Sunday, December 09, 2012
Landscape Change
Melrose comes off a pair of sub .500 seasons with senior leadership and experience looking to rebound.
The team has winning athletes, including seven players who played on the state championship volleyball team.
Melrose has historically relied on athletic half-court man-to-man defense, opportunistic transition offense, and during its extended run at the top of the Middlesex League, a physical inside presence complemented by high school superstar level guard play.
For example, Melrose continues to have players at the collegiate level, Hannah Brickley at Trinity, Colleen Hanscom at Bridgewater State, and Siena Mamayek at WPI to name a few. Shey Peddy stars in the Israeli professional basketball league after being drafted by the Chicago Sun of the WNBA. Shannon and Meg Kirwan had successful college careers at Bentley and Emmanuel.
Melrose's biggest competition comes from Reading, returning from an undefeated state title season of its own, led by Olivia Healey, a Division I signee with Richmond. The Rockets got a devastating loss to injury for the season with the loss of her fellow guard Morgan O'Brien, an Assumption recruit. Reading remains talented, but Kim Penney's team will need younger players to step up quickly.
This year boys and girls games will be played at different sites. Steve Pacheco, a longtime area sports writer, updates the process. His column speaks for itself.
A critical excerpt:
Meanwhile, plenty of other teams will look to rise. Watertown with the Coppola sisters can make noise, Woburn always brings athleticism, has height, and excellent coaching, and teams around the league fundamentally seek "payback" for a decade of Melrose dominance.
Not that anyone should care what my opinion is, but I think the change is extremely negative for the basketball programs, fans, and players. Fans now must choose which teams to support. The work-around of creating equal balanced starting times could have been easily achievable, and I believe that the Middlesex League did both boys' and girls' programs a disservice with this change. I strongly recommend that you read Steve Pacheco's articles concerning the change.
Melrose has historically relied on athletic half-court man-to-man defense, opportunistic transition offense, and during its extended run at the top of the Middlesex League, a physical inside presence complemented by high school superstar level guard play.
For example, Melrose continues to have players at the collegiate level, Hannah Brickley at Trinity, Colleen Hanscom at Bridgewater State, and Siena Mamayek at WPI to name a few. Shey Peddy stars in the Israeli professional basketball league after being drafted by the Chicago Sun of the WNBA. Shannon and Meg Kirwan had successful college careers at Bentley and Emmanuel.
Melrose's biggest competition comes from Reading, returning from an undefeated state title season of its own, led by Olivia Healey, a Division I signee with Richmond. The Rockets got a devastating loss to injury for the season with the loss of her fellow guard Morgan O'Brien, an Assumption recruit. Reading remains talented, but Kim Penney's team will need younger players to step up quickly.
This year boys and girls games will be played at different sites. Steve Pacheco, a longtime area sports writer, updates the process. His column speaks for itself.
A critical excerpt:
Why did this change? It’s simple. A parent of a Lexington girls player threatened legal action stating that having the girls varsity always playing at 5:30 p.m. with the boys playing after is not in compliance of Title IX. I am certainly not a lawyer, nor will I pretend to be one, but I thought the schools did a good job with highlighting potential marquee girls games and making them the “primetime” game. But obviously that was not the case. Regardless, this isn’t where I am about to go with this.
Once lawsuits are threatened it’s game over unfortunately and the league’s AD’s voted to have opposite site varsity games using the same scheduling format used in soccer.
Meanwhile, plenty of other teams will look to rise. Watertown with the Coppola sisters can make noise, Woburn always brings athleticism, has height, and excellent coaching, and teams around the league fundamentally seek "payback" for a decade of Melrose dominance.
Not that anyone should care what my opinion is, but I think the change is extremely negative for the basketball programs, fans, and players. Fans now must choose which teams to support. The work-around of creating equal balanced starting times could have been easily achievable, and I believe that the Middlesex League did both boys' and girls' programs a disservice with this change. I strongly recommend that you read Steve Pacheco's articles concerning the change.
// posted by Ron Sen, MD, FCCP @ 9:36 AM 
