RallyNorth.net

Lawrence survives trying season

Tuesday, February, 19 By Alan Siegel
Staff writer

Lawrence High's season began with some harsh realities.

Unexpected roster turnover, the biggest star in program history facing a strange predicament, and the usual tough league schedule combined to create a tumultuous first month.

The experience weighed on the players, but not enough to break their spirit.

"We had to move forward," co-captain Karina Lopez said. "We couldn't just hope things would get better."

In the end, the Lancers finished 8-12 and out of state tournament contention for the first time since the 2003-04 season. They did, however, win seven of their final 12 games, an accomplishment not lost on coach Dan Blouin. Still, he said, this was by far the toughest season on his four-year tenure.

"It was definitely like nothing I've dealt with before," Blouin said.

In December, Eagle-Tribune All-Star Stephany Colon left the team for medical reasons, Blouin said. Four total players who began the season on the roster never saw the floor.

Before high school tryouts even occurred, Blouin watched with horror as Stephany's sister, Tiffany Colon, had her scholarship rescinded by University of Maine coach Cindy Blodgett. Tiffany was the first Lawrence basketball player, boy or girl, to earn a full boat to a Division 1 school.

The situation, well chronicled by The Eagle-Tribune's Hector Longo in November, was deflating to the current group of Lancers.

Is this, they wondered, the way it always works?

"Is that going to happen to me?" Lopez said, summing up her and her teammates' thoughts.

But as disconcerting as that was, there was work to be done. "Nothing is handed to us," said Lopez, who averaged 3.9 points per game this winter. "If you want something, you have to work for it."

Feeling sorry for themselves wouldn't accomplish much. Blouin hammered home the message: Losing Stephany was painful, as was watching what happened to Tiffany, but they needed to rebound.

"Nobody," Blouin began telling his team, "is going to give us anything."

After beginning the season 2-8, the Lancers responded by beating Tewksbury, 53-38, Jan. 18. They went 6-4 the rest of the way, notching Merrimack Valley Conference wins over Chelmsford and Dracut (twice).

"We rolled with it a little bit," Blouin said.

The outcome wasn't easy to take for Blouin. The 1997 Lawrence High graduate has taken much pride in helping build up a once stagnant program. Three straight state tourney berths in his first three years, coupled with a sparkling new gymnasium, helped draw 65 candidates to tryouts this season. Haverhill (35), North Andover (37), Andover (51), three of the region's traditionally strong girls basketball schools, had much smaller turnouts.

Blouin, who has a 40-43 record over four seasons, takes pride in his Lawrence roots. He played football at LHS (he went on to play at Western Connecticut State University for a season), and he is no less excited about the program than he was at this time last season.

The brand new field house may not be as intimate as the old Haverhill Street location, but it's been a boon.

"It's distracting," senior Johelly Hernandez said with a laugh. "There's so much stuff going on in there." There's only one problem, Blouin said.

"My yelling in there can't really be heard," Blouin joked. In all seriousness, he's earned the respect of his players, who say he's as hands-on about academics as he is about basketball, setting up meetings with teachers and constantly checking on his players' progress in the classroom.

"He helps us out with our problems," Hernandez said. "He really kept me on task."

With Blouin around, expect the program to be on task well into the future.