Monday, September 1, 2008
By MIKE WILKINSON
NORTHAMPTON -- Longtime Northampton girls basketball coach Tom Parent announced his retirement Sunday, 5 1/2 months after leading the Blue Devils to their first-ever Division 1 state title.
"I told (athletic director) Jim Miller last fall that this would be my last year," said Parent. "It was a great way to go out. i didn't want to announce it because i didn't want to deflect the attention away from the players, who deserved it."
Parent coached the Northampton girls team for 26 years.
READ THE COMPLETE STORY IN MONDAY'S DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
In making phone calls for the fall preview, which is scheduled to be published Sept. 10, I've learned long-time Amherst Regional girls cross country coach Art Keene will retire at the end of the season.
Keene is entering his 16th year as coach of the Hurricanes.
Amherst has won 13 straight Western Massachusetts Division 1 Championships and 14 of the last 15. The team has also won nine of the previous 10 Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference championships. Keene has guided Amherst to six state Division 1 titles, most recently in 2005.
Amherst went 9-0 last year to extend its dual-meet win streak to 85. Since 1988 Amherst has won 245 of its 247 dual-meet races.
Keene said Eric Nazar will replace him as coach.
I will have more on this as the season progresses.
Friday, August 1, 2008
By JIM PIGNATIELLO
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON — Alannah Driscoll-Sbar is still one month from starting her senior year at Northampton High School, but she already knows where she’s going to college.
The Blue Devils girls basketball standout, who helped Northampton to its first state Division 1 title in March, verbally committed to Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, N.J., last weekend.
“I’m very happy,” Driscoll-Sbar said Thursday. “I’ve always wanted to play (Division I). A lot of people told me that I couldn’t do it, so it makes me really proud to accomplish that goal.”
Driscoll-Sbar will play for coach Pete Cinella, who just finished his first year with the Knights. Cinella previously coached Division II American International College in Springfield. His AIC teams reached the NCAA Tournament nine times in 14 years, including the national championship game in 2006.
“I really liked” Cinella, Driscoll-Sbar said. “I had a chance to take an unofficial visit and I liked the campus. I think it’s a good school for me academically.”
Fairleigh-Dickinson went 13-17 last year and 9-9 in the Northeast Conference. Former Central standout center Esther Wallace will play for the Knights as a freshman this year.
“It’s a nice feeling (to have the decision made) because I can talk to the coach about what I have to work on,” Driscoll-Sbar said. “I want to be ready when I get there as a freshman and this gives me more time to prepare.”
Driscoll-Sbar averaged a team-high 14 points during the regular season as a junior for Northampton and increased her production to 16.2 points per game in the postseason. She scored 20 points against Andover in the 50-37 state championship win.
“I’m looking forward to” the high school basketball season, said Driscoll-Sbar, who enters her senior year with 754 career points. “Hopefully we’ll get back to the point where we can repeat” as state champions.
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Ralph Loos helped the Northampton girls basketball team to its first-ever state Division 1 Tournament championship last winter.
Next winter, he hopes to start the process of leading the Frontier Regional program back to the top.
“I definitely felt like (being a head coach) was something I was ready to do and was looking forward to,” said Loos, 39, on Wednesday night.
Loos, the Hamp varsity assistant and junior varsity coach at for the past two seasons, will take over a Red Hawks varsity squad next year that went 1-19 last year and missed the postseason for the first time in the program’s history.
“We are hopeful that he’ll bring some energy to the program,” Frontier athletic director Marty Sanderson said. “His ideas for how to bring the program back meshed with our ideas for how to get the progam going again.”
Loos has already met with the Frontier players and told them he expects to be back in the postseason next year.
“I saw them a few times last year,” Loos said. “To me, if we are not in the tournament, I’m thoroughly disappointed. They are good athletes. At the bare minimun, that is my expectation, to get to the tournament and hopefully make some noise.”
Along with assisting at Northampton under coach Tom Parent, Loos coaches in both AAU and the Bay State Games. Before coaching at Hamp, Loos coached in the Suburban League in Amherst.
After winning the state title last year, “you have to sort of temper your expectations,” he said. “You have to know that it’s not going to be like that every year.
“But it reinforced my philosophy that good defense wins everything. I spent a lot of time picking up stuff from Coach Parent and (the other assistants). I tried to pick their brains as coaches who have seen more than I have. I got a lot out of that.”
Frontier won its first western Mass. girls basketball title in 1972 and has reached the finals 15 times, winning it six times. The last championship came in 2000. The Red Hawks reached their lone state championship game in 1988, where they lost to Cohasset 54-44.
“For me to leave Northampton, it was going to take a really great opportunity. I know the tradition (at Frontier) and I know that brings a lot of expectations.”
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Here are the results for the three WMass title games featuring GazetteLand school:
Baseball
Frontier 15, Smith Academy 6
Softball
Amherst 6, Minnechaug 1
Boys tennis
Longmeadow 5, Northampton 0
Make sure to see Monday's Gazette for complete coverage of the entire weekend.
