By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

T

he Douglas girls basketball team has endured several years of winless seasons on the court, but last season the Tigers under coach Ralph Quinn were able to scrape together a couple of wins. 

“Recent history here has not had that much success,” Quinn said. “Very few kids are interested in basketball; we have a lot of year-round soccer players and I believe that contributes to the low numbers to a degree. With those numbers we are only able to field a varsity team and have no JV team or a feeder program.”

Wile Quinn tried to recruit girls to play basketball he didn’t have any luck and this year Douglas was once again only able to put a varsity team on the court. In fact, the Tigers needed to apply for an eighth-grade waiver to get the numbers up to be able to field the varsity squad. 

“The waiver has allowed for us to use eighth graders on the varsity team and while we have the bodies now it has been growing pains for them and they’ve been basically thrown to the wolves,” the Coach said. “The eighth graders are seeing time and have contributed to the varsity team.”

Although Douglas was able to secure a handful of wins last winter, Quinn noted that the first half of the season the team really struggled to compete. At that point he wasn’t worried about wins and losses, he was looking for the girls to challenge the opposition on the court. Originally the team didn’t have all that much success, but they did eventually turn things around and found themselves playing competitive basketball, but were still finding themselves short, especially in the league where they did not win a game.

Coming into this year the ultimate goal was to continue to improve. With the older girls on track to build on last year’s strengths, and the addition of the eighth graders Douglas is improving.

The eighth graders were the new ingredient in the mix with a lot of skill and have contributed to this year’s success. Douglas opened the season with a loss to Ashland, but Quinn noted the girls competed from the beginning of the game to the end. At the time of this writing, Douglas is in a place they haven’t

been in some time with a 6-2 record. Their only other loss was to Notre Dame Academy by two points. Douglas is 3-0 in the league with wins over Sutton, Nipmuc and Whitinsville-Christian.

“We’ve been 0-10 for a long time in the league, but not this year,” Quinn said. “We still have some tough games coming up, but it feels good not to go winless for another year. There are no big heads, it’s nice to see those wins, especially for the older girls who have never seen them before.”

With no seniors on this year’s squad, Quinn will be looking at three juniors in Zoe Greenough, Paige Gosselin and Mackenna Chaisson to continue to build off last year’s improvement. All three will be vying for starting roles.

Ari Delgardo, a sophomore shooting forward, has secured a starting position with her perimeter scoring. The sophomore is getting better at attacking the basket, has shown that she can match up with the big girls and has gotten better with her inside and physical play. She is averaging about six points per game thus far.

Another sophomore contributing is Saige Cobb, a forward who not only can rebound, but brings support to the team. She is continually cheering her teammates on and Quinn is hoping that by the end of the year, she is able to get her first varsity basket.

Twins Jasmine and Addison Trudeau are both contributing to the team’s success this winter. Jasmine, a starting guard, is the team’s leading scorer with 10.6 points per game and has already knocked down 14 three-point shots on the young season. Addison is not a scorer like her sister but does play excellent defense and according to the coach, her length allows her to match up well against forwards as well as guards.

Some of the Tigers’ biggest contributors have come via the eighth-grade waiver. Four girls; Lily Denomme, Maddie Hogan, Aria Lachance and Kassidy Price have all made positive strides intheir first campaign on the varsity team.

Denomme, the Tiger center, currently finds herself as the team’s second leading scorer notching 8.8 points per contest and brings a quickness to the floor in addition to her rebounding skills. Quinn sees her as a difference-maker who draws a lot of attention for the other teams.

Hogan is the quarterback of the team, playing a guard position. The eighth grader is a very smart basketball player with great vision of the court and defensively, one of the better players. Lachance, another guard, is tenacious on the ball. Defensively she gets right in the face of the opposition and will not back down for anything. Price is an excellent defender, who is not only long but very athletic with huge upside. Her trajectory is heading north and her defense keeps her on the floor.

Two other eighth graders who bring a finesse game to the courts for Douglas are Lexie Thibault and Brooke Heney. Thibault is arguably the most skilled player and a phenomenal ball handler, while Heney brings skills with her perimeter shooting. Quinn is working with her on the physical aspect of her game.

Opening at 6-2 is definitely a surprise to the coach this year. 

“I was not expecting this to happen so quickly,” Quinn said. “I was hoping that we’d work on it this year and with all of the girls coming back next year we could make some noise.”
Quinn also noted that he believes that there is another solid group of eighth graders who could make the jump next year giving Douglas the ability to have not only a varsity team, but junior varsity team as well. 

However, while that is still a year away, he is worried about the rest of this season and getting the girls to continue to improve their games so that they are ready to make a jump next season.