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Rutland Herald Winter Sports Guide 2018-2019
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW
Hoop tales: Boys open the season
By BOB FREDETTE
Staff Writer
F
ew things in Vermont sports gal-
vanize communities and ratchet
up statewide chatter like the high
school basketball season.
There are plenty of interesting stories
in Southern Vermont alone and they
will start to take shape when play begins
Friday night in Fair Haven, where the
Division II champion Slaters launch
their defense against a Springfi eld team
with high hopes.
Rutland High begins its D-I defense
Saturday against visiting Essex.
Otter Valley (D-II) and Poultney
(D-IV), semifi nalists last year, will try to
take that next big step.
Mill River, where one of the most
intriguing stories could be written,
is eager to take the veil off a team
that could be one of the season’s big
surprises.
In Proctor, a key transfer will help the
Phantoms as they try for a fourth D-IV
title in the last fi ve seasons.
One of the most compelling stories
will take place in Ludlow where an
experienced Black River boys team
hopes to write a glorious fi nal chapter
before the school closes its doors at the
end of the year.
Black River
It’s not an election year, but the
Presidents will be running.
Up and down the court, that is.
“We’re still small, so we are focusing
on trying to get a lot of points in
transition and move the ball quick,” said
coach Don Richard.
“I like that I have six or seven seniors
and that they all did some work over
the summer,” he said. “They’ve evolved
in playing the up-tempo game that we
had last year so there’s less teaching this
year.”
ROBERT LAYMAN / STAFF PHOTO
West Rutland’s Kenny Lynch, right, practices with the boys and girls teams at
the West Rutland’s Hinchey Gymnasium.
The Presidents are also excited about
returning to their own fl oor after the
court was damaged and unplayable last
season.
They graduated just one player from a
team that bowed out in the fi rst round of
the Division IV tournament. Now Black
River is looking at taking the next step,
which is to fi nish the close games that
got away last season and be competitive
against everyone they play.
Ryan Boyle, who has great composure
and a high basketball IQ, will run the
show at point guard.
“He’s really evolved,” said Richard.
He’ll be backed up by Alex Kurdzick.
John Mason, a second-team MVL pick
who goes strong to the basket, should
lead Black River in scoring. And Jack
Boyle and Bowen Stark will give the
Presidents more size than they’ve had in
the post for quite a while.
The Black River roster also includes
Zach Paul, Ryan Sheehan, Cyrus Bick-
ford, Aaron Merrill, Calvin Kelley, Adam
Stanley and Josh Lambert, so they’ll have
plenty of legs for the defense that will
fuel much of the scoring.
“That’s going to be our strength,” said
Richard. “We have a lot of speed. We’re
going to try to force things and go, go
go.”
The Presidents will open at Green
Mountain next Saturday.
Run, Presidents, run.
Fair Haven
The makeup of these Slaters sounds a
lot like the 2017-18 version and everyone
knows how that worked out.
Fair Haven returns a lot of inter-
changeable parts and while the offense
looks largely built around Cam Coloutti,
the Slaters have quite a few options.
“How Cameron goes, we go, but we
think we have some kids who can score
and get up and down the fl oor,” said
coach Bob Prenevost. “That’s our biggest
asset, our athleticism.”
The veterans include Coloutti, a
strong player who can go inside or
out, Parker Morse, Andrew Ferarra,
Doug Hendee, Aubrey Ramey and Joe
Gannon, the forward who was promoted
to varsity after last season started and
became a consistent contributor.
Prenevost will use 11 players so depth
will also be a big factor.
The likely starting fi ve will be Coloutti
and Ferrara at guard and Gannon,
Ramey and Morse in the frontcourt.
“I think we can put some kids on
the fl oor that are long and lean and
can pose some defensive problems,”
Prenevost said.
Forward Jake Grenier is back with
the program after a year off and the JV
squad will send four newcomers to the
varsity. They are Kohlby Murray and
Zach Ellis, sophomores who will play a
lot of minutes off the bench, Sam Man-
ley, a junior with the outside shot that
will enable the Slaters to use Coloutti
in the paint more often, and Andrew
Lanthier.
Lanthier and Ramey, juniors who are
building impressive multi-sport resumes,
could be ready for breakout seasons.
The Slaters open at home Friday
against Springfi eld.
Green Mountain
Green Mountain is long, lean, athletic
and experienced, with good size for a
Division III team. What could possibly
hold back the Chieftains?
“It’s always been (a lack of) scoring,”
said coach Brian Rapanotti. “We’ve
struggled making decisions and making
the right play at the right time. That’s
going to be the big thing for this group.
We fi nally have some shooters.”
One of them is Dylan McCarthy, who
is making a good impression as a fresh-
man and will start at off-guard. He can
put the ball on the fl oor and has range
well beyond the 3-point arc, as does Ty
Boys Continued on page 5