-The winter high school sports season has barely started, but some local teams are finding out that injuries and illness are tougher foes than the teams they have to face.
Take the Bellows Falls girls’ basketball team. Head coach James Pecsok says the flu bug swept through his team just before the holiday break, and left them shorthanded.
When the Terriers hosted Thetford on Dec. 19, they were without two members of their starting lineup — junior point guard Abby Nystrom and senior forward Candace James. Without them, the team struggled to score and trailed 29-17 at halftime.
Sophomore Avery Maxfield scored 14 of BF’s 17 points in the first half to keep the Terriers in the game. The second half saw the Terriers turn up the defensive pressure as they went on an 15-1 run that gave BF a 32-30 lead with 4:20 to play. Thetford rallied and shut out the Terriers the rest of the way to seal a 41-31 victory.
Against Mill River on Dec. 22 at Holland Gymnasium, James and Nystrom were again not in the starting lineup, but the Terriers got plenty of offense from Maxfield and Gracie Patterson in a 55-37 win.
BF led 29-23 at the half, and after a three-pointer by Mill River’s Stella Miglorie cut the lead to 29-26 with 6:11 left in the third quarter, Pecsok said he decided his team “needed a spark.” He called a time out and Nystrom, still a bit weakened by her bout with the flu but ready to play, came off the bench to provide that lift.
Immediately, BF went into a full court press defense by Nystrom, and the Terriers went on a 10-2 run to finish out the third quarter and take control of the game to stay. By the time Nystrom left the game with 6:31 left in the fourth quarter, the Terriers had a comfortable 41-28 lead.
Patterson made five three-pointers to lead all scorers with 23 points. Maxfield, who scored 19 points against Thetford, also dropped 19 points on Mill River, with three three-pointers. Olivia Hallock and Nystrom chipped in with four points each. Miglorie led previously unbeaten Mill River with 16 points.
Bellows Falls went into the holiday break with a 2-2 record and showed that when they can make their shots and get their defense cranked up, they can overcome the inevitable bumps in the road that come with the long winter season.
Girls’ basketball
• Leland & Gray certainly knows about those bumps in the road. The Rebels are in a tough spot as point guard Annabelle Brookes, the lone senior on the team and arguably the best athlete, is still out with a hip injury. That leaves a shorthanded team that consists mostly of ninth- and 10th-graders with limited varsity experience.
The Rebels have a tough early schedule and, as a result, started off the season with an 0-5 record. At Mill River on Dec. 16, the Rebels suffered a 61-24 loss. At West Rutland on Dec. 18, the Golden Horde rolled over the Rebels on the way to a 77-4 win. On Dec. 22, the Rebels hosted Proctor, and the Phantoms snapped a 26-game losing streak dating back to the last game of the 2023-24 regular season, beating Leland & Gray, 35-6.
First-year coach Hannah Landers says this season is going to be a learning experience for her young team and that it will take time for her players to develop. Here’s hoping that the experience will ultimately pay off for the Rebels.
• After winning the Leland & Gray Tip-Off Tournament to start the season, Brattleboro suffered its first two losses to head into the holiday break. On Dec. 17, the Bears hosted Northampton, Massachusetts, and the Blue Devils left with a 51-38 win. At Hartford on Dec. 22, the Bears lost 38-31 to even their record at 2-2.
• Twin Valley is easing into its schedule, with only two games in December. After beating Proctor, 38-15, on Dec. 15, the Wildcats were defeated by Rivendell, 51-30, in their home opener on Dec. 17. The 1-1 Wildcats won’t be in action again until Jan. 5, when they travel to Mill River.
Boys’ basketball
• Twin Valley has been lighting up the scoreboard as the season begins, thanks to the Brown brothers. Brayden and Landon Brown led the Wildcats in scoring with 31 and 30 points, respectively, in a 110-29 win over Proctor on Dec. 13 in the consolation game of the Bob Abrahamson Tip-Off Classic. The 110 points set a school record for most points scored in a varsity game.
Brayden Brown had the hot hand in the first round of the Green Mountain Holiday Tournament in Chester, where the Wildcats defeated GM, 93-50, on Dec. 16. He scored 38 points, with eight rebounds, eight assists, and nine steals. Landon Brown, Brayden’s younger brother, scored 26 points, Niko Gerding had 18 points, and Brian Sullivan had eight points and eight rebounds.
The Wildcats fell to Mount St. Joseph, 79-75, on Dec. 18 in the championship game. Landon Brown was the high scorer for Twin Valley with 29 points, while Brayden Brown added 26 points, and Carson McHale scored nine points, all on three-point shots.
The Twin Valley offense cooled off some on Dec. 20, when they hosted Leland & Gray in the home opener and defeated the Rebels, 63-34. They were led by Landon Brown, who had career highs in points (31) and rebounds (14), plus seven steals. Gerding chipped in 18 points. Spencer Claussen scored 14 points for the Rebels.
That win capped off a busy December for the 3-2 Wildcats. They’re off until Jan. 6, when they host Woodstock for a 7 p.m. game.
• The Rebels’ loss to Twin Valley was sandwiched by a 78-43 loss to West Rutland on Dec. 17, and a 47-46 loss to Green Mountain on Dec. 23. Leland & Gray entered the holiday break with a 0-4 record.
• Bellows Falls also played in the Green Mountain tournament and lost to Mount St. Joseph 47-40, in the opening round game on Dec. 16. Morgan Haskell led the Terriers with 11 points, Jaden Bazin added 10, and Jacob Kissell scored nine.In the tournament consolation game on Dec. 18, the Terriers defeated Green Mountain, 69-44.
• Brattleboro lost 82-67 to Greenfield, Massachusetts, on Dec. 16. The visiting Bears got 27 points from Hudson Smith, while Greenfield was led by Graydon Thomas, who scored 32 points, and Connor Bergeron, who added 20 points.
The Bears lost, 73-54, to St. Johnsbury on Dec. 17 at the BUHS gym, and then got their first victory on Dec. 23 with a 65-63 overtime win on the road against the Fair Haven Slaters.
Bears forward Owen Dascomb scored the game-winning basket as time expired to complete an improbable comeback. The Slaters opened with an 18-4 lead before the Bears starting chipping away and eventually took the lead in the third period. From that point, the game ebbed and flowed until it ended regulation time in a 55-55 tie.
Dawson Wheeler led Brattleboro with 18 points, followed by Noah Moore with 15, Logan Waite with 10, Logan Casey with nine, Alasdair Jenks with six, and Dascomb with five in a balanced scoring attack.
Nordic skiing
• The Brattleboro Nordic ski team is off to a good start. In a Southern Vermont League (SVL) sprint race final at Prospect Mountain in Woodford on Dec. 13, Brattleboro’s Nico Conathan-Leach finished first in 3 minutes, 30 seconds, while teammate Mayan Coleman was fourth in the girls’ sprint with a time of 4:18.
In an SVL classic race at Wild Wings Nordic Center in Peru on Dec. 17, Nico Conathan-Leach finished first in the boys’ classic race in 22 minutes, 21 seconds. Milo MacArthur was 13th in 28:49, Dylan Bouchard was 16th in 31:23, Walter Korb was 17th in 31:33, and Charlie Kiehle was 19th in 35:59. Coleman was the girls’ classic winner with a time of 27:42.
Ice hockey
• The Brattleboro boys opened their season at Withington Rink on Dec. 17 with a 7-0 loss to the Missisquoi Thunderbirds. Bears goaltender Silas Golding made 44 saves as the T-Birds scored twice in the first period, three times in the second period, and twice more in the third. The Bears then played to a 2-2 tie against visiting Rutland on Dec. 20.
Another honor for Hayford
• Buddy Hayford, who led the Twin Valley boys’ soccer team to an undefeated season and its 11th state championship under his tenure, was recently named one of the 2025 National Coaches of the Year by the United Soccer Coaches.
Hayford, who has the most wins of any Vermont boys’ soccer coach, also passed the 500-win milestone in the 2025 season on the way to the Wildcats’ first state title since 2020.
This is the second time that Hayford earned this distinction in the high school boys small public-school category, after previously earning it in 2013.
“I‘m not a fan of tooting my own horn (I really, really dislike it), but I am the school’s athletic director and have been asked to pass this along,” Hayford wrote in an email to The Commons. He called it “the best Christmas present from a professional standpoint. I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to coach some very talented players. Without them, we don’t win any accolades, as we all know.”
The recipients will be honored at the United Soccer Coaches Awards Convention in January in Philadelphia, where Hayford says he is excited “to represent Vermont, and collect a plaque and memories.”
Senior bowling roundup
• The fall/winter season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl concluded on Dec. 23 with Pinocent Bystanders winning the league championship with a 57-28 record, followed by Wayne’s World (53-32), 3 Plus One (46-39), Lucky 7 (45-40), Stayin’ Alive (41-44), Ricochet (40-45), Strike Away and Slo Movers (both 39-46), SOS (37-48), and Strikers (28-57).
Candida Wall had the women’s high handicap game (251) and Connie Stockwell had the high handicap series (683), while Jerry Dunham had the men’s high handicap game (309) and series (739). Pinocent Bystanders had the high team handicap game (891) and series (2,513).
Chuck Adams had the men’s high scratch series (679) with games of 244, 226. and 209, while Kevin Napaver had a 610 series with games of 226 and 214, Robert Rigby had a 603 series with games of 215 and 201, and Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 602 series with games of 237 and 191. Mike Pavlovich had a 590 series with games of 233 and 212, John Walker had a 571 series with a pair of 198 games, Peter Deyo had a 538 series with a 197 game, and Stan Kolpa had a 520 series. Jerry Dunham had a 218 game and Rick Westcott rolled a 195.
Stockwell had the women’s high scratch series (476) and game (182). Vikki Butynski had a 173 game and Wall rolled a 169.
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.