COUNTY COURIER QUESTION OF THE WEEK: 02/24/2022

**Each week, the County Courier sports staff will answer one “Question of the Week” in regards to the high school sports scene. Check back each Thursday to see what question we are answering and don’t forget to pick up a copy of the County Courier on Thursdays**

With the regular season starting to wind down on the winter season, who are some of your unsung heroes from this season? 

Always an important question, especially for those of us covering games. It’s easy to give coverage to the Michael Jordans – their stats are easy to lead with and they tend to show up in every photo. But all teams need their Dennis Rodman’s (not necessarily in demeanor/style, just in willingness to do the gritty work that doesn’t always land on the front page). This is a list with which we could all go on for pages and the names would change depending on which particular games we attended. But here’s a few who stood out for me as unsung heroes this season:

-Bridgett Dunn (BFA-Fairfax Basketball): This year’s Bullet team had a tough time scoring, but the defensive effort was never in doubt. We came into the season expecting big nights from Hazel Albee at both ends of the floor and strong point guard work from Faith Benjamin. Those two along with Gabby Jones, Taylor Duquette and Anna Villeneuve delivered often, but BFA needed strong defense and often got it from Dunn. The senior just had a knack for knowing where a pass was going even before the passer knew and came up with steals at an impressive rate. The Bullets didn’t always turn those steals into points the way they’d have liked, but Dunn’s defense kept Fairfax from being blown out night after night this season.

-Charlie Yates (BFA-St. Albans Basketball): It would be fair to list just about any of the Bobwhites as unsung heroes this season, the team has more than held its own in the Metro League and it has done so without anything really resembling an offensive star. On any given night it could be Thomas Demar or Noah Earl or Seth Richards or any number of BFA players as top scorer, but the Bobwhites have thrived through tenacious defense and unselfish play. When BFA has needed a big rebound or lockdown defense or an extra pass, I feel like I’m often seeing that come from Yates. Again, this Bobwhite team is basically an Unsung Hero All-Star Team, but if I’m going to war in the playoffs I want Yates on my side.

Kali Favreau-Ward (Missisquoi Hockey): It feels a little strange to list a goalie here, they’re one of the few players mentioned in almost every article we write. But Favreau-Ward is a hero for this year’s Thunderbirds. When you see a first-year goalie starting for a varsity team, you have to consider that the alternative is very bad and someone stepped up for the good of the program. Favreau-Ward’s selflessness has paid off as she and her T-Birds have improved as the season has gone on; MVU started 2-11 but won four of its last seven games to close the regular season. The Thunderbirds yielded five or more goals in each of its first seven games but just 2.28 goals per game in its last seven. This young team is on the rise and they have Favreau-Ward to thank for many of the positives in this rebuilding year.

I’m going to start off with someone from the Missisquoi girls basketball team. I know Ben had mentioned her in an answer to a previous Question of the Week, but I am going with McKenzie Vincent. Maybe I’m just late to the party, but I was very impressed with her play during the team’s playdown game against Springfield on Tuesday. Vincent finished that game with 13 points and 13 rebounds and I could be mistaken, but I don’t think she came out at all in the second half at all of that game. She uses her height to her advantage and is a force in the post both offensively and defensively. On the offensive side, she forces teams to collapse down on her and she is able to kick it out to an open teammate. She also helps her team get a number of second-chance opportunities by pulling down offensive rebounds. She was one of a number of solid pieces for a Thunderbird program that hadn’t seen a winning regular season or hosted a playoff game in over 30 years before this season. After the team’s success this year, Vincent will enter her senior season next year and will play an integral role for the team.

Switching over to the ice there were a few places I could go with this question from the BFA-St. Albans girls hockey team. I couldn’t choose just one player, so I had to choose a few. When I think up the Question of the Week every week, I usually like to go with the first answers that come into my head because that’s usually what I perceive as the correct answer. Three players that jumped out to me were Rachel Needleman, Ayla Shea and Rowan Howrigan. Playing defense isn’t always the most glamorous spot, but the have played a huge role in the team finishing out their first undefeated regular season in program history. While they don’t put up huge numbers offensively, they have been huge on defense. I thought about some offensive players that could have gone here too and the Comets have plenty more of those, but the reason I chose to stick with the players on defense is they got better and better as the season went along. The Comets defense held opponents to under 20 shots on net in 11 games this season and they only allowed an average of 14 shots on goal in their final five games. All three have been solid all season along with Sophie Zemianek and Molly Smith on defense. It’s easy to focus on goals and assists or saves in a game whereas how well a person plays on defense is tougher to quantitate. This is why I thought of Needleman, Shea and Howrigan and how much they have contributed to the success of this season’s Comets team whether it shows up on the scoresheet in every game or not they deserve a ton of recognition for what they have helped accomplish.

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