Defending Champ 'Canes Not Looking Ahead

The defending Western Massachusetts Champion and 2014 state finalist Hoosac Valley girls basketball team opens its season Friday evening at Taconic High School.

 

They’ve brought back eight of last year’s 10 players, who are eager to get right back where they ended last season, but both the team and coach Ron Wojick are going to focus on taking it one game at a time.

 

“We’re going to take it practice by practice and game by game,” senior guard Amber Lesure said. 

 

Hoosac moved to the Northern Division this year, which brings them some tough independent games against Athol, West Springfield, South Hadley and Sabis, who they played in the Western Massachusetts final last year. The Hurricanes also will travel to a February tournament at St. Mary’s in Boston, the team that defeated Hoosac in last year's state final.

 

The 2014-15 season gets under way on Thursday when Pittsfield's boys travel to Holyoke.

 

Things really get going on Friday with six games on the schedule, including three that feature new varsity coaches: Liz Kay with the Wahconah girls and Angel Chaffee and Mike DiCicco with the St. Joseph girls and boys, respectively.

 

The Hoosac girls already have been put to work with a scrimmage last week against Berkshire School, which has three Division I athletes on the team.

 

“It was a huge challenge for us, but it was a good experience,” Wojick said. “I like to do the hard ones early and see what we need to work on and the kids responded well from it.”

 

Wojick and the team have a goal set, but in order to reach that goal they’re preparing game by game and first they must conquer Taconic Friday evening.

 

“We’ve been working on getting ready for Taconic,” Wojick said. “We have some things we’re working on that we need to clean up and practice defensively; we spend a lot of time on our presses and defenses, it’s the heart of what we do.”

 

Since their win against Mount Greylock Tuesday evening in Drury's Bucky Bullet Jamboree, the Canes have been in the gym putting everything together for Taconic in hopes to get the first W in the book.

 

“One game at a time, it would be unfair to the kids to look at the big picture all season, like Western Mass. or a state title,” Wojick said. “There’s too much of season to be played and too many good teams."