By Marc Thaler
Staff Writer

SENIOR DRIVE – Derryfield School co-captain Kendra Decelle goes up for two of her game-high 12 points during the Lady Cougars’lopsided win overMount Zion of Concord recently. The senior moved into fifth place on the team’s all-time scoring list. (Marc Thaler Photo)

The Derryfield School girls basketball team missed the Class S Final Four festivities a year ago for the first time in seven seasons, falling prey to eventual state champion Portsmouth Christian in the quarterfinals.

Featuring a lineup that includes three fresh faces in freshmen Julia Maldonado of Hooksett, Kathleen Reynolds and Kelly Schwarz, the Cougars are a nice blend of young and old. Head coach Ed Lemire hopes that mix will help Derryfield to the title when the season’s final story is told.

“There’s a lot this team will learn to do (during the course of the season),” Lemire said. “It’s early. We haven’t learned it yet. But we don’t want to be ready now. We want to be ready in February (for the playoffs). But I really think there’s some real potential for this team to be a strong team with some hard work.”

After losing three of its five starters to graduation, Derry-field will also be without junior center Stacie Foote of Bedford. Foote, a double-digit scorer who amassed more than 500 career points in her first two seasons, was lost for the Class S tour with a knee injury.

“We’re taking a big chunk of offense out of our lineup,” Lemire said. “We’re gonna have to have someone pick it up. We’re looking for her twin sister Stephanie – who missed 10 games last year with an ankle injury – to pick up some of that slack.”

Other players expected to step up include senior forward Katt Bolduc and, of course, senior co-captains Kendra Decelle and Dunbarton’s Tory Starr.

Together, they represent the only three seniors on Derryfield’s 12-player roster. “They need to be leaders on the court, leaders in the locker room, and they need to be the liaison between me and the kids when I get too unruly,” Lemire said with a grin.

Decelle and Starr – both four-year players for Lemire – enter the campaign prepared to prove a point: Despite the absence of Stacie Foote and a revamped starting five, this year’s Cougars club will still be in the hunt come tourney time.

“We really just want to work as a team,” Starr said. “Our rookies are really good. We really have a strong team all around where everybody contributes. We’re really well balanced.”

“There’s a lot of unselfishness,” Decelle said. “We’ve been together for a while, and I think we’re starting to realize this could be the year and the thing that’s gonna get us there is team unity.”

That team-first mentality was on display in the Cougars’ season opener at the SportsZone in Derry. Against Mount Zion of Concord on Monday, Nov. 29, Derryfield rolled to a 66-18 win. The Cougars showed plenty of class against the first-year Lions program, limiting their starters to less than two full quarters of action.

Decelle led all scorers with 12 points, moving into fifth place on the program’s all-time scoring list with 681 career points through Sunday, Dec. 5.

Julia Maldonado scored 10 points while her older sister, junior Diana Maldonado, and Starr each added six. Stephanie Foote poured in eight on the evening. Bolduc, Reynolds, junior Rachel Romanowsky and Schwarz entered the scoring column as well. Junior Molly Lyford and sophomore Annie Jenney saw significant court time, too.

Despite Derryfield’s impressive display of balanced scoring, this edition, just like its predecessors, will rely on defensive pressure and solid rebounding.

The art of properly boxing out, Lemire said, is his club’s chief concern in the early stages of the season. But the head coach anticipates his Cougars to correct that weakness as they move deeper into their schedule. He also expects many of the usual Class S suspects to compete for the crown.

Lemire’s list of championship contenders includes defending state champion Portsmouth Christian; Groveton, takers of the trophy from 2000 to 2003; last year’s state finalist Colebrook; Lisbon; and a Sunapee squad returning its entire starting lineup that easily handled DS, 58-30, on Dec. 6.

“(Teams) may figure we’re gonna have a down year,” Lemire said. “We’ll see.”