Exciting fall high school season on tap

Jul 15, 2023

Sports Editor

The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl always feels like the closing of a chapter.

It’s the final touch on the previous school year, one last look at the athletes that helped paint the picture in local sports over the last four years.

With that book completed, another is being ready to be penned. In a handful of days, the 2023-2024 high school sports schedule will get going. Football players report on Monday and the rest of fall sports will do the same next Thursday.

The fall season figures to be a fun one as we get back into the swing of things. Let’s take a look at a handful of interesting storylines to follow this fall.

Change on sideline

The Proctor girls soccer team has been the gold standard of Division IV girls soccer for a long time now. The Phantoms have gone to 12 straight state finals and captured eight championships in that span.

Chris Hughes and Scott French had directed that dynastic ship for many years, but this year, a new voice will lead the huddle in Gary Hodder.

Hodder has a lot of experience coaching in the area and figures to fill the role seamlessly, but it’s always interesting to see how a new coach’s imprint impacts a team, especially one as steeped in success as this.

Hodder has a good base to build off with high-end scoring talent like Isabel Greb and Emma Palmer still wearing the Proctor maroon.

There are multiple other coaching changes heading into the fall, but this is the one a lot of Rutland County soccer buffs will really keep an eye on.

Maintaining form

It was a dream fall last year for Fair Haven girls athletes.

Both the girls soccer team and field hockey teams made their respective state championship games, breaking a long drought in the process.

The question now becomes, can they match it? It’s something both surely have the potential to do.

Both teams came up a goal short in their championship matchups last year and that has to serve as motivation.

The Slater girls soccer team is losing a few seniors, among them the incredibly-talented Brittney Love, but is still stocked with talent to be among Division III’s best.

Lily Briggs, Elizabeth Love and Maddy Perry are heck of a goal-scoring trio and there is depth behind them. Kate Hadwen will be entering her third year in goal and is one of the best around.

The field hockey team also lost some big pieces, but still has some crucial players coming back. Jaylena Haley and Emilee Higgins both came into their own last year and figure to lead the way this season, along with a younger group that got valuable experience on a championship team.

How both of these squads fare this year will be something I watch as they look to maintain form.

Otter Valley has become a golf hub over the last handful of years.

For years, it was the Otter girls contending for titles with current Middlebury College golfer Mia Politano leading the charge, alongside younger sister Elena.

Over the last two years, it has been the OV boys’ turn with the baton. Lucas Politano has taken the state by storm and is coming off D-II medalist honors last fall. Lucas Politano, and a very strong cast of characters that included his older brother Thomas, have turned Otter Valley into the team to beat, winning the last two D-II team titles.

With multiple key graduations, nabbing the three-peat might the hardest task yet. Lucas Politano is just a junior and will continue to be the go-to guy for OV, but he’ll need guys to step up around him.

Rising sophomore Jackson Howe is one of the guys that OV will look to take a big step forward.

What other names fill in around Lucas Politano and Howe will something to watch closely this fall. These Otters have tasted that championship feeling for two years straight and they surely don’t want to lose their spot atop the pedestal.

We had a pair of football teams in the county that took a big step forward last season at Fair Haven and Mill River.

The Slaters have long been an elite program in Division II, but were coming off a pair of middle of the road seasons going into last season. They emerged from the middle and shot near the top in 2022, going 6-2 in the regular season and making it all the way to the state semifinals, where they lost to eventual-champion Mount Anthony.

With quarterback Joe Buxton back under center and great talent around him at the skill positions, Fair Haven should be in good shape again as it tries to take the next step and reach the state finals for the first time since 2018.

I’ll be intrigued to see how their offensive line shakes out. David Doran was a Shrine player and the linchpin of the line for years. It will be on other guys to fill those big shoes.

Mill River is another team that burst into the championship conversation last year under first-year head coach Phil Hall.

While it always looked like Windsor and Fairfax/Lamoille were on a road to a championship game rematch, the Minutemen were determined to throw a wrench in that expectation.

Mill River played Fairfax tight in the D-III semifinals, but the Bullets pulled away late.

There were some big graduation losses from that team, notably quarterback Anthony Cavalieri, but if Hall and his staff can pinpoint the guy to fill his shoes, the Minutemen should be just fine and back in contention.

Both Fair Haven and Mill River would love to break through that semifinal wall.

Something I love about the fall season is that it introduces a new cast of characters to the local sports scene.

There are freshman, or even eighth-graders, that take their sports by storm.

There are players moving up from junior varsity to the main stage, itching to make their presence felt.

That’s the fun thing about sports. There is always a new crop of talent ready for their turn.

Let’s get it rolling already. Fall season, here we come.

Follow on Twitter: @AAucoin_RH

Sports Editor