The Hoosac Valley boys took down Wahconah to win a Western Mass. championship at The Cage in 2014.

• EAGLE FILE PHOTO

 

Hoosac Valley’s Jameson Coughlan was a part of back-to-back Western Mass. championship teams in the middle of the decade.

• EAGLE FILE PHOTO

 

Led by a pair of 1,000-point scorers in Alie Mendel and Lexi Mercier, the Hoosac Valley girls broke through to win a state crown in 2019 under coach Ron Wojcik.

• EAGLE FILE PHOTO

 

Hoosac Valley’s Riley Robinson points to her head injury, which helped galvanize the Hurricanes during their state championship win in 2019.

• EAGLE FILE PHOTO

The idea came out of a request.

 

Tony Passetto of Great Barrington asked about a list of Western Massachusetts and state high school basketball champions of the past decade (2011-20).

 

For the record, 21 county teams won Western Massachusetts basketball titles in the decade. In seven of those 10 years, Berkshire County had multiple champions. The only one-team years were 2012 (St. Joseph boys), 2014 (Hoosac Valley girls) and 2018 (Taconic boys). And also for the record, those wins accounted for 32 percent of all the Western Mass. hoop titles won in the decade.

 

Four county teams won Western Mass. titles in 2020, while three won crowns in 2019 and then back in 2011.

 

Hoosac Valley was the only school with multiple wins in consecutive years. The boys and girls won in 2015, and then repeated in 2016. The Taconic boys and girls won Western Mass. and co-state titles in 2020, but will not get a chance to earn a second double this season due to the pandemic.

 

With no tournaments scheduled for this year, and next year’s tournament a 16-team statewide event, this list closes out the Western Mass. tournament era. At least 2020 finished up with Western Mass. titles being decided at Curry Hicks Cage, a venue that brought out the best in high school hoops.

 

Here now, a look at some of what happened between the lines of those 94-foot, by 50-foot basketball courts.

 

The state championshipHoosac Valley reached its fifth state championship game in six seasons in 2019. In four previous trips to either the DCU Center or the MassMutual Center, the Hurricanes had gone 0 for 4.

 

So on Saturday, March 16, Hoosac found itself in a familiar spot but in an unfamiliar place. It was WPI’s gym, where head coach Ron Wojcik had played his college basketball, and it was a foe he had seen before in St. Mary’s of Lynn. St. Mary’s beat Hoosac 74-36 back in 2014.

 

This time, the game belonged to Hoosac by a 66-49 score. The day’s most memorable moment came when Riley Robinson suffered a gash on her forehead, forcing her to the sidelines. Sutured up, she later returned to finish a gutsy effort.

 

But it was freshman Averie McGrath who had to make two free throws as Robinson was fouled when she was hurt. McGrath converted both, and the Hurricanes went on to win.

 

“I don’t even think I could imagine it to be this great,” a beaming Robinson said after that game. “I’m never going to forget this moment, and I love my team so much.

 

“Before today, my dad and my sister both texted me and said ‘Go out and do something that neither one of us had.’ That kind of hit me.”

 

Her father Bill had one state championship game in the last decade, while sister McKenzie was part of the Hoosac dynasty earlier in the decade.

 

A year later, the Hoosac girls, along with both the Taconic boys and girls teams, won their way to the 2020 state finals. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, those title games were canceled and all three were named co-state champions.

 

The biggest upsetsThe Hoosac girls were part of the biggest championship upset run of the decade.

 

It was 2013, and Hoosac finished the regular season 15-5, but was seeded seventh in the 12-team Division II field. Drury (15-3) was the top seed, while Wahconah (11-9) was seeded fourth.

 

With the seventh seed, Hoosac had to play a first-round game. It was at home, and the Hurricanes beat 10th-seeded Palmer 49-36. The quarterfinal was against second-seeded Hampshire Regional. In the start of what became one of the great rivalries in Western Mass., Hoosac beat the No. 2 seed 65-61 in overtime.

 

In the semifinals, Hoosac dispatched Mahar 57-37, only to face its Route 8 rivals from Drury in the title game, where in an intense battle, the Blue Devils came up short, 47-35.

 

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