It certainly was the spring of our discontent.

We turn the page from The Season That Never Was, as summer begins this weekend. The tributes to the high school and college Class of 2020 have been far and wide.

This weekend would have marked the official end to the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association’s 2019-2020 year with the state Decathalon-Heptathalon at Nashua High School South’s Fran Tate Track. The fall went as planned, the winter tournaments, for the most part, were cut short due to the pandemic with co-champions declared in most sports and divisions. And, of course, we know the spring never happened.

A summer season likely will take place as a lot of summer baseball, softball and golf looks ready to roll.

But what would have happened locally this spring? What were we robbed of seeing, especially from local high schools?

It’s worth venturing some guesses.

In baseball, Bishop Guertin may have been hungry to overcome that quarterfinal ouster by Bedford last year, with Brett Anderson leading the way. Nashua South would have had Andres Hulfachor, another senior, perhaps give the Panthers a boost into the tournament.

And Hollis Brookline would have had ace Henri Boudreau looking to get back to the Division II championship game. The Cavaliers were only losing four seniors from the team that lost to Bow in walk-off fashion just over a year ago at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.

And remember, Boudreau hadn’t lost a single game in the spring and summer in 2019.

“It was a total heartbreaker and devastating to see this last chance to play with the people we grew up with (be gone),” Boudreau said.

Souhegan’s Daniel Trzepacz would have been another key player to watch.

Softball? If you talk to a few people, Merrimack may have been the team to watch in Division I. The Tomahawks would have been going into their second year under head coach Greg Cochrane with a solid base.

“I think Merrimack would have had a great opportunity to be state champions this year,” Nashua South coach Kevin Handy said. “They run a tight ship over there, don’t make the silly mistakes, all nine players in the lineup can produce, and they have the pitching depth.”

Of course, you need talent, and Handy felt Merrimack had a good one in junior shortstop Erin Knauer.

“I believe they would have had one of the better shortstops in the state in Knauer,” he said. “She was also a First-Team All-State field hockey player. In my opinion it probably would have been Merrimack and Exeter in the big (title) game.”

You know Milford and Souhegan would have been strong in Division II, with a ton of seniors who paid their underclassmen dues.

The top player in the area? Handy, while he had a good one at South in Sarah Picard, thinks it would have been Nashua North first baseman Alexis Miranda, who was in superb shape going into the spring.

“Miranda is in my opinion is the best offensive player this state has seen in the last 10 years,” he said. “Her strength, bat speed, vision, lower body, and the ability to read pitches during at bats is second to none. Defensively she has all the traits to be one of the better first basemen in the state as well.

“If we had a season this spring there is no doubt in my mind she would have been one of the vote getters for Gatorade Player of the year and (Division I) Player of the Year. She’s that kind of talent.”

And we missed out on being able to see it one more time.

How about boys and girls lacrosse? Sure, it probably would have been Bishop Guertin vs. Pinkerton in the Division I boys lacrosse final again, but we didn’t get a chance to see Cards’ Sean Cameron show his prowess as a senior. He was already the area’s top player as a junior.

Guertin would have been strong on the Division I girls side as well led by half a dozen seniors, but the debut of new coach Leslie Why has to wait a year. But the team to watch in Division II may have been Hollis Brookline, which was stinging from a loss to Winnacunnet in the 2019 semis.

“Many of the kids were working hard in the off-season,” Cavs coach Jim Maxwell said. “We thought we had a shot. We learned a lot from last year, and felt we had a good shot.”

We were looking forward to what looked like it would be a great tennis season. Two teams were looking to get over the hump and grab a championship – the Bishop Guertin girls, with the return of senior Claire Reynolds, and Hollis Brookline, which had last the last two seasons in the Division II finals.

Reynolds missed last year with a back injury, and the Cards had basically the same cast that made the finals two years ago and semis last year. HB had a group of underclassmen the last couple of years led by Nick Vhe that was hungry. Souhegan, meanwhile, had a solid player in Sam Goddard who had a shot at defending his state singles title and perhaps the Sabers would have been a team title contender as well, two years after winning it all.

In boys volleyball, some were looking at Hollis Brookline as having a title shot. You know that one of the three – HB, Bishop Guertin, or Souhegan would have made the Final Four.

All you had to know about track and field is that at North and South, a couple of their Athletes of the Year were track standouts, Panther Paul Marchand plus Titans Amy Coy and Rory Curran. The divisional meets, Meet of Champions and Heptathlon-Decathlon likely would have been memorable.

Instead, sadly, this was a spring to forget. But even doing that won’t be easy.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251, tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

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