CONVAL HOOP HERITAGE

Valli (Kaufhold) Hannings (CV ’80) and John Szep (CV ’84) have seen a lot of basketball at Conval over the years while serving as official timer and scorekeeper. Like more than 30 years of home games... In fact, the Cougar alums may be the most seasoned and experienced scoring table duo in the state. Both of them are soccer nuts, with Valli starring for the Cougars in the late ‘70s and then coaching girls’ soccer at Conval and the middle school. John, meanwhile, coached soccer with Valli for many years, and most recently has been the boys’ soccer assistant coach. So how did the two soccer lovers become basketball scorekeepers?  In the offseason, “I began learning from the best, Ron Crowe , in the early ‘80s,” says Val. “I also remember when the scorer’s table was on the other side of gym, and there was this gap between the bleachers.” Val says she kept one eye on Ron and the clock, and a motherly eye on the players waiting to check in, making sure they didn’t disturb her infant ...

T he 1967-68 Peterborough High girls not only finished with an outstanding 13-1 record, they handed Nashua High its first loss in five years, 35-26. Wow! The Hilanders’ only loss was a squeaker to Nashua, 25-24.  Standing (back row, l-r): Coach Sharon Derby, Sherry Carbee, Becky Morgan, Mary Ann Cuddihee, Joyce Tilton and Joyce Jarest . Front row: Jane Stevens, Janie Hayes, Janet Newton, Kathy Descher, Wendy Peters and Wendy Carney.

Y ou’d never know the home team was still searching for its first win Friday night... There was a big crowd. The student section was there in force as usual. The cheerleaders were yelling and imploring the team from the get-go. Ryan Close (pictured at an earlier game) was his usual on fire self. But while two starters were injured and in street clothes, the kids on the bench—mostly freshmen and sophomores, and junior Ryan Wilson —were called upon to fill the gap. And did they ever. The bench chanted “de-fense!” and players scrapped and clawed for loose balls. And even when the game became out of reach, there were never any signs of dejection or “we give up.” Good to know that the long-standing pride of Conval Nation was in full force. And while we can’t help but think of all those winning teams of the past, Someday, we know we’ll see that first W (boys and girls) go into the books like a championship. Until then, keep doing what you did tonight…never give up!

I n the 1963-’64 season, the Peterborough High girls basketball team quietly compiled its second straight 7-2 season. A remarkable achievement that was so quiet, unlike today, hardly anyone noticed. Coach Barbara Rowe felt her team was “entitled to at least an athletic energy” for the performance. Yet, as the Peterborough Transcript reported, “the girls play to minuscule audiences, and have none of the fanfare, publicity or public attention that go to other sports and activities. There are no dramatic reverberations when the team takes off quietly for the away games, or when it is playing at home.” What happened? Unlike today, girls’ basketball up until 1970 hardly resembled the fast-paced five-on-five style exhibited by the boys. The girls’ game was six-on-six, with three forwards who could score on one half of the court while three defensive guards stayed on their own half of the court until the opposition crossed it. One player for each team was considered a rover and could travel...

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...

Fifty-three years ago, Conval High opened its doors for the first time, with two Antrim boys (Neal Wiggin and Chick Hamel) leading the way and the lead editorial in the Peterborough Transcript trumpeting the news. I t may seem strange that a high school basketball history blog should start with this: the story of the first day in Conval High's history, August 27, 1970. But in that first year alone, the local newspaper was alarmed that there was a drug problem, a few students in an anti-Vietnam War era refused to stand for the national anthem, and hundreds of orphaned seventh and eighth graders squeezed into the new high school when their school burned down on Christmas morning. Stress and strain were everywhere. But then, there was basketball! Amidst the chaos came a rallying cry for a student body and the community. In 1970, there was no hockey or wrestling or gymnastics to compete for attention. Only skiing (more a participant-oriented sport) and popular and excellent cheerleadin...

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!…

  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-...

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...

At left, the 1993 Conval boys' team holds its breath as Jaime LeFlem steps to the line to tie the Class I finals at the end of regulation. At right, Madi Hatt of this year's Cougar girls' team concentrates on her free throws. E veryone likes the thrill of the “three” but hoop history has shown that teams and players who make their free throws in the heat of a close game or playoff atmosphere can make the difference in helping their team either move on or make an earlier than expected exit. In the earliest days of basketball, foul shots were considered so valuable that a “specialist” was allowed to come off the bench and go to the line. (That’s crazy!) The NHIAA demonstrated its belief in the power of the free throw by holding a state tournament contest from 1949 through 1971. Among the winners was a certain pro baseball prospect from Charlestown High School named Carlton Fisk !   Making clutch free throws with hundreds and even thousands of fans screaming in your ear has a...

The 1983-’84 Cougar boys (front, from left): Dan Perullo, Craig Geikie, Mike Farhm, Shawn Kelley, Roger Wakeman and Steve Phelps. Back row: Steve Schlim, Chris Boothby, Dan LaFleur, Todd Burgess, Rich Clarke, Mark Manha, Gerald Kelley and Coach Art Giovannangeli.  Missing from photo: Mike Demers. F ebruary 1984 was quite a month in Conval High sports history —the birth pangs for JV and varsity football, a state championship for another winter team, an historic season for girls’ basketball, and an outstanding boys’ basketball team that got further inspiration from a presidential candidate. The first tremors of a JV and varsity football program were felt when 70 percent of students at the high school and middle schools said they were in favor of a special warrant article to get things started. While voters at the time disagreed, the seeds had been planted for the inevitable and the popular sport that it has become at the school and in the communities today. Meanwhile, the boys’ and g...