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Feast or famine for teams during Christmas week

Thursday, December, 27 By Mike Grenier
Staff writer

High school basketball coaches and players are creatures of habit.

They're accustomed to playing on Tuesdays and Fridays. They set their clocks to it from December through February.

But Christmas week poses a challenge for North Shore teams. The usual routine is suspended because they're either playing back-to-back games in a holiday tournament or they're in the midst of a long break.

Nobody, it seems, wants an extended break. Coaches worry that their teams are going to get stale. If you're hot, you definitely want to keep playing during Christmas week. Even if you're nicked up, you want to be playing because the alternative | waiting 11-12 days for a game | isn't all that attractive.

"When kids hear the word tourney, they like it," said Beverly coach Scott Lewis. "To them it means playing for a title and trophies. Believe me, kids love that stuff."

Lewis badly wanted his team to play in a holiday tourney this week and was willing to have the Panthers travel as far as Bridgewater for a pair of games, but he couldn't make it happen. As a result, Beverly doesn't play from Dec. 22 until Jan. 4, when it takes on Salem.

He's not alone. Salem coach Tommy Doyle and Marblehead's Wayne Hanscom are in the same predicament. Too much idle time.

"We were in the Chelsea tournament last year and we thought it would happen again, but it didn't materialize," said Hanscom. "Somehow, somewhere we'd like to be in a Christmas tourney. It's too long a layoff."

It's either feast or famine for North Shore teams this week. The coaches who were able to lock their teams into a holiday tournament are thrilled about it. Peabody has been hosting a boys/girls holiday event for the last three seasons and this time Paul Moran's Swampscott High boys team is in the field for the first time.

Bishop Fenwick is another team that's headed to a post-Christmas tournament and the Crusaders don't mind traveling to Nashoba Regional in Bolton for games on tonight and Saturday.

Hamilton-Wenham, which hosted a Christmas tourney for many years in honor of the late Sherm Kinney, then had to drop two games off its schedule for budget reasons, is back in the mix this holiday season for a tournament in Gloucester tomorrow and Saturday.

The Tanners Holiday Tournament at Peabody is set for tonight and tomorrow. The opening round today has Swampscott going against Goffstown, N.H., at 3:30 p.m. and Peabody taking on Wakefield at 6:30 p.m.. The consolation and championship games are set for tomorrow at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively.

"I always like it when we're challenged and this is going to be good for us," said Moran, whose team, led by solid players such as John Beaulieu, Scott Leffler and Craig Rodenstein, has the firepower to win it all.

"We saw the New Hampshire team, Goffstown, up at Plymouth State and they're competitive. Peabody is always well-coached by Chris (Mastrangelo) and now they're in the (Northeastern Conference) with us, so that makes it more interesting. Wakefield has always been a basketball town.

"Can we get up for these teams? Are you kidding? Most of our guys are multi-sport athletes who've been playing in big games, whether it was in Legion baseball or football (Swampscott won the Super Bowl). Our kids will be ready."

Peabody's Mastrangelo joked about Christmas day, saying, "I think I'll give the kids the day off from practice," but he's very serious about the expansive nature of the tournament, which includes a complimentary clinic tomorrow (10 a.m.) for kids in grades 4-8. Following the hoop clinic, Peabody police and city officials will be there to talk about the danger of drugs.

As for the competition, Mastrangelo noted that Goffstown "has two 6-6 kids back and I think the team is much better than last year, and Swampscott is a perfect fit for this tourney. Swampscott has a winning tradition and will bring people and Wakefield will bring a crowd. I'm excited about the lineup, but I hope we can win it."

Meanwhile, coach Sean Connolly's Bishop Fenwick's Crusaders are gearing up to play teams they aren't all that familiar with in the Nashoba holiday tourney. But it really doesn't matter.

"There aren't that many games (this week)," said Connolly. "If you don't play in a Christmas tourney, it can be tough. It's hard to practice for that long a stretch, so we're happy to be playing in a tournament."

Bishop Fenwick will play Shawsheen in the opening round tonight (7 p.m.). North Shore Tech plays the host team, Nashoba, in the other game. The tourney wraps up Saturday with the consolation game at 5 p.m. and the title game at 7 p.m.

Hamilton-Wenham coach Marty Binette is eager to see his team play in the Gloucester Holiday Tournament. Tomorrow's doubleheader has Manchester Essex playing Amesbury at 6:30 and the H-W Generals taking on Gloucester at 8 p.m.. The winners and losers go right back at it 24 hours later. "Playing in something like this keeps us in the gym during the Christmas break," said Binette. "It's going to be tough going into Gloucester to win that first game | they'll want to defend their home court. But it'll be good for us to be in something that will have a tourney feel to it."

Elsewhere, St. John's Prep can usually be found in an eight-team field at the Lowell Holiday Tournament at this time of year, but the Eagles are done with it for now. Coach Dan Letarte has his reasons. Three of them, in fact.

"It's three more road games," said Letarte. "We don't have enough home games as it is. We just wanted to balance it out a little bit."

Danvers and Ipswich are not participating in a Christmas tourney, so they just decided to play each other in a non-league game at Danvers on Friday night.

"I kind of miss playing in the Sherm Kinney tourney in Hamilton," said Ipswich coach Doug Woodworth, "but you just move on. Danvers will be a test for us."