Danville Boys Basketball - Not Done Yet

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Created on Monday, 19 March 2018 14:06

Written by Ted Gilman

DANVILLE- One win away. One step away. The Danville boys basketball team is on the brink of their second division four state championship in the last four years. The 21-1 tribe will be taking the court at the Barre Auditorium Monday evening, for a chance at basketball supremacy in division four, and to be once again atop the division four landscape.

 For some on this team, it wasn't too long ago that this group of young men were looked at as "the little guys on the block".

"The growing pains were real for these boys four years ago," says head coach Jason Brigham.

"I think many of them thought they were going to come in and take the division by storm, but that wasn't the case."

Senior Travis Grosse was just a bushy tailed, bright eyed freshman back in the winter of 2015, when the tribe only won seven games and got bounced in the first round of the division four playoffs by Chelsea.

"It felt like we were going back to seventh grade in middle school," says Grosse.

"We were the little guys out there and the other teams were just going to pound on us until the game was over."

Same went for senior, and one thousand point scorer Riley Fenoff.

"Not going to lie, freshman year was really tough. When you lose more than half the games you play, it's obviously pretty rough. I think it might've been more rough for Travis, who was the point guard, and the one who had to run the show for us."

Ever since the beginning, even with a 7-14 record in 2015 and the bumps and bruises to go along with it, this team knew it'd get their opportunities to cut down the nets in Barre.

"This team has always had high expectations for themselves since the beginning," says Brigham.

"I think that's what you see in their play. They're downright distraught if they give up an easy transition bucket. They take pride in the fact that one of the best attributes for themselves is their defense.

Not only are the tribe holding their opponents to less than fifty points a game, but they're averaging more than seventy points a game themselves.

With that, the tribe head into the championship at 21-1, which is one of the best records that a Danville team has ever had. They also head into this game with a thousand point scorer, and a five hundred career assist man, milestones that were all met back on February 19th, 2018.

"For years we've been playing together, we've always been together, it's always been both of us," says Fenoff.

"But me and Travis have said this with Coach Brigham, it doesn't really matter what your stats are if you don't get to hang a banner."

"It was really cool when it happened obviously," said Grosse.

"It's been me and Riley since third grade. But our goal this season is to hang a banner. Everybody was feeling pressure about these milestones. Once we passed them, the team knew we could all finally focus on the goal at hand."

Once the season is over, and the dust settles, Travis and Riley will have their milestones enshrined in Danville lore. But there's one banner that still looms, and these two haven't forgotten that.

"It feels good knowing Danville's back in the championship," says Grosse.

"To make good on the goal we had as freshmen, and to do it in the final year here, that's what will be the icing on the cake, and the cherry on top."