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Senior Luke Battey and juniors Colin Pope, Even Frank, Sam Wood and Otto Pierce, along with sophomores Michael Young-Ward, Luke Crocker, Alex Rogers and freshman Michael Landry are the Phoenix boys playing for The Sharon Academy this season and 24-year-old Tom Vashel is their coach. "Young, enthusiastic, he works hard and relates to his players," a former mentor Doc Donahue describes him. Surprised and delighted with the opportunity to coach at the varsity level and Vashel’s passion for the game, "I love the sport. I eat and breathe it," most definitely a plus for the Phoenix. While a senior at Lebanon High School in 2001-02, Vashel helped lead the Marauders in winning the New Hampshire Class I state title. This is Vashel’s first year as a varsity coach following three years in various schools in the Hanover area. He assumes the position of Kevin Ellis, who has coached the Phoenix since inception, but is currently on hiatus for personal reasons. The Phoenix are in hopes of returning to the Barre Auditorium, where they ended their season last year in the D-IV semifinals, losing to the Proctor Phantoms after posting their best record ever, 17-6. With the loss to graduation of Will Imbo, Phineas Ellis and Willy Ruiz, the top three scorers, the Phoenix will have to come up with a new trio of point-makers, as the only returnee, Evan Frank, with 5.1 points per game and play time in all 23 games has the most varsity experience. Battey tore his ACL last year and missed 10 games, but currently leads his team with 12.7 points per game. The Phoenix currently stand at 2-3 with wins over Vermont Christian Academy and Arlington and losses to West Rutland, Thetford and Websterville Baptist Christian School. TSA opened the season against the West Rutland Golden Horde, losing 75-40 way back on Nov. 30, but has improved to 2-1 with wins over Mid-Vermont Christian, 55-38, and the Arlington Eagles, on December 4 and 14 respectively. In the game against Mid-Vermont Christian, Otto Pierce had two three-pointers and Luke Battey scored 18 points, but the game’s high scorer was Eagle Rowen Goss, who had 23 points in the contest. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, TSA traveled to Thetford and faced the Panthers. Unfortunately, they fell to their hosts, 59-39, as Panther Jason Gray proved to be the unbeatable man, with 22 points. Teammate Michael Mann scored 10 points. Luke Battey led TSA with 17 points. On the road again just two days later, the Phoenix traveled to Barre and faced WBCS Crusaders at Spaulding High School and for the second time in as many days, TSA fell to their hosts, 53-37. Down by only two at the half, 15-13, TSA finished the third period even with WBCS 28-all, but Websterville slowly began to pull ahead of the Phoenix to earn their seventh victory of the season. WBCS now stands at 7-1. Isaac Ransom had a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Teammate Chaz Burbank scored 21 points and Andrew Shuman scored 6 points and made 12 rebounds. Battey continues to lead the Phoenix in scoring with 13 points in the outing. The Phoenix play South Royalton at the Royal Palace tonight at 6:30 p.m. before starting 2008 with a visit to neighboring Whitcomb on Wednesday, Jan. 2. The game starts at 7 p.m. ____________ |
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