-Decent weather on Thanksgiving morning led to one of the largest-ever turnouts for the Red Clover Rovers running club’s annual Turkey Trot on Nov. 27 on Upper Dummerston Road in Brattleboro.
There were 271 runners who participated in the 3-mile race. Darius Parker, 22, of Hinesburg, was top male finisher with a time of 15 minutes, 44.54 seconds.
The two top runners this season for the Brattleboro Union High School cross country team, Nico Conathan-Leach and Willow Sharma, finished second (16:24.16) and fourth (16:53.62), respectively. James Moore of Saxtons River was third in 16:49.17.
BUHS alum Sarah Lange, 34, of Lyme, New Hampshire, was the top female finisher. She was fifth overall in 17:10.01. Margaret St. John, 23, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, was 16th overall as the second female finisher in 18:53.78. Corrina Obernesser, 21, of Brattleboro was 18th overall as the third female finisher in 19:19.16.
There were 41 runners in the 1-mile kids race, which was won by C. Boyle, 7, of White River Junction in 10:40.77.
This race marked the 50th year of the Turkey Trot, which began in 1975 as what the Red Clover Rovers call their “to Brattleboro-area runners, celebrating moving in the fresh air and joining together as an active community. ” It is a totally volunteer-run and donation-funded event.
While there was no entry fee, the club accepted donations from the entrants for Groundworks Collaborative and the Vermont Foodbank, in keeping with the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday.
North team rolls in 55-20 win over South all-stars
• The northern high school football teams in Vermont have shown their dominance in the past few years. Bellows Falls is a bit of an outlier with their long string of winning seasons over the past decade, but the balance of power is definitely north of what the late Charlie Spencer of the Rutland Herald called “the Middlebury-Dixon Line.”
That was demonstrated in the North’s 55-20 win over the South in the annual North-South All-Star Football Classic on Nov. 23 at Norwich University’s Sabine Field. It was the fourth straight win for the North’s senior all-stars, who hold a 13-11 lead in the series that started in 2001.
While this was a disappointing end for the South players such as Pat Connors, Cam Perry, and Jake Tostrup of Bellows Falls, and Colby Bristol and Lucas Speno of Brattleboro, this game was good news for Vermont in assembling a strong team for the 2026 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
The North-South game has become the audition for the Shrine game. Ethan Curtis of Essex, who was named the coach of the Vermont team for the 2026 game, told the Herald that he believes he will have a “very strong team. There were a lot of good players on both sides today. It will be a difficult task.”
VFCA makes its All-State selections
• The Vermont Football Coaches Association (VFCA) announced its All-State selections last week and several Brattleboro and Bellows Falls players were honored.
The Bears may have only won one game this season, but the VFCA looked past the record to acknowledge some outstanding individual performances.
Named to the Division I All-State teams were Lucas Speno, first-team offensive line and second-team defensive line; Donnevhan Hall, first-team defensive line; Colby Bristol, first-team linebacker; Logan Casey, first-team defensive back and honorable mention quarterback; Kmar Hall, first-team defensive back; and Luke DiZoglio, second-team tight end and defensive line. Sean Cozza and John Harrison were selected as second-team wide receivers, while honorable mentions went to Dominic Turner, offensive line; Charlie O’Connell, defensive line; and Tucker Jenks, linebacker.
The state champion Terriers were well represented on the Division III first-team.
Ryan Ernst, Steve Joslyn, and Brockton Lovell were all picked for the offensive line, Jaden Bazin and Pat Connors were first-team selections at running back, Lovell and Connor Perry were selected for the defensive line, Bryar Barnett was picked at linebacker; and Bazin was also chosen at defensive back.
Second team selections included Cam Perry, offensive line; Jake Tostrup, tight end; Declan Lisai, quarterback; Stefan James, running back; Andrew Goyette, defensive back; and Steve Joslyn, defensive line. Earning honorable mention were Ben Rumrill, offensive line; Garrett Haskell, defensive line; Stefan James, inside linebacker; and Saul James, defensive back.
A banner season for the Vermont Football Network, FACT-TV
• Northeast Sports Network (NSN) was founded in 2006 and has been steadily growing as an online streamer of high school sports in Vermont and New Hampshire, and of college sports around New England. With each passing year, their broadcasts have become more polished. For people who can’t attend the games or moved away from this region, it’s been a great way to still see their favorite teams.
NSN is still very much a Northeast Kingdom-centric operation. But this fall, NSN founder and CEO Eric Berry did something audacious in launching the Vermont Football Network (VFN) with a goal of streaming every game in Vermont. In its debut season, VFN came pretty close to achieving that goal. VFN crews did several of the Bellows Falls and Brattleboro games this season and gave local fans a free way to watch the games online.
Viewers and advertisers responded well to VFN, and the hope is that even more football games will be streamed by VFN next year. It’s a great idea, and Berry deserves kudos for giving the coaches and athletes around the state more exposure and recognition.
• Falls Area Community Television (FACT-TV) also deserves praise for broadcasting and streaming Bellows Falls football and field hockey this season. Joe Brooks and Nate Haskell did a great job on the football broadcasts.
Former BF athletic director Connor Bean made it a priority to work with FACT-TV to televise as many games as possible and make those broadcasts free for everyone to watch. With more and more schools, including BUHS, signing contracts with the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) so that streamed games are available only for subscribers to the NFHS Network, it’s nice to see schools such as Bellows Falls buck the trend.
Rec. Dept. offers winter basketball clinic
• The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department, Jason Coplan, and the BUHS varsity boys’ basketball team will be offering a basketball clinic on Monday, Dec. 29, at the Gibson-Aiken Center. The clinic is for children in grades K–6, and pre-registration is required.
The cost of the one-day clinic is $5 per participant. The clinic is co-ed, and all abilities are welcome. Children in grades K-2 will meet from 10 to 11:15 a.m., and children in grades 3–6 will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
A minimum of 8 kids is required to run each age group, with a maximum of 24 kids per age group permitted. The Rec. Dept. will be offering free Open Gym and Game Room that day from 1:30 to 5 p.m.
For more information, call the Gibson-Aiken office at 802-254-5808, Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m., and follow the Rec. Dept. on Facebook or Instagram.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 13 of the fall/winter season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on Nov. 25 saw Wayne’s World (45-20) have a 5-0 week to solidify their hold on first place. Pinocent Bystanders (38-27) also had a 5-0 week to move into second place, followed by 3 Plus One (35-30), Slo Movers (34-31), Lucky 7 (33-32), Stayin’ Alive (32-33), Strike Away (31-34), Ricochet (29-36), SOS (26-39), and Strikers (23-43).
Carol Gloski had the women’s high handicap game (252) and Darlene Ladabouche had the high handicap series (685), while Kevin Napaver again had the men’s high handicap game (244) and series (736). Pinocent Bystanders once again had the high team handicap game (840) and series (2,513).
Napaver had the men’s high scratch series (736) with games of 249, 244, and 243, while Robert Rigby had a 614 series with games of 231, 193, and 190. Chuck Adams had a 554 series with a 193 game, Peter Deyo had a 545 series with a 204 game, and John Walker had a 529 series with a 197 game. Mike Pavlovich had a 508 series and Rick Westcott had a 194 game.
Gloski again had the women’s high scratch series (542) and game (173). Ladabouche had games of 173 and 168, Shirley Aiken had a 166 game, and Vikki Butynski had games of 165 and 163.
Randolph T. Holhut, deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at news@commonsnews.org.
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.