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Hoop History: Late Panther great Fagula had role in BG success

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Mar 24, 2023

Photo courtesy of Nashua South Girls Basketball An animated Nashua High School girls basketball coach John Fagula, far left, watches from the bench. (Courtesy photo)

Two eras will be forever linked in local high school girls basketball.

Brad Kreick got the Bishop Guertin High School girls varsity basketball coaching job on a mid-May afternoon in 2015, and things involving girls basketball at Lund Road haven’t been the same since.

Just like they all changed when John Fagula began running the Nashua High School girls program well over 40 years ago.

So it was no coincidence that the first person Kreick – who resigned from the BG job on Wednesday – sat down with for helpful advice a few days after he was hired was the former Nashua and Londonderry Hall of Fame coach.

Is there any doubt that those Fagula teams from the 1980s-90s is what the Kreick Cardinals would look the most like? Full court pressure, feast on turnovers and a transition game. And not rely on the 3-pointer.

And thus the Cardinals embarked on a journey that included six sole state championships and one shared title, and seven finals appearances in every year there was a final when Kreick was the head coach. In 2020, you may remember, the semis finals were cancelled due to the pandemic and the highest remaining seeds, Guertina and Goffstown, shared the crown.

The next year Bedford knocked off Guertin 56-48, by far the toughest loss of the Kreick Era. The response was two championships to close out that era.

Think back to Fagula’s days, and the rivalry his Panthers had with Londonderry. BG-Bedford, it seems, was like Nashua-Londonderry all over again, for those of you who were around for those days. Fagula’s Panthers beat the Lancers in 1985 in a comeback win down the stretch of the fourth quarter similar to what the Cardinals had done to Bedford not once but the last two years in the title game. And just like Bedford, Londonderry finally got its title win over Nashua in 1990, after five straight title game losses to the Panthers, starting with that 1985 game.

It’s amazing the similarity, as both eras had a rivalry that was compelling and drove all four teams. In seven championship games for Kreick’s Cards, five were against Bedford. And the one year Bedford one, it was due to the play of the state’s best player that year, Isabella King. And how’s this: King’s father, Ronnie, was a former high school standout in the 1980s – at Londonderry.

But Kreick, as he told The Telegraph the other day, was smart enough to know what he didn’t know. He was in some ways a basketball novice, coming from the hockey world. So he surrounded himself with experienced coaches, such as Kyle Tave, but probably the best thing he did was seek out Fagula, for whom he played on the Nashua High JV baseball team in the early 1980s. Some forget that Fagula, while he made historical success in girls basketball, was also a football and baseball coach at Nashua as an assistant. He also was the interim head football coach in 1989 at Nashua after longtime coach Ken Parady had stepped down. Fagula passed away from a lengthy illness nearly three years ago.

“I think about John a lot,” Kreick said. “Just a legend, obviously. John and I first met when I was in high school, he was my JV baseball coach when I was a sophomore. He and I established a bit of a relationship, we’d chat from time to time.

“I’ll be forever grateful for the time that John gave me, particularly during my first year at BG (as head coach).”

The two would meet for breakfast once a week religiously at a local eatery throughout the course of the season, with Kreick going over his plans and how the team with doing with the former Panthers coach. And getting plenty of feedback.

“He was just such a great sounding board for me, and such a wealth of knowledge, I’m flattered,” Kreick said. “You’re kind of humbled to hear somebody say that they compare our program to some of his programs because he’s the guy that really kind of built New Hampshire girls basketball back in the day.

“He was just tremendous, just a great friend to me and the program when I was able to get the job.”

What was the best piece of advice Fagula gave Kreick?

“You make a decision like (stepping down) and you find yourself reflecting on things over the last couple of weeks,” Kreick said. “I remember John said to me one time, ‘People are going to try to convince you to allow your standard to sort of migrate down to the lowest common denominator. Never, never, never allow your standard to come down. You have to require the kids and the people around you meet your standard.'”

And Kreick knew that would not be easy. High school coaches can be pulled in a number of different directions by student -athletes, other coaches, faculty, administration, and parents. Kreick knew a huge key to his success would be to keep his feet firmly planted so that wouldn’t happen.

“I’ve never forgotten that,” he said of Fagula’s advice. “And I know the kids didn’t always like that, because you know it doesn’t make it easy to play for a guy like that. But it was unbelievable advice. Make them meet your standard – never settle.”

And that’s how Kreick coached. Fagula, when he coached JV baseball, had a rule that if a player took a called third strike, they would have to sit out the rest of the game. Kreick had a rule that if a player picked up a second foul in the first half, they’d have to sit the rest of the half – not so much as punishment but as a way to preserve them for the end. There were cases, though, when he had to bypass that rule in his later seasons.

But there was one thing Kreick valued above all else: Defense. At one point duirng his second season, in a February makeup Sunday matinee at contending Manchester Memorial, the Cards had seen a comfortable lead dwindle down to when it wasn’t so comfortable, thanks to some easy Crusader buckets.

Kreick called timeout and let his players know one important thing: Anyone who wasn’t going to play defense was not going to play, period, end of story. The Cards went on to win in a walk.

“There were three or four really foundational principles that we we really built the program around. John’s advice was never compromise those things and require that the kids who play for you play to that standard. It sounds simple, but boy was that great advice.”

And Kreick experienced the thrill of six title celebrations in eight years. Not as many as Fagula, as he’s leaving after eight seasons, but the frequency was pretty close.

“Just sort of that moment when thousand and thousands of hours of everybody’s dedication pays off,” Kreick said, “and you look up and see that you won a state championship, and it was all worth it. That’s probably the moment everything comes into focus – and you realize it’s all worth it.”

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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