-This summer zipped by, students returned today to schools around Vermont and, suddenly, it’s time for the 2026 fall high school sports season to begin.
• Girls’ soccer gets going on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 11 a.m., when Bellows Falls hosts West Rutland. Leland & Gray also opens at home on Monday, Aug. 31, as the Rebels host Rivendell Academy for a 4:30 p.m. match. Twin Valley opens on the road Tuesday, Sept. 1, with a 4:30 p.m. match at Proctor.
It will be a few weeks before Bears fans see the Brattleboro girls’ soccer team play a home match. Their season starts Wednesday, Sept. 2, against Burr & Burton at Taylor Field in Manchester, followed by the Lady Patriot Soccer Tourney in Bennington on Sept. 9 and 12, and a trip to Rutland on Sept. 15. The first home match for the Bears isn’t until Saturday, Sept. 19, at 2 p.m., against Fair Haven.
• The local boys’ soccer teams will all start the season on Friday, Aug. 28. Bellows Falls, which did not field a varsity team last season, returns for the 2026 season with its debut match against Leland & Gray in Townshend at 3:30 p.m. Brattleboro opens against Green Mountain at Natowich Field at 6 p.m., and Twin Valley hosts White River Valley at Hayford Field in Wilmington at 6 p.m.
• Field hockey also gets started Aug. 28 with Bellows Falls traveling to Colchester to take on the Lakers in a 4 p.m. game. On Wednesday, Sept. 1, Brattleboro hosts Burr & Burton at Sawyer Field in their season opener at 4:15 p.m.
• Bellows Falls hosts the first cross country meet of the season Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 3:30 p.m., in Westminster. Brattleboro will also have runners at that meet. This season, the BF course will be the site for the Southern Vermont League championship meet on Oct. 16.
• This season, Bellows Falls is fielding a varsity boys’ golf team. After playing as independents last season, Morgan Haskell and Lleroy Marino will compete under the BF banner, starting with their first regular season match Aug. 31 at 1 p.m. at the Quechee Invitational.
Haskell and Marino, who are coached by Mike Root, will have their sights set on getting ready for the Southern Vermont League Championships on Sept. 21 at Crown Point Country Club in Springfield. If they do well at Crown Point, they will qualify for the state tournament in Middlebury on Oct. 8. There will be other athletes on the roster, but most of them are also playing football or soccer, so Haskell and Marino will be the only full-time team members.
Bears, Terriers get ready for new football season
• Week 1 of the Vermont high school football season begins Sept. 4 for Bellows Falls and Brattleboro.
Bellows Falls, the reigning Division III state champions, opens its title defense with a 7 p.m. game at Hadley Field against the North Country Falcons. The Terriers then hit the road for the next two games as they head to Fair Haven on Sept. 11 and to Brattleboro on Sept. 18.
The Terriers will have 31 players to begin this season, which has been about the average for the past few years. This means most of the varsity will be doing double duty on offense and defense, which is nothing new for BF.
Bellows Falls will have a new quarterback in junior Saul James, and junior running back Jaden Bazin will look to build upon a tremendous sophomore season. Fittingly, the senior captains for this season are linemen Brockton Lovell and Steven Joslyn, who will set the tone on both sides of the ball. Running the ball with power on offense, and shutting down the running game of their opponents are the hallmarks of BF football.
Bob Lockerby returns for his 20th year as head coach, and few coaches consistently get more out of their players than he does. You can never count them out.
• Brattleboro, which moved down to Division II this season, opens with three non-league games. The season opener will be at Brown Field in Springfield on Friday, Sept. 4, against the Division III Cosmos. The next two games are at Natowich Field with perennial Division I powerhouse St. Johnsbury on Sept. 11 and Bellows Falls on Sept. 18.
Coming off a 1-7 season, there is nowhere to go but up for the Bears and head coach Chad Pacheco. Of the 35 players who came out for football this season, about two dozen of them — most of them seniors — were on last year’s team, and they are determined to turn things around.
Like BF, Brattleboro will have a lot of their varsity players doing double duty, such as seniors Luke DiZiglio at tight end and defensive end, Charlie O’Connell at tight end and linebacker, and Kamarion Hall and Hunter Roth at wide receiver and defensive back.
Underclassmen who are expected to be two-way players include junior Logan Casey at quarterback and defensive back and sophomore lineman Dominic Turner. Senior inside linebackers Tucker Jenks and Conner Emery should provide some pop on defense.
Despite dropping to Division II, the schedule is filled with mostly Division I teams this season. The immediate goal for the Bears is to play with more consistency and discipline than they did last season. If they can do that, success should follow.
Farnham, Greenbaum named to UVM Hall of Fame
• The University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame recently unveiled its Class of 2026 inductees, who will be formally inducted Oct. 2 at the 57th UVM Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner at the Davis Center in Burlington. Two Brattleboro Union High School alumni are in the new class — Rick Farnham (special inductee) and Kari Greenbaum (women’s basketball).
Farnham, a member of the BUHS Class of 1965, arrived at UVM that fall and played freshman football and then three years of varsity football. He later became an assistant coach with the program in 1973, having coached at South Burlington High School for four years after graduating from UVM in 1969.
He served as an assistant athletic director at UVM from 1975 to 1992, then moved up to the post of director of athletics from 1992 until 2003. During Farnum’s tenure, UVM garnered two skiing national championships, three women’s basketball NCAA Tournament appearances, the men’s basketball team’s first conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance, and the men’s hockey team’s run to its first Frozen Four appearance.
In 2003, the baseball team was awarded The Boston Globe’s Trophy for the top Division I team in New England. From 1978 to 1982, Farnham also served as head coach of men’s lacrosse in the program’s first seasons as a varsity program. Since retiring from UVM Athletics, he has been a popular teacher and speaker at the collegiate and high school level. He has also volunteered his services to many civic organizations around the state and is a lifetime Rotarian.
Greenbaum, a 1991 BUHS graduate, was a key contributor to the Catamounts’ string of successful women’s basketball seasons in the early 1990s. She scored 1,420 points for BUHS between 1988 and 1991, then went up to UVM on a basketball scholarship to score 1,252 points and help lead the Catamounts to two undefeated seasons (1991-92 and 1992-93) and UVM’s first appearances in the NCAA women’s tournament.
The 1995 UVM graduate led the Catamounts with 17.3 points and 3.9 assists per game as a senior and also paced UVM that season while grabbing 166 rebounds. She was the first women’s player at UVM to lead the team in all three categories in a single season, accomplishing a feat that’s only occurred five times in program history.
Greenbaum was a First Team All-Conference selection during the 1994-95 campaign. She averaged over 10 points per game as a starter on the 1992-93 and 1993-94 teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament both seasons. During the 1992-93 season, she averaged 11 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while helping the 28-1 Cats earn a No. 8 seed and a home game in the NCAA Tournament. Her 468 points during the 1994-95 campaign are the 19th most by a player in program history.
After graduating from UVM with a forestry degree, Greenbaum attended Southern Maine Technical College and graduated with a degree in carpentry in 1998. Continuing her family’s long history in the building trades, she is the lead builder at skåda, the Essex Junction-based custom design and building company that she helped to found nearly two decades ago.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 16 of the spring/summer season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League on Aug. 20 at Brattleboro Bowl saw Pin Heads and Queen ‘n’ Jokers (both 50-30) tied for first place wit one week to go in the season. The House is close behind (48-32), followed by Ducks (42-38), Skippers (40-40), Number 1 and Near Miss (both 36-44), Strike Force and Slo Movers (both 33-47), and Team Two (32-48).
Vikki Butynski had the women’s high handicap game (265) and series (709). John Laamanen had the men’s high handicap game (266) and Rich Garron had the high handicap series (679). Pin Heads had the team high handicap game (875) and The House had the high handicap series (2,547).
Kevin Napaver again had the men’s high scratch series (706) with games of 256, 237, and 213. Robert Rigby had a 539 series with a 181 game, Laamanen had a 529 series, and Warren Corriveau Sr. and John Walker both had 511 series. Notable games included Rick Westcott (199) and Gary Montgomery (187).
Butynski had the women’s high scratch series (487) and Carol Gloski had the high scratch game (196). Butynski had a 191 game, Diane Miller had a 175 game, and Debbie Rittenhour rolled a 166.
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.