The Vermont Basketball Coaches Association (VBCA) hosted the annual Senior-All-Star games on March 18 at Champlain Valley Union High School, with three of the four South All-Star teams notching victories.
In the Division III-IV girls' game, the South survived a late rally by the North All-Stars for a 53-51 victory. Hannah Greenwood of Leland & Gray and Riley Paul of Green Mountain were on the South team. Paul scored six points.
The South also pulled out a close one in the Division III-IV boys game, 89-85. Jamison Nystrom and Jake Moore of Bellows Falls, Alex Parker-Jennings of Leland & Gray, and Eben Mosher of Green Mountain were on the South team. Mosher scored eight points.
Brattleboro's Jason Coplan coached the Division I-II South boys team, which rallied from a 45-41 deficit for a 92-85 win. The South team features three of Coplan's seniors - Cam Frost, Tate Chamberlin, and Paul McGillion, who scored 10 points in the victory.
There were no Brattleboro players on the Division I-II South girls' team. The game provided the North's only victory of the day, 78-72, over the South.
The VCBA also handed out their awards for Coach of the Year in each of the state's four divisions for boys' and girls' basketball. Bellows Falls coach Evan Chadwick earned the honor in Division III boys' basketball as he led the Terriers to the state semifinals for the first time in 22 years.
They also named its “Dream Dozen,” which highlights the best basketball players in the state in grades 9-11 for the 2022-23 season. Green Mountain's Callie Spaulding and Colby Dearborn of Bellows Falls were the only area selections to their respective Division III-IV teams.
SVL All-Stars named
• The Southern Vermont League recently announced its all-opponent teams for girls' and boys' basketball, as well as for Nordic skiing.
In the A Division, Brattleboro's Reece Croutworst was selected to the girls' first team, with teammates Kaitlyn Pattison and Abby Henry earning honorable mention, while Brattleboro's Paul McGillion made the boys' first team, and teammates Cam Frost and Tate Chamberlin both receiving honorable mention.
Jason Coplan, who led the Brattleboro boys to the Division I semifinals, was the A Division boys' Coach of the Year.
In the C Division, Green Mountain's Riley Paul and Leland & Gray's Maggie Parker were girls' first-team selections, with honorable mentions going to Bellows Falls' Laura Kamel, Delaney Lockerby and Veronica Moore; Leland & Gray's Hannah Greenwood, Sam Morse, and Mary Sanderson; and Green Mountain's Callie Spaulding.
For the C Division boys, Leland & Gray's Alex Parker-Jennings, Bellows Falls' Jamison Nystrom and Jake Moore, and Green Mountain's Eben Mosher were all first team selections. Green Mountain's Tanner Swisher and Leland & Gray's Trevor Stillwagon received honorable mention.
• Brattleboro had two selections for the SVL's nordic all-stars, with Gabriele Jeppasen-Bellci making the boys' first team and Katherine Normandeau making the girls' first team.
VPA bans Mid Vermont Christian
• When Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) , a private K-12 religious school in Quechee, chose to forfeit a Division IV girls' basketball playoff game last month rather than play against a team with a transgender player, it attracted international attention.
“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg wrote in an email to the Valley News. “Allowing biological males to participate in women's sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women's sports in general.”
However, the Vermont Principals' Association (VPA), the governing body for high school sports, abides by Vermont law, which allows transgender female students to play on girls' sports teams.
Long Trail School in Dorset, the team that MVCS was to play in the tournament, did not encounter any problems this season. The teams they faced, which included Twin Valley and Leland & Gray, raised no formal objections. Only MVCS refused to play Long Trail.
Here's the rub. According to the Valley News, MVCS sent a letter to the Vermont Agency of Education in January, seeking permission to receive public tuition funding while also asserting that it reserved the right not to follow all of Vermont's anti-discrimination laws.
“As a religious organization, the school has a statutory and constitutional right to make decisions based on its religious beliefs, including hiring and disciplining employees, associating with others, and in its admissions, conduct and operations policies and procedures,” Fogg wrote in the Jan. 5 letter. “By signing this form, the Mid Vermont Christian School does not waive any such rights.”
Fogg added that, in the school's view, the extent that state laws conflict with the school's beliefs, “including on marriage and sexuality, the school has not included that language in its handbook or online, nor can it affirm that particular aspect of the Vermont Public Accommodations Act.”
The school may feel that way, but the VPA is very clear that its policies allow athletes to play on the team that is “consistent with their gender identity” and prohibit discrimination “based on a student's actual or perceived sex and gender.”
As a result, the VPA's 15-member executive committee unanimously decided on March 12 “that policies have been violated at the school level and thus there is an immediate determination of ineligibility for Mid Vermont Christian in VPA sanctioned activities and tournaments going forward.”
“If you don't want to follow VPA rules, that's fine,” VPA executive director Jay Nichols told VTDigger.org. “But then you're just not a VPA member. It's fairly simple. That's really all we're gonna really say about it.”
The school says it intends to appeal the decision, but I believe state law and the VPA's policies are very clear on the issue of discrimination and that the VPA is on solid ground in making the decision to not allow MVCS to participate in VPA-sanctioned high school sporting events.
Senior bowling roundup
• Last week's big snowstorm didn't stop the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League from getting together at Brattleboro Bowl for Week 8 of the winter/spring season on March 16. The Markers (31.5-13.5) moved back into first place, while Slo Movers (29.5-15.5) slid back into second place, followed by Fab Four (27-18),The A-1's (21-24), The Strikers (19-26), Split Happens (18-27), and Trash-O-Matic and 10 Pins (both 17-28).
Carol Gloski had the women's high handicap game (226), while Nancy Dalzell had the high handicap series (623). Fred Bump had the men's high handicap game (252) and series (729). 10 Pins had the high team handicap game (842), while Fab Four had the high handicap series (2,501).
In scratch scoring, Chuck Adams led the men with a 627 series that featured games of 215, 214, and 198. Bowlers with a 500-plus series included Marty Adams (576), Robert Rigby (574), Warren Corriveau Sr. (570), John Walker (544), Bump (543), and Gary Montgomery (508).
Bowlers with 200-plus games included Rigby (213), Marty Adams (207), and Corriveau (212). Rigby also had a 195 game, Walker had a 194 game, and Charlie Marchant, Skip Shine, Marty Adams, and Corriveau each had a 191 game. Bump had a 190 game.
Gloski had the women's high scratch series (513) and game (195). She also had a 191 game. Dalzell had games of 168 and 166.