LOWELL — For the first time in the state’s history, Massachusetts had two Division 4 girls basketball teams from the Pioneer Valley match up against each other in the MIAA State Championship on Saturday.
South Hadley and Frontier Regional each came into this year’s tournament as some of the top D4 teams in the state, ranked as the number three and number one seeds, respectively. The Tigers came away victorious in the marquee matchup, after splitting the regular season series, winning 49-38.
Both squads cruised to the championship game, winning each tournament contest along the way by double digits. The Redhawks’ championship appearance was their first in 38 years, with the impressive season bringing the community together.
“It’s a huge moment,” Frontier athletic director Glenn Sullivan said. “They’ve worked really hard all year… Last year, we lost in the Round of 16, and you can tell from the minute that game ended that the team was hungry for more.”
South Hadley is familiar with ending its season at the Tsongas Center, playing for a state championship, with this trip being its third opportunity in a row. With losses in back-to-back years, it was intent on this year being the year.
Coming up short multiple years in a row lit a fire under the Tigers, feeding off the energy to finally take the championship trophy home. Most of the roster carried over from previous seasons, with the team’s camaraderie shining through.
“This team has been close twice, just [couldn’t] get over that last little hump,” South Hadley athletic director Eric Castonguay said. “… This group deserves it. These girls are working so hard… We hope they finally get that recognition they deserve.”
Both squads had sizable fan turnouts on Saturday despite playing 90 minutes from either hometown. SAT’s prevented some students from attending, but the friends and family who could make the trip made sure to loudly cheer on their teams.
The Tigers had a group of fans back home watching along live during the game from The Boathouse restaurant in South Hadley, giving the team the added motivation they needed to leave it all out on the court.
“We knew that other people from town really wanted us to win [who] couldn’t make it [Saturday],” Tigers’ junior Cara Dean said. “Just to bring it back to South Hadley, I know everyone’s going to be so excited, and everyone’s going to be cheering, and probably will be at the school when we come back, so it’s going to be very exciting.”
Coming out on top, the Tigers capped off a long season filled with ups and downs. Playing in the Valley League for the first time this year, South Hadley’s schedule was filled with difficult opponents.
Taking on some of Western Mass’s best helped set the Tigers up to play against the state’s best competition at the Division 4 level, competing in a league with one Division 1 team and three Division 2 teams, who all made their respective state tournaments.
“I’m so proud of everybody in Western Mass.,” South Hadley head coach Paul Dubuc said. “I’m mostly proud of [our] 12 girls [and] my coaching staff… The girls buy in. We told them, ‘Go play for each other. Don’t play for us, play for each other. It’s important. It’s huge. We have one team.'”
Western Mass. can be overlooked a lot of times in the state tournaments across all sports, but Frontier and South Hadley coming together to put on this showing proved they belong.
Community support, along with some quality basketball being played on Saturday in Lowell, hopefully helped the rest of the state realize that there’s some quality sports being played out west.
“Yes, it’s about South Hadley and Frontier, but it’s also about Drury still playing right now, the Taconic boys, still playing,” Redhawks head coach David Hastings said. “There’s a bunch of teams in Western Mass. that I think sometimes don’t get the respect they deserve. But here we are in the Division 4 finals with two Western Mass. teams… There’s more talent than people understand in Western Mass.”