CONVAL HOOP HERITAGE

Conval seniors Jamie Wasserloos (31) and Kevin Proctor (42)—oh hey, we know that guy!—applied a smothering defense on Monadnock during the 1994-’95 season. This was the  “golden era” for New Hampshire high school basketball, which boasted numerous outstanding teams, and players who have become legends of the game. It was also a golden time for Conval High, which the year previously had won the Class I (D2) championship and was a finalist the previous two seasons. The ’94-’95 team almost reached the finals, too. Third-ranked at 16-2, the Cougars, led by 1,000 point scorer Jaime LeFlem , battled back from a 16 point deficit against top-ranked Oyster River in the semi-finals, holding a slim 58=57 lead with 15 seconds left. But another legend of the game, Keith Friel, hit a 15-footer with four seconds left for a pulsating Oyster River 59-58 win. The Bobcats went on to win the title in 1995. What a game, what a season, what an era!

Key to a shocking 1974 quarter-final win over Lebanon was Ray Abbott's (25) work on Raider big man Doug Murphy (21). Photo: Ernie Hebert, Keene Sentinel O ur Conval Hoop Heritage has had more than its share of highs and lows come tournament time, but in the history of the Regional, few tournament games will ever match the 50th anniversary drama of the 1974 Class I (D2) quarter-finals against Lebanon.   The 1973-’74 Cougars, coming off a 12-8 season in which the returning players felt “never gelled,” was loaded with speedy, athletic, good shooting veterans: Ray Abbott, John “JD” Davies, John Cuddihee, Ed Lennon, Paul Krulis, Joe Reilly, Mike Crowe and Marshall White . But small—very small. Among the starters, senior Ray Abbott was the tallest of the bunch at 6’2” and sharp-shooter John Davies was next at an even six feet. Newcomers to the team were Ted Davies, Mark Sizemore, Peter Jennson and Doug Smith . The task ahead against a brutal Class I schedule seemed formidable, but Coa...

Adam Adkins (left) and CJ Sullivan celebrate Cougars' stunning upset over Pembroke in 1989. A college basketball commentator said recently that the most dangerous team come tournament time is not the one with the best record but the one that is on fire.   The 35th anniversary of the Conval Cougars basketball team and their unlikely pursuit of   the Class I (D2) championship fit that description… and was the stuff of which makes basketball fans’ blood boil with excitement and wonder. Coach Frank Davidson ’s Cougars began the 1988-’89 season in relative obscurity, playing close to .500 ball in a gym that was half closed. Unbeaten Merrimack Valley with eventual New Hampshire basketball standout Scott Drapeau , and highly-ranked Pembroke with shooting sensation Matt Alosa , had captured everyone’s attention and were early season favorites to meet for the Class I title in three months. But a Christmas tournament at Bishop Guertin High in Nashua suddenly changed that focus. “Who is...

Steve Phelps and Conval fans celebrate 1984 state tournament quarter-final victory against Laconia. I n a game for the ages , the 1983-’84 Cougars (15-5) found themselves matched up with unbeaten Somersworth (20-0) in the state tournament final four. It was a tense game from the start before a packed house in Durham, and though their lead was a mere point in the final seconds, the Hilltoppers hung on for a 61-55 victory. But it was what happened afterwards that was the story within the story... On the near side of Lundhom gym, hundreds of proud CV followers rose to their feet and gave their team a standing ovation—appreciation not only for the season, but for the heart-stirring effort against the Class I (D2) eventual champions. But at the same time, the applause was directed at Somersworth. It was, you see, a fan’s ultimate game—great, intense sportsmanlike play by both teams. The kind of game where a fan doesn’t get irritated when the other team wins. Meanwhile, on the other side of ...

1927-28 Peterborough High School squad began a string that may never be duplicated…Front from left: Joseph Emery, Assistant Coach Philander Mann, Harold “Jim” Clinton, Lawrence Carll, Coach Gordon L. Fox, Warren Smith. Back row from left: Lester Smith, Merrill Dole, Paul Myhaver, Robert Paquet, Wallace Flood, Arthur Smith, Harry Brenner. W e’ve run this photo before, but its message is more timely than ever. Because the destiny of this Conval hoop heritage team had Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots written all over it—a legend that began 95 seasons ago, and not on an NFL football field but on small town basketball courts… On February 19, 1928, the Peterborough High boys scored what the local paper described as: “Probably the greatest victory in the history of basketball at the local school”   when it went on the road and won 18-15 over Keene High. “It was undoubtedly the best game of basketball that has been seen on the Keene floor this year, and was attended by the la...

The game after the first loss of the season, Jaime LeFlem scored 24 points as the Cougars rallied past Pembroke, February 1994. C an you imagine? S o many fans in Lebanon wanted to see the late season 1993-94 game between once-beaten Lebanon and unbeaten Conval that 300 fans were turned away! Down nine in the first quarter of a pulsating, tournament-like game, Conval rallied to lead 41-38 heading into the final frame. However, foul trouble combined with foul shot accuracy—Lebanon tallied 25 points from the charity stripe!—drove the host Raiders to a 75-66 win. But it was the next game that was the stuff of which winners are made. Conval fought off highly-regarded Pembroke and legendary coach Ed Close’s valiant attempt to put them to sleep and make them think about their only loss. Pembroke worked a successful slow-down, with CV up only 20-18 at the half. What eventually did in the Spartans’ strategy, though, were two familiar weapons: the continual wave of quality Cougar players insert...

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 Southe...

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 ...