CONVAL HOOP HERITAGE

Members of the 13-1 Hancock High squad of 1951-52 (front, from left): Bud Adams, Dick Quinn and Bob Brooks. Second row: Coach Joe Courteau, Bill Stearns and Al Prime. Back row: Lee McMahon, Ed Dow, Forrest Weston, Gale Hennessey and Bob Kierstead. (Prime and McMahon were from Stoddard .) I n 1954, tiny Milan High School in Indiana shocked the high school basketball world by defeating Muncie Central High School—a school ten times its size—for the Indiana state championship. The stunning victory was the inspiration for the legendary basketball movie “Hoosiers.”  Two years earlier, one can only wonder if tiny Hancock High School would have been the New Hampshire version of that famous movie... Finishing the 1951-52 season with a 13-1 record, and with only about 50 students in the entire school. the Blue Devils earned the third seed in the state Class C (small school) state tournament, held that year in Claremont. Hancock’s only loss was to Troy, with the two teams tied atop the Southern N

O n February 16, 1984, a famous political candidate and the entire Conval student body inspired a guard on the basketball team with a much needed boost, and a night to remember on the court. The Peterborough Transcript takes it from there… Everyone needs to be told that they’re OK, that somebody really likes them, that they’re good at what they do. Everyone needs to hear those sort of uplifting things from both friend and stranger because, regardless of what kind of gumption we’re made of, we all have days—or weeks—when we are down on ourself, on others, on life in general. But no one ever cheers up when someone tells you to. It’s akin to not feeling much better when someone tells you not to be depressed anymore. It takes more than a “cheer up!” order to snap you out of the doldrums. Someone has to tell us we’re somebody special—and mean it. Democratic presidential candidate the Rev. Jesse Jackson, regardless of what you think of his politlcal views, knows how to make folks feel good.

S ixty years ago tonight, December 13, 1963, will live in infamy for Peterborough High basketball —the Hilanders scored in the wrong basket with nine seconds remaining, dropping a heartbreaking 44-43 decision to Appleton Academy of New Ipswich (pre-Mascenic Regional days). As shocking an ending as it was, it was nothing like the urban legend that the story turned out to be, exaggerated over the years like a game of telephone. According to legend, the basket was “credited” to the wrong player, it occurred near the end of the season, and it cost Peterborough High a tournament berth. Let the record show, however, that the player was “aggressive junior forward” Gary Vickery —now a reputable NHIAA basketball official—that the game took place in mid-December, and that PHS had a non-tournament-friendly record of 0-5 (and finished 6-14). Urban legend, though, is more fun! According to published reports, “the wrong-way shot originated from a [confusing] out-of-bounds play under the Appleton ne

Home or away ("here" or "there"), Conval High fans live and die with their team...including Ryan Wilson at right, now a member of the CV varsity. I t was late fall in 1941, and local basketball fans could hardly wait for what might be next... That spring. legendary Peterborough High coach John Clark had led the Green and White to a pulsating state championship over Lebanon . It was the fifth and final state title for Peterborough, which under Clark and others helped make this the mecca of high school basketball in New Hampshire. But in the fall, Clark had moved on to become a teacher at Manchester West High School (he’d be back later to PHS, in a different capacity), and a four-year coach from Danielson, Conn., Earl Leach , had assumed responsibility. “Mr. Leach has had his squad out practicing since the first of the month but, like all newcomers, has had to spend considerable time getting acquainted and making the required adjustments, so he is careful not to say

Janice Engstrom, Shirley Adams, Agnes Smit, and Jo Otis were four of the mainstays of Hancock High’s girls basketball team for 1950-’51 . Y ou forget that tiny, picturesque Hancock once had a high school (located on School Street, at the site of the Conval District grade school). You forget that in the 1940s and early 1950s, Hancock was one of the smallest and most competitive high schools in the state (there were just 13 boys in the entire high school in 1952! See "The Hancock High 'Hoosiers'" ). And you forget that when it came to girls’ basketball, Hancock was queen of the New Hampshire hill—41 wins in a row over three seasons. On December 12, 1950, that unbelievable winning streak came to an end. Four years later, Hancock High closed and joined forces with Peterborough High, and in 1970, the two towns joined seven others in forming Contoocook Valley Regionsl High School. Good to remember that our Conval hoop heritage, both boys and girls, is something worth remem

The Peterborough High 1953-'54 squad, the first to qualify for a state tournament since 1945. Front (l-r): Bernie Cutter, Wayne Crowell, Dave Gavitt, Eddie Wheeler, Ron Bailey and Roy Vezina. Standing: Coach Dick Snow, Dick Cashion, Don Lafontaine, Tony Brown, Bob Brown, Pete Lawrence and manager Bill Andrews. D o you know what LeBron James said?… At the start of the 1954-55 season, there were 41 candidates for the Peterborough High boys’ teams—an astounding number, since there were just 41 members of the senior class! The year before, the Hilanders became the first team in nine years from the school to qualify for the state tournament. Clearly, the memories of being a juggernaut in New Hampshire high school basketball, coupled with the fact that basketball was the only game in town during winter, had stirred interest to record levels. About 70 seasons later, 30-plus boys tried out for basketball this year at Conval High, where the senior class is about five times that number. But

Antrim High's Ed Coughlan, December 1965...more than a force on the court. P erhaps it’s a rural New Hampshire thing, but the nine towns that send students to Conval High—the Contoocook River bending its way around several of them—have long been interconnected. Each town is unique in its own way, and yet there is this sense that when you cross the town line from, say, New Boston to Francestown, you have entered Cougar Country as much as you’ve entered one of its nine towns. Last year’s boys’ basketball starting five, for example, represented five different towns. And when you explore our region’s hoop history, those interconnections keep popping up. In 1964, for example, when Antrim High was alive and well, little would Conval fans realize that Antrim’s long-time basketball coach, Chick Hamel, would one day become CV’s first assistant principal. (See “Paving the Way” ). And one of Chick’s star players in 1964 would one day become a legend in Hancock for many years. “You don’t have