by Ken Brown
MARSHFIELD – Twinfield-Cabot and Danville will be reciprocating a cooperative agreement this coming spring to give their student-athletes the opportunity to compete in baseball and softball at the varsity level.
Twinfield-Cabot hasn’t fielded a varsity baseball team since 2019 and this will be the second straight season Trojan players will have the opportunity to compete for Danville. Junior multi-sport star Meles Gouge played for the Bears last season, helping them to a 6-9 record and a trip to the Division IV quarterfinals.
The Lady Trojan softball team will get some much-needed help this season as Danville announced that it won’t field a varsity team for the first time in their storied program’s history. The Lady Bears have made it to eight consecutive Division IV Final Fours and claimed six state championships under head coach Paul Remick. Danville will send at least three high schoolers and a pair of eighth graders to play at Twinfield-Cabot after graduating 10 seniors from last year’s squad. Head Co-coaches Christin Martin and Summer Haverick will welcome the added numbers for a young team that went 1-14 in 2022.
Chargers Will Defend Title Under New Head Coach
CRAFTSBURY – Jess Barber will lead the highly talented Craftsbury Academy (CA) track and field program this spring after first year head coach Abby Schaible resigned in January due to other commitments.
Schaible helped guide the boys’ track and field team to their first Division IV state championship in school history last June, as well as a strong fourth-place finish from the girls’ squad. Barber inherits a strong returning core of Chargers that set several state and school records in 2022. The experience of decorated cross-country coaches Mike LeVangie and Susan Dunklee were crucial for Schaible last season and should be available once again to Barber this spring.
First year CA athletic director Connor Bean also reports that Ashley Gravel will return to coach the varsity softball program for its second season with a full varsity schedule in the rugged Mountain League. Gravel’s upstart squad has come a long way from being a club team in 2019 and losing a full season to COVID after nine years of dormancy. Her program is on the upswing after winning three games in 2022 and advancing to the Division IV quarterfinal round.
Craftsbury Academy will also be reviving its baseball program this spring under Shaun Hill and William Garske, playing a modified junior varsity schedule to start.
Rivard Finishes Career as One of Top Rebounders in Vermont History
HARDWICK – Hazen Union boys’ basketball head coach Aaron Hill has been keeping statistics and records for over two decades and he had to make several updates this past winter after the historical season of his senior center Tyler Rivard.
Hill has a double major in history and physical education from UVM and has kept and updated every statistic imaginable from every Hazen Union and Hardwick Academy team and its players. Tyler Rivard will go down in the Wildcat record books as one of the very best after a senior season for the ages. Rivard became the first Hazen Union player with 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds, breaking several school and state records along the way. Rivard finished his career with 1,028 rebounds and according to Hill’s research, that ranks him fourth all-time in the state of Vermont. The legendary Henry Van “Bruce” Dalrymple tops the list with 1,472 career boards. Dalrymple graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1983, was a Second Team All-American at Georgia Tech, and was the forty-sixth pick in the 1987 NBA draft.
