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The holiday season means holiday tourneys

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Dec 18, 2018

It’s time to get in the holiday spirit – or at least make plans to see a holiday high school tournament.

Whie the high school basketball regular seasons get underway fully this week with boys and girls teams of all divisions playing, those regular seasons will take a holiday break for local tourneys, including the main event, the Nashua Chick Fil A Holiday Basketball Tournament at Nashua High School South.

It’s the only game in town this year, as the Conway Arena Hockey Tournament is not being held. The Chick Fil A boys and girls event will take place next Thursday, Friday and Saturday Dec. 27-29 with the same teams as a year ago in both events.

The boys lineup: Nashua North, South, Alvirne, Merrimack, Milford, Souhegan, Thornton Academy of Saco Me. And Goffstown.

The girls lineup: Nashua North, South, Merrimack, Alvirne, Campbell, Milford, Goffstown and Keene.

Alvirne won last year’s Chick Fil A boys final, 53-36 over Merrimack, while Merrimack topped Nashua South, 47-35.

This will be the third straight year that the girls tourney, previously held at Nashua North, will be incorporated into the Chick Fil A event. To make it work, some games as well as pregame warmups will take place in the South medium gym rather than the Belanger.

Combining the two has made for early starts, as the girls first games on the first two days start at 8 a.m., and the boys at 11. Goffstown vs. Merrimack kicks off the girls tourney at 8 a.m.on the 27th while Thornton vs. Alvirne starts the boys event that same day at 11 a.m.

The other opening games for the girls are Keene-Alvirne, 9:30 a.m.; North-Campbell, 2 p.m. and South-Milford, 4 p.m. For the boys, it will be Merrimack-Souhegan at 12:30 p.m., South-Milford at 5 and North-Goffstown at 6:30.

“If you’re one of those hoop junkies, we tried to mix it up a bit so you’ll be able to see not only the boys but the girls games at good times,” tourney director John Penkala said.

The girls semis will be on Dec. 28 at 2 and 3:30 p.m., with the boys semis at 5 and 6:30. The finals are Saturday afternoon, Dec. 29 at 3 (girls) and 4:30 (boys).

The event has been on solid ground, tourney director John Penkala said. The girls event, he noted, seems to be more well attended than it was when it was held at North, and there has been no problem attracting teams.

“The last couple of years we really haven’t had to hunt for teams,” he said, noting that Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras looks to confirm with returning teams by late September and gets quick response. “We’re looking forward to another great event.”

One of the few locals not playing in the Chick Fil A are the Bishop Guertin boys and girls teams, as they will instead compete in the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic at Andover (Mass.) High School (girls) and North Andover (boys).

The Cardinal girls are the defending champions, and are the top seed, with Central Catholic No. 2 and host Andover seeded third. The only other New Hampshire schools in the girls tourney, Londonderry and Winnacunnet, are seeded seventh and eighth, respectively.

The Cardinal boys are seeded seventh, just ahead of the only other New Hampshire team, Londonderry. St. John’s Prep is the top seed with North Andover second and Central Catholic third.

The event for BG begins with the boys taking on North Andover on Dec. 27 at 7:45 p.m. and the girls facing Winnacunnet at 1 p.m. the same day. Remember, the Cardinals already romped over the Warriors, 69-14.

The finals are Sunday, Dec. 30 for the boys at 8 p.m. (North Andover HS) and 5:15 p.m. for the girls (Andover HS).

Still with basketball, the Hollis Brookline girls will again play in the Salem Blue Devil Classic, a three-day round robin event. HB will play at 2:30 next Wednesday, Dec. 26; 5:30 on the 27th and 2:30 on the 28th.

Teams are Salem, Bedford, Bradford Christian Academy, Cathedral High School, Greater Lowell Tech, Pinkerton and Pelham.

With no local hockey tourney, Nashua High School North-Souhegan, South-Pelham and Merrimack will compete in the Keene Holiday Tournament at that area’s new rink, Keene ICE. Merrimack opens things vs. Keene at 9 a.m.on Wednesday, Dec. 26 while North-Souhegan and South-Pelham will clash at 10:30 a.m. The tourney continues on Friday, Dec. 28 with games early in the day (South-Pelham vs. Keene, 9 a.m. And North-Souhegan vs. Merrimack, 10:30) and the finals set for 2:30 p.m.

Bishop Guertin, meanwhile, will travel once again to Woosocket, R.I.for the Mount St. Charles tourney, taking on St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute (N.Y.) at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 27 at Adelard Arena. It’s an eight team event that also features Mount St. Charles, LaSalle Academy (R.I.), LaSalle College HS (Pa.), Fairfield Prep, Bishop Hendricken and Franklin (Mass.). The tourney continues Friday with the finals set for Saturday Dec. 29.

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It’s been the Game of the Year in high school girls basketball the last few years, but especially last year when the teams were considered one-two in the state.

This year, the Bishop Guertin and Bedford girls hoop teams will tangle very early in the season, on Friday at 7 p.m.at BG. As mentioned, the Cards dismantled Winnacunnet in their opener and don’t play until Friday. Bedford, meanwhile, beat Manchester Memorial 59-47 in its opener and interested fans can get a sneak peek of the Bulldogs tonight at the Belanger Gym when they take on South (0-2) in the Panthers home opener at 6:30.

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With the winter season underway, Gingras has turned her attention to spring coaching vacancies, and the two main ones are with Nashua North lacrosse, with both the boys and girls jobs vacant.

North was expected — last year’s coach, Rod Redman, made it known when he took the job in late winter 2017 he would coach just two seasons and then relinquish the position so he could watch his son play in college.

But the girls vacancy may be a surprise, as Chloe Audesse out as that program’s coach, as well as the Titans field hockey coach. Gingras would not comment on exactly why the girls jobs are open.

But when reached, Audesse explained the time contraints were just too much in balancing coaching with her teaching career.

“Love the teams,” she said in an email, “but I needed to put my focus towards teaching. These days it takes a lot more of my time to make the teams more successful – open gyms, going to elementary schools, etc.

“I just don’t have the time. I’ll miss it for sure and who knows, maybe I’ll be back at it one day.”

Also open on the high school level are a few North sub-varsity positions: the North freshman baseball job, North JV softball and North JV girls lacrosse.

There are some junior high spring vacancies as well: the Fairgrounds Middle School and Pennichuck Junior High boys and girls track coaching positions (four in all).

Contact Gingras at gingrasl@nashua.edu if interested.

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