RICE UNABLE TO PLAY SATURDAY, FATE OF BFA BID FOR D1 CROWN UNCLEAR
UPDATE: The Vermont Principals’ Association announced on Friday morning that, consistent with procedure followed throughout the season, BFA-St. Albans was named Division I girls’ basketball champions and Rice would be runner-up.
By Ben Kaufmann
County Courier
ST. ALBANS – BFA St. Albans’ bid for a third girls’ basketball championship, and first since 1993, took an unexpected twist on Thursday evening when it was announced that Rice would not be able to play on Saturday. No further information was shared in the e-mail from BFA Athletic Director Dan Marlow, but if the Vermont Principals’ Association continues to rule as it has in similar cases this season, the Comets will be named 2021 Division I champions and Rice will finish the season as runner-up.
“It just hit me when I was driving home,” said BFA coach Paul LaFountain, who said his team learned the news when they arrived for practice on Thursday. “I’m kind of getting teary-eyed, but I may only have two hours left in the gym with those girls ever and it’s really hard to swallow. Driving to the gym tonight, that wasn’t on my mind.”
No. 11 Rice (5-6) was on an improbable postseason run and was set to be the lowest seed to play for a title since St. Johnsbury won the crown as a No. 12 in 2010. The Green Knights were deemed close contacts due to a positive COVID test for a player on Burlington, Rice’s semifinal opponent on Tuesday.
Vermont has seen a number of these issues arise this postseason and each time the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) has awarded victory and tournament advancement to the team able to play. This happened to Division I girls’ basketball juggernaut CVU, which was in quarantine when it was supposed to face South Burlington in a quarterfinal. The No. 1 Redhawks, who had reached the last nine championship games and won five of them, were unbeaten this year.
Hope for accommodations for championship games diminished with the precedent set Wednesday. The BFA boys’ hockey team almost didn’t get to play its title game against Essex, but the Hornets were able to complete quarantine and produce negative test results in time to play. The VPA had made it clear that games, even championships, would not be postponed to accommodate quarantine periods. In the prelude to BFA’s win over Essex, the Hornet girls were set to face Burlington/Colchester for that Division I hockey title. BCHS was told in the arena parking lot that they would not be able to participate due to a COVID close contact. The VPA declined to reschedule the game and announced on Thursday morning that Essex, as the team which had been ready to play, was the Division I girls’ hockey champion, and BCHS was runner up. Assuming that precedent is followed, the Comets will win their first basketball championship in 28 years via e-mail.
LaFountain says his girls used Thursday’s practice time to write to the VPA begging for a chance to play for a first title in 28 years.
“The girls were writing a letter to the VPA pleading to just let them play the game,” he said. “At least we’re not going to sit here tomorrow wishing we’d done something.”
No. 4 BFA (8-3) had done everything it could to reach the championship, scheduled for Saturday at 8:00 PM at The Aud in Barre. The Comets played a tremendous season, averaging 50.0 points per game and conceding just 36.4. BFA never lost two games in a row and won both of its playoff games by comfortable margins. Though it was surprising that the path to a title didn’t go through CVU or No. 2 Essex (which lost to Burlington in the quarterfinals), but the Comets can’t be blamed for who they didn’t get to face any more than they could for Saturday’s cancellation. BFA showed up for its games, clearly adhered to COVID guidelines well enough to avoid an outbreak, and won each elimination contest it was required to.
“We did everything we could the right way in my opinion,” LaFountain said. “Whether it was dealing with COVID or getting better as a team and playing together, we did all those things. At the end of the day, if we’re the last team standing due to COVID, this was the hardest season and the girls worked hard to make it here.”
Saturday’s game offered plenty of intrigue. Division I girls’ basketball has been without much surprise in recent years, with CVU and St. Johnsbury squaring off in the championship as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in some order for the last three title games (the initial COVID outbreak halted the 2020 tournament before a championship round). The last time Division I didn’t have a No. 1 vs. No. 2 final was in 2016 when BFA went as a No. 10 and lost to No. 1 CVU and the last time the No. 1 didn’t make the Division I final was 2011, when No. 3 Rice won its last title.
This year’s championship was to feature the steady Comets, who lost narrowly to Essex and Burlington and by 17 to CVU, against the out-of-nowhere Green Knights. Rice began the year 0-6, including a season-opening 19-point trouncing at the hands of BFA. Since March 5th, Rice is 5-0 and is outscoring opponents by nearly 20 points per game. The Green Knights never scored more than 43 points in its first six games and hadn’t scored fewer than 45 since. To be sure, especially after wins over No. 3 Mt. Mansfield and No. 7 Burlington, Rice was not playing like your typical No. 11.
The venue of Saturday’s cancelled contest was another bonus in this remarkable BFA season. Both Comet basketball titles (won consecutively in 1992 and 1993) were won at The Aud, which stopped hosting the Division I final after 1998. Rice had won the first two of its seven program titles at The Aud in 1980 and 1983. This was to be the first meeting between Rice and BFA in a championship game; the Comets held a 4-1 advantage in other postseason meetings between the two programs.
LaFountain said he and his players were greatly looking forward to the opportunity to play at Barre. The Division I semifinals and finals are usually played at UVM’s Patrick Gym and even though some of his players played there in the 2019 semifinal, a trip to the famed Aud was a silver lining to an otherwise tough season.
“I was looking very much forward to getting that opportunity,” LaFountain said. “ I’ve heard so much about it and I’ve never been. I plan to be at BFA the rest of my career and we won’t ever get back there because we’ll go back to Patrick in Division I.”
Asked what message the program wanted to share with the community which has so enthusiastically supported his Comets, the second-year BFA coach said he hoped the circumstances his team couldn’t change are less remembered than how the Comets dealt with what they could.
“As time goes on, the memories of how we got this championship are going to fade and turn to the fact that we got one,” he said, noting that no champion or co-champion has been named yet. “People should remember that the girls did everything they had to and everything they were asked to and they were one hell of a team.”
A rescheduled championship would have to take place at least seven days from Rice’s exposure on Tuesday and the Green Knights would likely need to receive negative COVID test results. Other possibilities include an announcement of co-champions (a possibility LaFountain acknowledged as realistic since Rice’s only sin was playing against a team which later had a positive test) or an announcement of BFA as sole champions. A decision could come as early as Friday morning.
LaFountain hopes this isn’t the end of his team’s journey, but did want to express his admiration of all involved with Comet basketball this season, from the coaching staff to the players at all levels. If his girls don’t take the court again, what stings the most is that the leaders of his senior-heavy varsity team won’t get the championship game they earned. Caitlyn Dasaro, Maren McGinn, MacKenzie Moore, Bethany Sanders, and Iris Burns all played significant minutes for BFA. Dasaro, McGinn, and Moore almost always led BFA in scoring, and Sanders and Burns were effective two-way players who would have figured heavily in a title game.
“It’s one of those feelings as a coach or as a parent where you wish you could take that pain from them,” LaFountain said. “I just wish they had that one more chance to go out and either show we’re the best or maybe we’re not, but at least we’d know.”
