Felt to Play in National LAX Event

Lexy Felt, a current 11th grader at Brewster Academy has been named as a 2013 Brine National High School All-American and has been selected to represent New England at the 2013 Brine National Lacrosse Classic to be held in Boyds, Maryland June 30-July 3, 2013. Felt attended Memorial High in Manchester before transferring to Brewster.

The Brine National Lacrosse Classic brings the top high school lacrosse players in the country to one venue, where regional teams will compete to become the 2013 National Champion.

For additional details, visit http://www.nationallacrosseclassic.com

Alosa to Coach at Carnegie Mellon

In just two years Annie Alosa turned the Salem High girls basketball program around, and for that she is being rewarded.

"Some new opportunities were presented to me post-season" Alosa told the NH Notebook. "I was offered an opportunity to get back into college coaching. After much deliberation I took a full-time assistant coaching position at Carnegie Mellon University in PA."

Salem was a struggling program when Alosa took over two years ago. Plus they were losing all of the Windham kids who got their own high school (the Windham girls have gone to the Final Four the last two years). Still, Alosa has managed to turn the program around in just two years. This past winter the Blue Devils had their best season in years, going 11-7 in the regular season and advancing to the D-I quarterfinals. They did all of that with just 3 seniors on the roster.

Alosa leaves the team in very good shape, as they return a strong junior class led by Brenna Blakslee, Emily Hickey and Amanda Bickford.

Alosa also coached with the NE Crusaders AAU program, and prior to Salem she coached at UMass Lowell and Adelphi in Long Island. She is a Concord native who played in high school at Trinity where she won a state title in 2005 and in college at Plymouth St.

"Isincerely wish the best for the girls and the program at Salem but truly believe they are in the right direction and will have a great year no matter what" Alosa said.

In addition to Alosa, other coaches who have gone from coaching NHIAA girls basketball to the college ranks in the past couple years are Kevin Gibbs (from Bishop Guertin to NHTI) and Rob Bennett (from Kearsarge to Keene State).

Knighton Transfers to Holderness

Often times athletes from the northern parts of New Hampshire fly under the radar and don't get as much recognition as they deserve - Chad Knighton from Lisbon High is definitely one of them. Two years ago as a freshman he was the starting point guard for a Lisbon team that won the Division IV championship, and this past winter as a junior he led the team to another title and was a first team all-state selection. Holderness is a prep school that competes in the NEPSAC. With his transfer, Knighton reclassifies to the Class of 2015.

"Leaving Lisbon was probably one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make" Knighton told the NH Notebook. "I love the coaches, teammates, fans, and community. I was very close with my former basketball coach. Les Poore has been a second father my whole life and we had a long talk one gym class. We both thought that this was the best decision for me."

Pelletier to do Post-Grad Year at Bridgton

One of New Hampshire's top multi-sport athletes it has had in recent years will get an extra year to make his college choice, as Troy Pelletier will be doing a post-graduate year at Bridgton Academy in 2013-2014. Pelletier will play both football and basketball at Bridgton, and reclassify to the Class of 2014.

"I wanted another a year to grow academically and athletically" Pelletier told the NH Notebook. "I wanted another year to improve my grades, study habits and SAT's. I also want to get bigger, faster and stronger."

Bridgton is located in Maine and is a post-grad only school. While Pelletier will play both sports there and was a first team all-state selection in both, he has now decided which one he's looking to play in college.

"I've been recruited more for football" Pelletier explained. "I told many basketball schools I am interested in playing football, and I do not plan on playing both in college. The schools want me to play wide receiver. I am mostly talking to UNH, UMaine, Lehigh, URI, Assumption, and Stonehill."

Pelletier is one of the regions's top WR prospects for the Class of 2014. He is 6-foot-3, has good speed, runs good routes, has good toughness and good hands. As Pelletier gets ready to graduate from Manchester Central High, he thinks back to his fondest memories from High School.

"Beating Trinity in double-OT in the semis junior year" said Pelletier. "Also beating Salem in the qtr finals, that went to triple-OT."

Three in a Row for GS Lady Spartans

The Granite State Lady Spartans 9th grade girls basketball team came out on top (4-0) in this year's Division I NH AAU State Tournament. The Spartans beat the Seacoast Spartans and New England Flames in pool play which ranked them #1 for tournament play. They defeated the Granite State Rockettes in the semifinals and the win awarded them a trip to the finals where they defeated the NH Elite. The Lady Spartans play a brand of basketball that includes teamwork and trust in each other as the girls put the success of the team first.

This is the team's third consecutive New Hampshire AAU Division I state title and the team has been 14-0 over three years of competing in the New Hampshire State Tournament in the 7th, 8th and 9th grade divisions.

Devin and Madison Springfield Headed to Marianapolis

The trend of top NH basketball talent going off to prep school is no secret. However the transition from high school to prep school is definitely an easier one if you have a sibling going with you. That is the case for the Springfields, as both Devin and Madison will be attending Marianapolis Prep in the fall. Devin will be doing a post-graduate year and be playing basketball and baseball (reclassifies to Class of 2014), while Madison will be a sophomore and will play basketball and softball (remains in Class of 2016).

The Springfield family is synonymous with NH basketball. Devin, older sister Brooke and their father David all scored 1,000 points at Conant High. Madison would have like scored 1,000 points if she stayed at Conant, as she scored a whopping 485 points as a freshman this winter. David went on to play his college ball at Franklin Pierce and is now the Conant JV coach, while Brooke starts for SNHU.

Marianaplis is a prep school located in Connecticut which is a member of the NEPSAC - the most competitive prep school league in the country for basketball. Devin is a first-team all-state player in both basketball and baseball, and is being while Madison has a chance to be the first high-major girls basketball player from NH since Tiffany Ruffin.

NH Elite Captures Two State Titles

In just their third year of existence, the NH Elite program won NH AAU State championships in both the 9th and 10th grade divisions. The tournament was held this past weekend at the Rockingham Athletic Club in Plaistow, NH. NH Elite's 10th grade team was led by Jourdain Bell (Bishop Brady), Brett Hanson (Manchester Central), Austin Franzen (Merrimack), Luke Testa (Pinkerton), Ryan Brown (Bedford) and Zach Bergeron (Campbell).

Their 9th grade team was led by Joe Bell (Bishop Brady), JT Thompson (Phillips Exeter), Spencer DeLand (Farmington), Connor Walsh (Trinity), Julien Buffalino (St. Paul's) Anthony Primavera (Winnacunnet) and Bryant Holmes (Exeter). Joe Bell played for both teams.

"We did it by playing unbelievably great man defense" said NH Elite Director Dustin Freeman, who coached the 9th grade team while Trinity assistant Matt Lemieux coached the 10th grade squad. "Our defense negated opposing teams who were more athletic. A huge part of our 10th grade team is the Bell brothers, they played great defense. And on the 9th grade team Joe Bell and JT Thompson were absolute lockdown defenders. Thompson is tough as nails."

New England Shooting Stars 15s Win NH Girls AAU State Championship

Derry, NH - The SportsZone hosted over 72 teams for the AAU girls district qualifying tournament for the National Championships. The New England Shooting Stars won the 15U 10th grade tournament championship, in spite of being without one of their top three point shooters, Colleen Frey, (Pelham, NH) due to a shoulder injury.

The Stars first opponent was the Barrington Storm and found themselves trailing by one, 28-29 at half time, the Stars stayed in the game in large part to hitting 8 out of 10 free throws and Brittney Roche (Londonderry) hitting two key three pointers (8pts total), and Tayler White (Keene) with 6 points. The Stars defense held the Storm to 21 points in the second half; while Vanessa Fleury (Lebanon) scored 11 points in the second half (15pts. total) and secured 10 rebounds, while Rachael Cormier (Andover, MA) and Megan Collins (N. Andover ,MA) supported her efforts with 10 and 9 points respectively, securing a 54-50 victory.

Bedford Football's Rapid Ascent to the Top

Bedford has only had a varsity football program for 4 years, yet a whopping 5 of their former players from the Class of 2013 are headed off to play D-I or D-II college football in the fall. This is a tremendous accomplishment for any program, especially one that is still so new. The first Bulldog to commit was Will McInerney, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound lineman who accepted a scholarship to play at the University of New Hampshire. McInerney was sidelined for the 2012 season with a knee injury, but is certainly one of the state's most feared linemen.

QB James Caparell and WR Brian Collins have grown up playing together with Caparell throwing passes to Collins. They were a lethal combination at Bedford, and now they'll continue playing together at the University of Rhode Island. Caparell was the state's leading passer as a senior in 2012, throwing for 2,265 yards and 25 touchdowns, and Collins was his leading receiver.

David Cannone, who started at fullback and linebacker for Bedford, will be attending and playing football at Bentley University, a Division II program in the Northeast-10 Conference. He has a nose for the ball and always leaves it all out on the field. Cannone will play at Bentley alongside former Bulldog Mike Gardiner, who started at WR and DB at Bedford before moving to Texas for his senior year. Gardiner attended Southlake Carroll in Texas and was their leading receiver.

Bedford made the D-III title game in 2011, with all 5 of these players in the starting lineup. In 2012 they moved up to D-II and made the finals. It is scary to think how good that team would have been if McInerny was healthy and if Gardiner was still at Bedford. It has been a great 2 year run for their program, and you have to give a lot of credit to the kids on the team, as well as head coach Kurt Hines and his staff. The Bulldogs have a strong pipeline of talent coming up the ranks as well, so they will likely continue to be a dominant team, even now that they will be in Division I moving forward.

Arsenault Commits to Plymouth

One of the top 3-sport athletes to come out of New Hampshire in the past few years has made his college decision, as Curtis Arsenault (Berlin, NH) has committed to Plymouth State University where he will play both basketball and baseball. Arsenault was an all-state player at Berlin High in basketball, baseball and soccer. He played all 3 sports this past year as a post-grad at Phillips Exeter Academy, and he was recruited by colleges in all 3 sports. Arsenault was kind enough to do an exclusive interview for the NH Notebook, proving an in depth breakdown of how the recruiting process went for him and what lead to his commitment to Plymouth St.

"Going to PEA helped me get a lot more interest from coaches in all 3 sports" said Arsenault, who scored 1,000 points, won a state title and D-III Player of the Year in basketball while at Berlin High. "I had 6 schools recruiting me for basketball, 2 for baseball and 2 for soccer. Endicott, Emmanuel, Clark, Lyndon State, Wheaton, and PSU showed plenty of interest for basketball. Endicott and PSU were the only schools that reached out to me about playing baseball and basketball. Clark and Wheaton reached out about me playing soccer and basketball."

Connors Commits to Bates

You hear the word 'unselfish' thrown around quite a bit from folks when describing basketball players. However, few players in the region fit that term better than Windham High senior Bernadette Connors.

"She's a 5-foot-9 wing player who never played the post before this year" said Windham head coach Joe Mason. "I looked at her and said, can you play the post? She said if that's what's best for the team then yes. That says a lot about her, as she was now going against players taller than her every game and she sacrificed her offensive touches. She didn't care about stats, and always put the team first."

Connors has helped lead the Windham girls basketball program to back-to-back Division II Final Four appearances, making the D-II all-state team both years. She was named Female Athlete of the Month for March by the NHIAA. And now she has committed to attend and play basketball at Bates College.

NH vs. VT Senior Games Are Back

As first reported by the Burlington Free Press, the annual senior all-star games between New Hampshire and Vermont are back on. The games had a 30 year run but the last year they were held was 2010. They were stopped though, because the organizers were no longer able to come up with enough funding to make them happen. But now the event is back on, but will just happen on a smaller scale.

This year's games will be played on Saturday, July 13 at Essex High School in VT. The girls game will be played at 6 pm, with the boys tipping off at 8.

The Twin State Classic used to be a tremendous, first-class event. The players, their parents, the coaches (and even some of the media) all got to stay in a nice hotel and have a fancy dinner and banquet the night before the games. The games were played on Division I college courts and were broadcasted by a professional crew with the DVD being given to each player afterwards. All of this cost money, and in 2010 the event cost over $26,000. Now they are bringing the event back, but without all of the bells and whistles. Organizers are now hoping to keep the cost under $5,000 for this year's event.

NEB Family 17's Making Noise on AAU Circuit

By: Jeremy Leveille
This past weekend was a big one for the NEB (New England Basketball) Family's 17U boys AAU team, as they got 2nd place in New England at the Super Regionals. The tournament was held at the Mass Premier Courts in Foxboro, MA. The team was led by Cameron Meservey (Bedford HS), Carmen Giampetruzzi (Trinity), Andrew Lowman (Windham HS), Isaiah Joseph (Manchester Central) and Taylor Grande (Bedford HS).

"I honestly haven't seen Meservey play that well in two years" said NEB coach Gregg Dorman, who has coached Meservey since he was in 7th grade. "He had one game where he had 40 points and 10 three-pointers. He caught fire and single-handedly won it for us."

The NEB Family went 2-0 in pool play, with a 58-29 win over MYCW and a thrilling 67-61 win over the Boston Warriors. Then in the quarterfinals they crushed the Central Mass Shamrocks 81-57, and they followed that up with an impressive 76-69 win over the Boston Titans. But then the NEB Family had to play in the finals just a half hour after their semi-final game ended, and they fell to a tough Mass Premier team 78-47.

Kehoe Commits to St. Joe's

By: Jeremy Leveille
Often times in high school basketball when a father is coaching his son/daughter it causes a sticky situation. However in the case of Emily Kehoe being coached by her father Tim at Lebanon it couldn't have worked out any better. Their family grew closer than ever, Emily had an undefeated state championship season as a senior, and now she has committed to St. Joseph's College in Maine where she will continue her basketball career.

"Ever since I can remember basketball has been part of our family" Emily Kehoe told the NH Notebook. "When my mom couldn't watch me I would go to practice with my dad. When I started playing for my school team, I looked less than promising. I had to work hard to get where I am today, and my Father was a big factor in that. I never gave up, and my dad never gave up on me. Being the coaches kid was hard, and some days I wished I wasn't, yet those are the days I don’t remember. I remember the days where me and my dad left practice smiling, and I will remember ending our father daughter / coach player relationship with our championship. The bond that basketball has given my family is incredible. Playing for my dad was an honor, and I couldn't imagined ending it any other way. He has made me the hard working player I am today."

Introducing the NE Flames AAU Program

By: Jeremy Leveille
With AAU basketball season officially here, one program making headlines is the New England Flames. Formerly called the NH Flames, they are now expanding outside of the Granite State.

“We just got our first Vermont player, a 5-foot-10 fifth grader who plays for coach Leonid Gershgorin” said Frank Girginis, who is on the Flames’ Board of Directors.

Not only are the Flames adding players from other states, but they are also putting an increased emphasis on their older teams.

“We feel we have strong competitive teams in all age groups this season especially with the high school teams as we have a really talented incoming freshmen team coached by myself and Scott Purcell.”

Crusader Jamboree 2013 - Event Recap

Every year the kickoff to the girls AAU season is the Crusader Jamboree, put on by the NE Crusaders. This year's event featured some of the top talent in New England, including teams from the Crusaders and the Rhode Island Lightning programs. It's a great event, I just really wished they kept score during the games!

As far as players from NH go, Madison Springfield (Conant HS) stole the show at this event. It's scary to think she is only a freshman. Springfield and Aliza Simpson (Londonderry HS) are on the same team with the Crusaders, which should be a fun duo to watch. Unfortunately Simpson suffered a sprained ankle during the team's first game and sat out the rest of the day. Also sitting out was Ali Glennon (Bedford) with a knee injury which she suffered during the D-I championship game last month.

This event also featured a number of local players who won state championships with their high school teams this winter. Those players include Glennon, McKenzie Brown and Nikki Tucci (all from Bedford) and Courtney Walsh (Windham, NH) who led Central Catholic to the MIAA Division I state title.

The players who stood out the most were...

Schiebel Commits to Suffolk

Once Windham High senior Kelsey Schiebel decided she wanted to play college basketball, there was nothing stopping her from that goal. She has worked very hard, especially over the past year to become a better player. And now Schiebel has committed to Suffolk University, where she will attend school and compete to become the team's new starting point guard.

"My junior year spring AAU season was when it really all started to become real to me" Schiebel told the NH Notebook. "My freshman year of high school I started to play for the Bay State Blizzards under Kevin Barboza and that's when I really decided I wanted to play in college. Over the last four years training with Kevin and playing for him has totally changed me as a player. I worked out with him 2 to 3 times a week this summer and I think he's the one that really got me to that next level."

Suffolk competes in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) in Division III. This past season they went 23-8 (10-2 in conference play), and advanced to the conference title game before falling to GNAC power Emmanuel. Suffolk is located in the heart of Boston.