CONVAL HOOP HERITAGE

T he Conval Hoop Heritage project has been an absolute blast, and we (coach and historian Dick Ellingwood ’75 at left and bball stats guy and writer Steve Smith ’72 at right) want to give a huge shoutout to the Monadnock Center for History and Culture — and especially Executive Director Michelle Stahl ’85. Michelle and the Center staff have given us great access to a treasure trove of historic photos, documents and old newspapers that have been instrumental in telling CV’s 100-year hoop heritage story. We couldn’t have done any of it without them. And the thing is, there’s so much more to explore and many more stories to tell!…

The 1993-'94 state champs, after knocking off Lebanon in the finals. One week and a day after cheering on the girls’ basketball team in their amazing 1993-’94 championship run, it was the boys’ turn to pursue an elusive title. Many in Conval Nation wondered out loud about the possibility of both Cougar teams reigning as state champs. Tied with Lebanon for the best record in Class I (D2) at 17-1, the prospects of an impossible dream basketball monopoly couldn’t be ignored. But there would be no overconfidence with this bunch of warriors as they faced an incredibly painful tournament history and a cruel fate to one of its key players… T o fully appreciate the Conval boys’ second state championship in school history in March of 1994, you have to go back to a year earlier... ...And the year before that. And even five seasons earlier in 1989. Each year, the Cougars made it to the championship game as favorites. Each year, they bolted to early leads and looked every bit the part of cham

  History made!  Front page of the March 10, 1994 Peterborough Transcript celebrates Conval High's first and only girls' basketball state champs. “Cougars cruise to semi-finals.” Twenty-nine years ago today, this was the headline in the Peterborough Transcript. It marked the beginning of the two greatest-ever runs to the ‘ship in the history of Conval High. And it was an unforgettable girls’ team that got the ball rolling...  T he story of the 1993-’94 state champion Conval girls’ basketball team —the only one in history to have won the ‘ship—may have reached fever pitch in the first week of March, but to truly appreciate how it all came about, you have to go back several years earlier. You have to go back to the fact that it wasn’t until 1984—14 seasons since the Regional opened—when a Conval girls’ team even qualified for the state tournament. You have to go back to just five years before that historic run, when the Cougars were 0-18 in 1989-’90. And just 3-15 in 1990-’91. B

W e took a lot of photos at last night’s tournament game, just to have them in the Heritage archive. But none of them told the story that matters. Except for one. This one, which we took by accident. To us, it says: Whether you win a championship or lose in an earlier round (or don’t even make the tournament), every year, the season comes to an end too quickly, too suddenly. Win or lose, you crave for one more shot, one more drive to the hole, one more chance to be better than you were last time…one more time to shout and experience as community nothing-like-basketball’s extreme highs and lows, unfair near-misses, and exhilarating buzzer-beaters—all within 32 fleeting minutes. Until you remember that while every season is too short, the beauty of the game is that we can’t-hardly-wait ’til next season. And it says: When the shots go in, and even when they don’t, the ball is heading in the same direction—to the floor where there is always the promise of bounce-back... Basketball can hurt

E ven the Cougar has a hoop heritage! … There was a sometimes mellow but loyal kitty of 1972-’73 (top left), and then there was an energetic floppy-eared pig pile coug of 1974-’75 (top right), followed by a tall, dark and handsome (and very friendly) cat of 1988-’89 (bottom left)… And of course, the most ferocious-looking, push-up fanatic and super-hyped Cougar of them all! (Pretty good dance moves, too.) The Cave has definitely done itself proud over the years!