BY RYAN O’CONNORGoffstown-area athletic successes in 2007 came at many levels, for teams and individuals. This was never more evident than the summer, when nearly every Goffstown youth baseball team, from Little League through Babe Ruth, finished tops in their district, among the best in the state and, in some cases, the region. Those ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORIt was a year of near-misses and so-closes on the 2007 Bedford sports landscape, though there were a few spot-ons mixed in. While dozens of local teams and individuals competed for the top prize in their respective class and/or division, from the youth level through high school and sometimes beyond, many went home empty ...

BY RYAN O’CONNORFor Hooksett-area teams and individual athletes, 2007 was a year in which the surprising became the norm, particularly at the high school level. Though squads such as the Central girls tennis team finished tops in Class L and Cawley Middle School collected multiple titles, other perennial contenders bowed out of the ...

BY CHRIS QUARTARONEIf you’re a tennis fan, the ball is bouncing your way at the Goffstown Allard Center. According to the center’s new tennis director, Rob Coles, youth tennis opportunities in New Hampshire lag behind other New England states, but Coles is doing his part to help the sport thrive in the area. “We like to get ...

BY SAPNA PATHAKThe head coach of the Central High girls tennis team isn’t like most coaches when it comes to jumping ahead of foes. Indeed, the Little Green mentor wouldn’t mind the opposite. “Tennis is the type of sport where you can be ahead, and if you drop your guard for one second, you’re not,” said Bill Cannon ...

BY SAPNA PATHAKWhen Joe Belanger first met his new head coach, the idea of having a basketball mentor lead a tennis team “had to be a joke.” A year later, Belanger is the first you’ll hear explaining why Aaron Abood was the best person for the job. Learning what makes a good coach, Belanger steps into his final season on ...

BY SAPNA PATHAKLeading up to its early season match on Friday, April 20, Shawna Morley needed only three words to get her West’s boys tennis team fired up: Concord vs. West. A simple mention of the longstanding rivalry and Morley’s motivational job was complete. “It’s an epic matchup that transcends everything ...

BY SAPNA PATHAKMark Telge should be calling this a “rebuilding” year. He should be worried about how Central High’s boys tennis team is going to look after losing four of its top six players. The idea that two players who’ve never played the sport are now starting for the Little Green should be worrisome. With more factors ...

BY MATT STOUTSteve Langevin isn’t expecting a state title, a playoff run or even a playoff berth from his Pembroke Academy girls tennis team. The Spartans’ fifth-year coach knows what his squad is – a “developmental program” made up largely of athletes who never played before high school – and what it ...

BY MATT STOUTTerry Wilson laughed after he said it, but the Gilford coach, like many of his peers in Class M-S, isn’t thrilled to notice it. “Hi, I’m Coach Wilson,” he said during player introductions prior to his team’s match-up with the Derryfield School boys tennis team on Wednesday, April 11. “Some of you ...