EAGLE FILE PHOTO
Czubryt, Misiuk, Burke, Coughlan. Those are just a few of the names of players who cycled through the Hoosac Valley boys program under Robinson.
His resume is as good as anyone’s in Massachusetts, and having Bill Robinson back on a sideline is nothing but good news for Hoosac basketball, for Berkshire County and for the game itself.
And yes, I will break out the Bill Robinson dance video that I shot back when Jameson Coughlin hit the basket in triple-overtime to beat Uxbridge in an MIAA Division III state semifinal game at the MassMutual Center.
But that was not the game of his I remember most.
Back in March, 2003, Hoosac and Wahconah were involved in a heavyweight title fight. Every time a team got knocked down it would get up off the canvas.
But with little time on the clock and with Mitch Belanger’s hand in his face, Wahconah sharpshooter Greg Noel hit a 3-point basket that knotted the game at 59.
“The peaks and the valleys, the electricity in that gym when Noel hit that shot, the Wahconah people just erupted,” said Robinson, in a column I wrote back in 2013.
But instead of calling time out, Robinson had the Hurricanes inbound the ball. Guard Chad Misiuk, depending on your age and knowledge of basketball history, went all Danny Ainge with BYU or Tyus Edney with UCLA. Misiuk streaked the length of the Curry Hicks Cage floor and scored the game-winning shot as time expired. It was Hoosac’s first-ever Western Mass. boys basketball title.
“On that night, we were evenly matched. Nobody wanted to lose that game,” Robinson told me back in 2013. “It was probably the most draining game I ever coached, I can tell you that.”
