How about these scores? Coe-Brown Academy girls' basketball team94, Pelham 22. Coe-Brown 74, Hillsboro-Deering 30. Coe-Brown 84,Newmarket 20. And these -- 78-15. 60-18. 58-15. 64-20.
In short, Coe-Brown girls a ton, opponents not much.
Tom Hall and his Comanches have built themselves a basketballpowerhouse on Route 4 between Concord and Dover.
There are more numbers. Coe-Brown had won 57 straightregular-season games, nine of them this year, going into Fridaynight's game at Farmington. It last lost a regular-season game onDec. 16, 1991, to Belmont. The Comanches have won the last two ClassM state championships. They have made the tournament in each ofHall's 15 years and this year will make it 16. They are 142-9 in theregular season in the last nine years.
And Amy Smith and the rest of the seniors are 61-2 in regularseason games during their careers.
A dynasty?
'I don't think so,' Hall said in his office after practice Tuesdayafternoon. 'I think we're incredibly competitive day in and day outand people know they have to compete with us for 32 minutes. But Ithink we're far from a dynasty. When I think of a dynasty I think ofJohn Wooden's UCLA teams or the Celtics. Now if you come and sithere six years from now and we're still winning . . .'
They just may be. Last year, Coe-Brown lost nine players from itsfirst state championship team of the year before and still wentundefeated in the regular season and, surprising many, won a secondstraight title. This year Hall has five seniors, three juniors(including 6-foot-2 1/2-inch Jen Robinson), four sophomores and fourfreshmen. The junior varsity was undefeated last year and is againthis year. And 77 girls from fourth to eighth grade attended lastyear's weeklong summer camp run by the varsity.
'It's tough to tell beyond the seventh grade, but with the kids inthe program, I think the next six to eight years look very strong,'Hall said.
Besides an intense and dedicated coach and athletes, the Comancheshave much going for them: They just opened a brand spanking-newgymnasium across the road from the academy, the school isprivate-public -- meaning it draws students from outside thedistrict as well as in -- and it offers no other winter sports forgirls so there is no competition for athletes.
If dynasty is not the word, juggernaut might be.
'A relentless and overwhelming force or movement,' is oneWebster's definition.
'Anything that elicits blind and destructive devotion or ruthlesssacrifice,' is another.
Anyone who has come up against Hall & Co. and their pressuredefense would have little argument with the first. The second mightgo a bit far, but you can bet the word ruthless has been used morethan once when coaches around the state have talked of Hall and hisprogram.
While giving him his due as a coach and applauding the talent andachievement of his players, not everyone is always thrilled with hismethods.
Hall knows that some feel he will run up the score. But he saysthat comes from looking at box scores in the paper.
His team has never scored 100 points. And won't, at least in theregular season, he said.
'And we certainly could have scored 120 or 130 in some games, butwe pulled back,' he said. 'I don't see the point, or any need forit. Although they have asked. We really do have some heart,contrary to what some people think.'
Hall grabs a scorebook and points out that his regulars are notscoring late in the game and that the scoring is well balanced. Hehas never had a player score more than 33 points in a game.
'And we hardly ever press more than a half,' he said. 'That'spretty tough to do when it's 37-7.'
But, yes, he wants his kids playing hard every minute of everygame. And he will have them running the offense and shooting at theend. And the defensive goal is always to keep a team under 10 forthe period -- in only five periods did teams score that many in thefirst 45 regular-season periods this year.
He wants them playing each period like it's 0-0 to start and towin each period. It's that focus that has helped the Comanches avoidletdowns -- no one has come closer than 34 points to them all year --while being the team that everyone wants to knock off.
'We don't really think about how much we're beating teams by,'said Amy Smith. 'It's more how we played. Even if we beat a team by40, we know if we didn't play as well as we could.'
You can't worry about pounding a team, she said.
'You feel a little bad,' she said. 'But Coach Hall says we needthat animal instinct to put teams away. You don't really think aboutit.'
And the Comanches continue to put teams away.
They have a test coming up with two of their next three games --at home Thursday and in Weare Jan. 24 -- against powerful John Stark,a team they picked up this season.
Soon it will be tournament time and a whole new set of challenges.
There are too many teams (27) in Class M to have a good read onwho can do what going into the tournament, Hall said.
Coe-Brown, White Mountains and John Stark were all undefeated, andLittleton, Belmont and Conant had one loss entering last week. Lastyear, Coe-Brown needed a ferocious rally to beat Littleton in theclosing minutes of its semifinal game.
Are the Comanches on their way to a third straight title?
'We're not as beatable as some other teams,' Hall said. 'But Idon't know. I haven't seen Littleton or Conant or John Stark yet.It's so difficult to get a handle on all the teams. But we're verytalented. I do know that.'
Score another for the St. Anselm men's basketball team for its90-84 win at New Hampshire College Monday in the latest installmentof one of the finest rivalries around.
'Any time you can go into their gym and beat them, it's a qualitywin,' said St. Anselm coach Keith Dickson. 'It shows the mark of amature, experienced team to go into someone else's building and andbe tough enough to win. I didn't think we played a great basketballgame, but we played well when we needed to down the stretch.'
The win, their second over NHC this year, should gain the Hawkssome respect nationally, as well as locally, Dickson said.
'I hope what the game did was prove that the first one wasn't afluke and this one wasn't either,' he said. 'I think we've proventhat we've got a quality program also. Going in we felt this was anopportunity for us to get on the map nationally. We were 17th beforethe game and I think it will jump us up. We haven't spent a lot oftime in those polls and I think it's good for our kids and ourprogram to finally get some national recognition.'
