Sports
Pictures tell the story of fall sports
ADDISON COUNTY — The buses that arrived back at the four local high schools this past fall sports seasons carried two championship teams.
Actually, a pickup truck hauling a boat probably might have carried one winning team home: Mount Abraham’s bass fishing squad of sophomore twins Hailey and Isayah Isham won the title, and they were coached and taken out on Lake Champlain off South Hero by their dad, Eagle Coach Carroll Isham.
Addison County teams have now won two of the past three bass fishing crowns. Middlebury won in 2022, edging a different pair of Eagle anglers.
Shortly after Mount Abe won the fishing title in October, the Otter Valley Division II golf dynasty lived on. Senior Lucas Politano earned medalist honors for the third straight season, and joined Jackson Howe, Connor Denis, Jacob Tripp and Jacob Warrell in winning the D-II team title for OV for the third time in the past four years. Politano later committed to playing NCAA D-I golf for Rutgers University.
Many other teams did well, of course. The Mount Abe girls’ soccer and OV boys’ soccer teams made state finals, to name two.
Tiger football gave D-I football champion CVU its only playoff challenge; a good case can be made the Tigers were the state’s second–best football team.
Other teams that crested .500 or fared well at the state level were Eagle boys’ soccer (even when slowed by a rash of late-season injuries), Tiger girls’ cross-country and volleyball, OV field hockey (a run to the D-II semifinal round), and Mount Abe/Vergennes cooperative football. VUHS boys’ cross-country runner Grey Fearon was the top male runner in the county, and Lincoln’s Stella Laird, running for Green Mountain Valley, won the D-I title.
Hopefully players on all the teams regardless of records made memories and friendships that they will carry with them for decades. Winning is fun. So is just playing and being part of a team. As the saying goes, you don’t work sports.
Finally, words can also only capture so much of what happens on the field and the trails and in the gym. That’s why we send Steve James and his cameras and lenses along (and often ask Mark Bouvier to pinch-hit — thanks, Mark, for the good work!).
That is why along the way I’ve saved some of Steve’s images that captured the action, drama and emotion of the athletes as they competed this fall. Enjoy.
TIMING IS CRITICAL for a double block at the net in volleyball, and Tigers Kate Kozak, left, and Maggie Klingensmith worked together perfectly to reject this offering from Montpelier’s Lily Dunlop in a home match.
Independent file photo/Steve James
JUNIOR MARY HARRINGTON was neck-and-neck with senior Beth McIntosh as the top Tiger runner this fall. Here Harrington emerges from a wooded portion of the Mount Abe trail, captured by Steve dramatically backlit by the late-afternoon sun.
Independent file photo/Steve James
BEING A GOOD soccer goalie requires savvy, athleticism and nerve. Mount Abe junior Evan Audy showed all three in making this late-game save on VUHS forward Aiden Fuller in a close contest.
Independent file photo/Steve James
THIS WAS A common sight in Tiger girls’ soccer games this season — MUHS junior Solstice Binder winning the ball, taking off up the field and leaving a frustrated opponent (in this case talented OV freshman Tegan Boynton) in her wake. Binder established herself as one of Vermont’s top soccer players this fall, and the determination evident on her expression is one reason why.
Independent file photo/Steve James
THE MUHS FOOTBALL team’s bread and butter remained its running game this fall, although QB Luke Nuceder threw well. This is why — the push up front from the line, including tight end Cooke Riney (44) and tackle Angus Blackwell (55) next to him. Linemen Kyle Stearns and Cal Boulanger also earned postseason honors.
Independent file photo/Steve James
LOTS OF ACTION and determination in this shot. Eagle freshman Payton Shepard leans low to leverage her shot, while Tiger Lia Calzini lunges to block it. Tiger midfielder Isabel Quinn (#8) also moves in to go for the block, while in the back Tiger senior goalie Kassidy Brown emphatically instructs her teammates as she braces to make a save.
Independent file photo/Steve James
IN ONE OF the prettier passing plays of the field hockey season, OV freshman Isabella Bovey slipped the ball between the pads of Tiger senior goalie Michaela Charbonneau to waiting teammate Sophia Parker at the far post for Parker’s tap-in score. It was the go-ahead goal in the Otters’ September victory at MUHS.
Independent file photo/Steve James
I PARTICULARLY ENJOY seeing Steve’s photos after football games. Reporters have to keep track of who has the ball, how many yards they gain, and down and distance. That means we often miss the action off the ball, such as Tiger lineman Angus Blackwell pancaking this would-be tackler of MUHS back Avery Carl (#2). It was as good a block as you will see. Note: Angus’s victim’s number was 66; it only became 99 when he got knocked upside down.
Independent file photo/Steve James
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