Submitted by Ed Write
While the basketball season may be over, excitement still surrounds the inaugural NEPSAC AAA Prep basketball team at Hoosac School. The elite AAA Prep league has produced many NBA players and its teams routinely send the majority of their starters off to Division 1 college teams with full scholarships. The league includes this year’s National Prep Champions, Brewster Academy, NEPSAC AAA Champions Northfield Mount Hermon, and powerhouse teams New Hampton and Saint Thomas Moore, and for the first time, local co-ed, boarding and day, college prep school, Hoosac.
Hoosac had been classified as a Class D school, by size, for years, but when the talent in the Valley of the Owl exceeded the level of play available in that Class, the team moved up to B, then AA and now AAA. Going into the season there was an air of anticipation, how well would the boys do playing at the highest level in the land? Well, now that the season is over it is easy to look back and see. They did great! In fact, Hoosac was the only team in the country to beat both Brewster and Northfield Mount Hermon this season. Those wins, along with some high scoring affairs on the Coach Ryan court at Hoosac, led to a very entertaining and very likely, the best basketball in the Capital Region.
While wins are great, the true purpose of the program is to provide exposure and opportunity for the players, all of whom have the ambition to play at the collegiate level. Hoosac did not fail in this category either. There were games when Hoosac had 5 Division I colleges and multiple Division III and junior colleges in the stands to watch and that is why there is still so much excitement on campus. It’s decision-making time!
The players and coaches are very busy as they try to decide which offers to accept and where the players want to go next year. 25 full scholarships were offered to 4 seniors, and 1 junior already has 4 offers for next year. Here is the list: Siena, Georgetown, Austin Peay, Marshall, Seton Hall, Elon (player attending), Western Kentucky, LIU: Brooklyn, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, University of Colorado, Washington State, Providence, North Dakota, Rutgers, Fairfield, Maine, Saint John’s, Arizona State, North Texas, Appalachian State, SMU, Northeastern and Robert Morris. Good luck to all the Owls as they fly from the nest and begin the next stage of their careers.