by Adam Colbert
Records
Football: 8-3
Field Hockey: 2-13-3
Boy’s Cross Country: 3-5
Girl’s Cross Country: 3-5
Volleyball: 14-7
Boy’s Soccer: 11-7-2
Girl’s Soccer: 1-15-2
Golf: 9-8
Last year
Football: 6-7
Field Hockey: 8-8-4
Boy’s cross country: 0-8
Girl’s cross country: 0-8
Volleyball: 7-8
Girl’s soccer: 2-16
Boy’s soccer: 13-6
Golf: 2-11
This year, varsity football had a clear improvement from last season. According to Coach Dan McAnespie they improved their overall conditioning, team dedication and their record. Last year they were just 6-5 in regular season before losing in the playoffs and then to Marlboro on Thanksgiving. This season, the team battled through an undefeated, seven-game season and got third seed for playoffs. In the first round they beat Groton-Dunstable for the second time this season but then had losses to Doherty and Tantasqua. The team struggled this year with injuries, including six starters out of place in the last game. Even on the JV level, they had injuries that affected varsity on special teams which led to 11 missed tackles on special teams (The team had 15 special teams tackles all season.). Their last and final game was in the Morgan Bowl against Marlboro on Thanksgiving. The Hawks lost 14-8. With fourteen seniors on the team this season, the team has to fill holes next season including most of the starting roles on both sides of the ball. The team is only expecting four or five seniors to be on the team next season.
Volleyball was one of four teams to make playoffs for Hudson High this season. After a losing season last year, they were able to bounce back and make it to the playoffs but lost in the first round to Marlboro. This year’s team had strong chemistry between the six seniors that have been playing together since eighth grade. However, what brought the team down was the mental aspect of the game. “Our weakness was letting an error made on the court get into our heads. We had trouble shaking off the losses rather than getting over it and winning the next point,” said senior captain Danielle Bobe.
Girl’s cross country had their best season since Coach Christina Reinhardt took over the team five years ago. They ended the season with a 3-5 record led by captains Mary Dignan and Emily Collins. This is a major improvement from last years 0-8 record. This year’s team was more prepared through the season because of the training the team did together over the summer. They had a lot of determination and preparation for a team of 10, and that is how they were able to match up against teams of 30 or 40 runners.
For boy’s cross country, coached by Tim Reinhardt, they also had a 3-5 record but faced teams with more runners. This year’s squad was led by junior Andrew Doherty-Munro who finished 11th in states. “It was a ‘nice bang’ to end the season,” said Coach Reinhardt.
Last year, the field hockey team lost in the second round of playoffs to Nashoba after a thrilling double overtime win against Leominster. This year, Nashoba still gave Hudson(2-13-2) a hard time, beating them 6-0 at Nashoba. This is how most of the games looked for Hudson on the offensive side of the ball. “The majority of our games were lost 1-0, and so our record doesn’t truly reflect how much of a battle most of the games we played were,” says Coach Jen Wallingford. The season’s highlight for the team was on their last game. It was senior night at home against the big bad Nashoba. Final score? Tied 0-0. “ It was typical of our entire season in that we couldn’t put the ball in their net, but it was also a victory because we were able to shut down a team that had scored on us six times only a couple of weeks before,” Wallingford said.
