’t say anything about it.”
Galanes rose from recreation ball to the Hanover Heat, an AAU program O’Rourke runs with a developmental mindset and little regard for game scores. She now plays for the Nashua-based New England Crusaders, traveling widely and receiving the exposure necessary to feed her Division I college dream. AAU basketball, with its faster pace and stronger opposition, brought out the best in Galanes, who accelerated her drive to improve.
The obvious roadblock is height, but it’s hard to imagine some coach somewhere won’t see her effort and skills and at least take a walk-on flyer on a kid from rural New England.
Galanes said she’s targeting the Patriot League, which includes universities such as Colgate, Lehigh, American and Holy Cross.
“My height is the one thing I can’t control, and I know it’s going to make my recruiting niche a little smaller,” Galanes said.
“I can get stronger and faster, but not taller. But I’m not really concerned. You look at any (college) roster, and you have girls who are 5-7 or 5-8.”
Hanover’s a prohibitive favorite to win Sunday night’s championship game and if it does, it won’t be a celebration of a Galanes-led team. It will be the coronation of a group of deeply bonded young women, many of whom have shared the court for nearly a decade.
“Up and down the roster, we have kids who can be the difference-maker,” Galanes said. “You’re going to be hard-pressed to find another team in the state that moves the ball as well as we do, and that’s been many, many years in the making.
“This the best we’ve ever played together.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.