Before bidding farewell to the seven BHS Seniors who took BHS to the Division 3 North finals for the first time in school history, Girls JV Basketball Coach Jim Greenwood summed up the BHS Girls season, “The varsity team made it to the Massachusetts Division 3 Elite 8, and that is something to be proud of.”
The celebratory banquet started with Frosh Coach Mike O’Shaughnessy thanking Athletic Director Keith Mangan for scrambling to find opponents for the team because many Div. 3 DCL teams did not field Freshman teams. This required Bedford to play D-1 teams like Westford, who might have more substitutes on the bench, then Bedford had members on their whole team. But the stiff competition only made BHS girls better players.
Next, Coach Greenwood presented certificates to all the JV players and a surprise Coach’s award for Theresa Hennessey who led the JV team in scoring.
Varsity Coach Jason Talanian finished the night celebrated seven graduating seniors and the teams’ successful season as the first girls basketball team from BHS to reach the sectional championship.
Coach Talanian told how this success story started last year when the team won only 5 games. Because there were no seniors on that team, the juniors needed to step up and play hard. They set this year’s goal to make the MA playoffs, and at mid-season, it was apparent that they were going to achieve their goal. The team redoubled their effort during practice and decided to go as deep as they could in the playoffs when they could have just been happy that they made it in the first place. Their determination to be successful was the driving force this season and they made tremendous strides, improving from 5 wins a year ago (5-15) to 14 this year (14-10).
Coach Talanian, with the help of Assistant Coach Alvin Mayard handout certificates and the team awards:
- MVP – Catherine Marcus
- Defensive Player of the Year – Jennifer Rennich
- Coach’s Award – Annie Cowen
- Most Improved Player – Melanie Proulx