Spring Sports Report: OV squads will rely on new faces

Two spring sports programs at Otter Valley have each won a Division II title and reached another final since 2014, those being baseball and softball.

Visiting Burr & Burton on Tuesday dealt the Otter Valley Union High School baseball team a 12-2 setback in the opener for both teams. 

Visiting Burr and Burton Academy defeated the Otter Valley softball team on Tuesday, 5-4, in eight innings. 

The sixth-seeded Otter Valley boys’ run through the Division II basketball postseason came to an end on Wednesday, Feb. 28, in a semifinal in the Barre Auditorium. There, the No. 2 seed and three-time defending champion Montpelier erased a 15-point halfti … (read more)

The No. 6 Otter Valley boys’ basketball team rode a big fourth quarter past No. 3 Harwood in a Saturday Division II quarterfinal, 70-49.

There were good reasons to expect a competitive first-round Division II boys’ basketball playoff matchup on Tuesday between host No. 6 Otter Valley and No. 11. Mount Abraham.

Probably even more so than usual, the two teams involved in the Friday, Dec. 29, boys’ basketball game at Mount Abraham Union High School viewed the result — a 54-39 win for the host Eagles over Otter Valley — through different lenses.

In winter, river otters head upstream into the uplands, seeking areas of fast-moving water that remain open — at least open enough for an otter to slip into a stream in pursuit of fish.

The Vergennes and Otter Valley boys’ high school basketball teams won their winter debuts on the road, while the Middlebury boys came up short at home in their lid-lifter.  

The program that made the most noise this past winter at Otter Valley Union High School was wrestling, and that squad could be poised to do so again. 

Visiting No. 6 Springfield ended the No. 3 seeded Otter Valley football team’s season this past Saturday with an 18-12 upset in a Division III quarterfinal matchup. 

No. 3 Spaulding ousted the No. 6 Otter Valley field hockey team from the Division II tournament on Oct. 27, winning in a shootout, 3-0, after neither team score in regulation or overtime. 

In a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon game, visiting Mill River upset the Otter Valley football team, 7-0. The Minutemen improved to 4-4 and are the No. 5 seed in the Division III playoffs, which begin this weekend.

The Otter Valley football team rushed past Spaulding on this past Friday, 39-14, to move to 2-1 heading into this Saturday’s home game against fellow Division III foe Fairfax. 

After a mostly successful autumn season a year ago sparked in part by a strong class of senior athletes most teams at Otter Valley Union High School will be relying more on youth this fall.