History In the Making

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The ’92-’93 team (front, from left): Veronica Jutras, Kendra Bergen, Nicole Keil, Cathy Brennan and Amy Card. Back row: Assistant Coach Jane Weymouth, Jenny Brennan, Christine Jutras, Kristen Carroll, Natalie Jutras, Michelle Jutras and Coach John Reitnauer.

In late December 1992, Conval hosted the second of what was considered one of the premiere girls’ basketball tournaments in New England—the Conval Cougar Holiday Classic. The eight-team holiday tournament featured some of the strongest girls’ programs in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York.

The defending New York Class C state champion Our Lady of Lourdes from Poughkeepsie, which returned nearly all of its (tall!) starters and bench, proved to be too much for the hometown Cougars in the first round, but not without a fight. Coach John Reitnauer’s young team went on to make its presence known by defeating Keene and Manchester Memorial—momentum that propelled Conval to one of its finest regular seasons in history at the time.

The ’92-’93 Cougars, with only one senior on the squad, posted a 16-2 record and advanced to the Class I (D2) final four before falling to Lebanon.


It was an incredible turnaround for the program, which in the 1989-90 season was 0-18 and 3-15 in the ’90-’91 season.


Leading the way were four young Jutras sisters—juniors Michelle and captain Christine, sophomore Natalie, and freshman Veronica. In a foretelling of what was to come, Coach Reitnauer said of Natalie following a win over a strong Milford team, "I haven't seen a kid play so hard for a 5-minute period of a quarter as she did."


In a date with destiny, the core group of this ’92-’93 again faced Lebanon again in the semi-finals of the 1994 state tournament, but this time came away with a pulsating victory that would propel them to the school’s first-ever (and only) girls’ basketball championship, over Souhegan.


With all Jutras sisters playing key roles, it also marked the only time in Conval history (and maybe anywhere in New Hampshire) that four members of the same family were on the court at the same time!


More on this great team later this winter.


#highschoolbasketball

#newhampshire

#believeinfamily

#historymatters

#rollcougs

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