TA News

Congratulations to our varsity boys basketball team, Thetford Academy’s newest state champions!

Thetford Academy topped rival Hazen in a exciting, hard-fought game in the Barre Auditorium this weekend. The Panthers were down by 10 at the start of the third quarter before making a gritty comeback that had fans on the edge of their seats. “Trailing 34-24 a minute into the third quarter, Thetford embarked on a 19-6 run that put it up by three points at the stanza’s end…Hazen (20-4) would never lead again,” wrote Tris Wykes in the Valley News.

The Barre Montpelier Times Argus put the Panthers’ title run this way, “Delivering a knockout punch against the Thetford boys basketball team is similar to keeping an inflatable kids punching bag down for the count. Opponents can give it their best shot, but the Panthers bounce back up like it’s their job.”

Fans who’d witnessed the semifinal game vs. White River Valley would agree – these Panthers know how to nail a comeback. In the semis they’d recovered a 20 point deficit, with a strong defense and shot by shot, going on to best WRV 60-58 in the final seconds of the game.

Coach Jason Gray reflected on the two games proudly, telling the Argus, “With these boys, their hearts are here and they wanted to take care of business and they worked hard together. And when you’re down that deficit (in the semis), if you can come back from that you can come back from anything.”

The title was the team’s sixth, and its third in the last six years – the last in 2020. Congratulations, Panthers!

A big thank you to Dan Grossman and Deb Metcalf for volunteering their time and skills to capture all the best moments of the championship game. Dan Grossman’s photos are available to the public via his website Maple Leaf Photos.