The NHIAA fall sports season entered full swing Wednesday with Conant’s four-team golf match at the Shattuck.
It was just a few months ago that this season felt like an impossibility due to school district budget cuts, but after Jaffrey-Rindge dipped into an emergency fund to keep sports alive, the Orioles enter the year happy to have the opportunity to compete.
Senior Braeden Dion was a vocal proponent for funding school sports during the budget debates this spring, and he’s looking to make the most of his salvaged senior season along with the rest of his teammates, who’ve come into the fall practiced and ready to go.
“We’ve got a lot of returning guys, Dion said. “I think we’ve got a good group to do pretty good this year. Everyone looks better coming in, so that’s a great sign. Everyone’s really putting in the effort.”
Dion said that the drought-like conditions have rendered the Shattuck’s fairways and greens drier and faster than usual, making the already difficult course even more challenging.
“Ground’s pretty solid right now,” Dion said. “Not a lot of rain, so tough to play the course.”
After a strong start, Dion faded a little in the second half of his round, but still led his team with a Stableford 16; the Orioles went 2-1 on the day with a team score of 40, just edged out by Hillsboro-Deering (41) but topping Fall Mountain (39) and Newport (5).
Conant No. 2 Chance Desrosier had a good day as well, finishing second on the team with 13 Stableford points; Kaiden Charron had six and Dylan Dubois added five to round out the four scoring positions, while Paxton Ketola and Nicholas Marson added one apiece. As of late, the Oriole golfers have had strong regular seasons, only to falter when they hit the state tournament. This year, Dion said the team hopes to keep up their regular-season standings but improve their postseason play when it comes to the Division IV state tournament, planned for Thursday, Oct. 16 at Newport Country Club.
“I know the past couple years we’ve placed really high during the regular season and not done well at states,” Dion said, “so I’d like to continue our success at states this year.”
The Orioles are back in action Tuesday at Hillsboro.
School sports on chopping block around the state
While Jaffrey-Rindge was able to dip into an emergency fund to keep its interscholastic sports programs active this year, the Claremont school district wasn’t so lucky. After the district’s entire extra-curricular budget was cut at a board meeting last week, Stevens High School was forced to either surrender its sports seasons or allow the teams to function on their own without funding from the district.
“Right now they’re going to run operations as the fall season continues to roll along until we’re out of money,” Stevens football coach Josh Duford told Sports Illustrated’s Roger Brown. “Without any donations my guess is we would not have enough money to finish the season. I know we have enough to start the season, but probably not enough to finish it.”