Coming into this travel basketball season at the start of the winter, Amesbury 8th-grade girls coach Pedro Rodrigues would have been satisfied if his team managed to go .500.
After all, the odds weren’t exactly in their favor.
Yes, a year ago with basically the same group, Amesbury did manage to win the River Valley League championship. But that was when it was competing down in Division 2, whereas this year, it moved up to Division 1 and had to contend with much bigger communities that have rich basketball histories — such as Nashua, Lowell, Bedford (N.H.) and Londonderry.
So, it was going to be a major step-up in competition.
But then something funny happened.
“Right when we started the year, we played some teams tight and were able to get a couple of big wins,” said Rodrigues. “And it was kind of like a, ‘Oh, wait, we might be able to do a lot better than we originally thought’ moment.”
Yeah, safe to say the program did quite well for itself this year.
Just this past weekend, Amesbury actually won the River Valley League Larry Dysart Tournament, beating a strong team from Peabody in the title game, 57-48. That came after an epic victory over perennial power and two-time defending Division 1 champion Lowell in the semifinals (51-48), as the program was able to successfully defend its Division 2 title from a year ago — while playing up.
Out of 40 much larger communities in the league, small little Amesbury came out on top.
“We just competed really well,” said Rodrigues. “The team is super into basketball, and they all worked hard every day while always having a smile on their face. They all played together during the summer, getting pick-up games in at the park, and it’s just been a good culture to be involved in. It was really fun to go to practice.”
For the season, Amesbury finished with a 25-5 record.
It’s a tight-knit group of 10 athletes, who have all been coached by Rodrigues since the fifth grade. They finished second in the league this year to earn the No. 2 seed in the tournament, and for the season had the second-highest scoring offense (49.0 ppg), the highest margain of victory (8.7 ppg), and the fifth-ranked defense (40.0 ppg allowed).
But the stat that makes Rodrigues most proud?
“Out of the 30 games, in 10 or 12 of those we had all seven or eight of our active players score,” said Rodrigues. “We got contributions from everyone. … And they really played a varsity-like schedule as 8th-graders. Playing against such big towns, I mean, Bedford had two girls who were over 6-foot. There was such depth and strength in the league, anybody could beat anybody on any given night.”
And their success should have Amesbury basketball fans truly excited.
We’ve mentioned it before, but multiple times during the year, Amesbury girls varsity coach, Scott Brown, eluded to having, “three of the best 8th-graders I’ve ever seen,” coming up through the pipeline. Well, those three are Haley Dube, Maddy Rodrigues and Lexi Linsey, and all three played up on Amesbury High’s dominant JV team that went undefeated this winter.
Then how about this?
Dube, Rodrigues and Linsey grew up attending Amesbury games, watching the likes of Alli Napoli and the Hallinan sisters — Avery and McKenna — win a Division 4 State Championship. The trio still have the autographs of those former greats hanging in their rooms, and now this year, Napoli was their Amesbury JV coach.
Talk about coming full circle.
But, like Rodrigues mentioned, it was a team effort that powered the program to the River Valley championship. Also making up the team, and playing key roles, were Ava Nash, Sophia Drew, Avery Oullet, Lilly McCarthy, Lillyanne Sachetti, Charlotte Kime and Emmy Kmiec.
“They’re just a fun group to be around,” said Rodrigues. “They want to work hard and they want to keep improving. I miss them already.”
Another sign of that passion?
After their tournament victory, Dube, Rodrigues and Linsey traveled with their coach to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, to watch the UConn women beat Creighton, 70-50, in the Big East Tournament title game on Monday. Both Rodrigues and his wife, Danielle, are UConn alums, and for their athletes, it was a no-brainer to jump at the opportunity to go take in even more high-quality basketball.
So, yeah, the future is looking increasingly bright in Amesbury.
Just this year, a freshman in Olivia McKay (12.4 ppg, 21 3s) led Amesbury in scoring, while sophomore Ellison Talbot (9.6 ppg, 20 3s) was second. Then between junior Bailey Kimball, sophomore Celia Tavares and freshmen Delaney Sargent and Shelby Massey, the Redhawks should have a great core group coming back.
We’re not guaranteeing varsity spots here, those are earned.
But if Dube, Rodrigues and Linsey continue their trajectory, and end up joining that core next winter, the CAL better watch out.
“What’s exciting is that they are kids who love playing basketball and are passionate about it,” said Rodrigues. “That love and positive energy being injected into the program will only be a good thing.”