 |
| Foxboro High's Brandon Borde. |
Back when I used to write for the local newspaper, I'd get all excited when we'd have one or two 1,000-point scorers to add to our extensive list of those that reached the milestone from 12 local high schools that we covered (two of which no longer exist, in fact).
Well, by the time this basketball season is over, there will have been five athletes' names added to a list that will have 108 names on it when the dust settles.
The newest additions in order were Seekonk High's
Mia DiBiase, Attleboro High's
Bryant Ciccio and Foxboro High's
Katelyn Mollica. And coming up to bat within the next week are Foxboro High's
Brandon Borde and Attleboro High's
Qualeem Charles.
As it is much tougher for me to keep track of these accomplishments in my retirement -- and the fact that The Sun Chronicle made the unpopular decision to stop running box scores from all of the area's basketball games -- some of my number-crunching has been guesswork. For instance, in the case of Ms. DiBiase, I am missing her scoring totals from three of her games this season (Jan. 7 vs. Bourne, Feb. 4 at Bourne and Feb. 7 at Fairhaven). To this point, I have Mia at 1,165 points through 69 games, which places her at 23rd in the overall girls' list than now has 49 names on it.
Ciccio, the outstanding senior guard for the Blue Bombardiers, checks in with 1,045 points in 81 games, good for 44th on the 57-name boys' list.
Mollica, only a junior, accomplished the feat last Friday night. She's now got 1,028 points in 67 games, and is 46th on the girls' list. She'll climb to even greater heights next year.
Borde, a multi-skilled player that has shown steady improvement each year of his career, has 983 points in 80 career games. He could reach the milestone Friday night at North Attleboro (6:30 p.m. start), and has three more regular-season games after that.
Charles, the burly center that has been a matchup nightmare for Attleboro's opponents, stands at 973 points in 84 games. The Bombardiers are home
Thursday night (corrected) against Franklin, and "Q" has three more regular-season games prior to the MIAA Tournament as well.
Of course, my thanks go to Foxboro coaches Lisa Downs and Jon Gibbs and Attleboro coach Mark Houle for helping me keep these things straight.
A few notable notes about the 1,000-point list:
** The list included only athletes from the schools directly covered by The Sun Chronicle -- Attleboro, Bishop Feehan, Dighton-Rehoboth, Foxboro, King Philip, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Norton, Seekonk and Tri-County, and two schools that no longer exist, Plainville High (merged into the KP district in the late 1950s) and New Testament Christian of Norton, which became Legacy Christian Academy and dropped out of the MIAA.
Yes, I know of plenty of athletes from our towns that went to other schools and scored 1,000 points -- among those schools Noble and Greenough, Tabor Academy, Coyle-Cassidy, Xaverian, Catholic Memorial, Moses Brown, Providence Country Day and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf -- but the rules are the rules. If you attended one of our schools, you're on the list.
** By school, the breakdown is as such -- Attleboro 14 (8 boys, 6 girls), Bishop Feehan 18 (9 and 9), Dighton-Rehoboth 11 (8 boys, 3 girls), Foxboro 12 (3 boys, 9 girls), King Philip 11 (9 boys, 2 girls), Mansfield 6 (4 boys, 2 girls), North Attleboro 10 (3 boys, 7 girls), Norton 7 (5 boys, 2 girls), Seekonk 9 (4 boys, 5 girls), Tri-County 3 (1 boy, 2 girls), Plainville 1 (1 boy) and New Testament 4 (2 and 2).
** The girls' leader and overall leader is Foxboro's Sarah Behn with 2,562 career points. The boys' leader is King Philip's Jake Layman (a current member of the Minnesota Timberwolves) with 1,752 points.
** There was one athlete that just made it -- Bishop Feehan's Ryan Sheehan at 1,000 even, who scored the last point of his career in a tournament game against Wareham at Taunton High in 2010. He's the current coach of the Xaverian Brothers High School Hawks.
** The firsts? Right now, we're assuming they were Attleboro's Rebecca King (1,038 points from 1949-53), who played under the peculiar six-girl rules of her era, and Plainville High's Alden Franklin, who scored 1,096 documentable points according to media reports from 1947-51.
** The longest gap between scorers? I'd have to say it was for the Mansfield boys. After Paul Souza reached 1,036 points in the final game of his career in 1979, it took 36 years for another Hornet to get there -- and that was Ryan Boulter, who pumped 1,324 points through the twines and got his 1,000th in 2015, 36 years after Souza. (OK, I know Sue Patchett became the first Mansfield girl to do it in 1993. I'm talkin' gender here, folks.)
** The most career games played? Bishop Feehan's Sierra Schrader played in 105 games over her entire career, which began as an eighth-grader at Hopedale High -- and yes, you do count a transfer's points as long as the individual attended a school that's a member of its state association. The most at just one school was Mansfield's Meg Hill (100), followed by Foxboro's Ashley Sampson (99).
** Shortest careers? Attleboro's Rebecca King had 40 games that were documented by media reports. Feehan's Ryan Sheehan got to 1,000 in just 43 games. And don't forget, Sarah Behn got to 1,000 points in the last game of her sophomore season, after 47 games.
** And I do recall one unfortunate soul that finished at 999 -- Norton High's Dave Bonefant, who was one point shy after being shut out in the second half at home in a non-league season finale against Mansfield to end the 1976-77 season. How sad was that.
