FFHS “A Night of Basketball” Enters 20th Year
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, January 7, 2015
The Fort Fairfield Middle/High School recently hosted its annual “Night of Basketball” alumni games. Organizer, Larry Gardner said this is the 20th year of putting on this show and gives the staff and alumni a chance to come back and play the younger kids.
“We have the staff team, comprised of members of our school system and coaches. It's a great chance to relive some memories against some of the younger kids,” said Gardner. “Our alumni team comes back and plays our girls varsity team and boys varsity team.”
The staff team consisted of about twenty people. They first competed against the middle school girls and boys teams in abbreviated halves. The middle school vs. staff game ended with the undefeated staff team up by four points at 27-23.
The staff then took on the High School JV girls team where they again kept it a four point spread at 17-13. After that, the final staff game of the night was against the JV boys, which ended 19-5 for the staff.
First up for the alumni game was the alumni ladies vs. the varsity Lady Tigers. Courtney Churchill, from the Ladyies' gold ball-winning state Championship team of 2010 was one of the returning members. “It's been a while, I haven't played ball in a while but I'm going to do the best I can to make it challenging for them,” said Churchill. “You want it to be fun. But when you come back as an alumni, especially where I'm coming back and still have family on the team - I have younger cousins on the team - so, I want it to be challenging for them. It's going to be fun but I'm still going to make them work.”
FFHS Senior, Megan Jellison plays for the Lady Tigers. “I feel like we're going to have a good opportunity to actually show what we're capable of. Hopefully we can continue to work as a team and prove we can be just as good as the alumni, if not better.”
After a spirited effort, the Lady Tigers alumni team lost the game to the younger Lady Tigers 18-16.
The alumni boys, led by veterans Andrew Lewis, Cody Closson and Josh Churchill then took on the Varsity boys team where they schooled the younger players on the finer points of a fast-paced ball game, winning 27-17.
In between games there were various giveaways, drawings and half-court shots. “It's a two and a half hour event and we try to do some other things, too,” said Gardner. “We give away a lot of things on behalf of the booster club as well as $500 half court shots. It creates a little fun and excitement just before the Christmas break; everybody could use a little fun and stress relief.
An 8 minute documentary video of A Night of Basketball can be viewed here
2014 FFHS Lady Tigers Alumni Team (from left): Janae Libby, Nicole Giberson, Janet Campbell Giberson, Courtney Churchill, Whitney McNamee, Sydney Churchill, Franny Demerchant Cote, Logan Bubar, Dani Searles, Whitney Clark, Libby Gardner Cummings. photo/David Deschesne
2014 FFHS Boys Alumni Team: Front row Doug Sharpe, and Ryan Noyes Back Row: Travis Noyes, Andrew Lewis, Josh Churchill, Andrew Tuck, Jay Williams, Noah Bernard, Andrew Forsman and Cody Closson. photo/David Deschesne
