Oakmont girls took it to the hoop this year
By Sean Sweeney Journal Correspondent

Senior Emily Mahoney helped the Oakmont girls to a 12-9 record. Journal file photo

In the summer of 2006, the Oakmont Regional girls' basketball team, which went 3-17 the previous winter, played summer league basketball and made it all the way to the semifinals. Whatever drive that brought them that far in the non-interscholastic campaign was certainly brought to the table when the Spartans reconvened this past November.

The Oakmont girls finished the 2006-07 season with a 12-9 record after qualifying for the Central Mass. Division 2 Sectional Tournament for the first time in two years. Not only that, the Spartans were also recently awarded the IAABO Board 44 Sportsmanship Award, which is only given to one team throughout north central Massachusetts.

Head coach Jeff O'Neill considers the latter more important than a trip to the sectionals, which ended the season with a 42-38 quarterfinal-round loss to Groton-Dunstable on Feb 28.

"I told them that you earned that respect," he said earlier this week. "It was a nice thing, going to the sectional tournament. To me, (the sportsmanship award) was more important than going to the tournament."

Oakmont returned several veterans to the team this winter, and even brought some new faces that should give teams in Mid-Wach C fits in the coming years.

"Everyone contributed to this team. Stacy Watt and Tracy Letourneau were our shooters. Rebecca Robidoux, I had to convince her to shoot the ball. She was a great rebounder - boy, could she rebound. And Allie Mohnk in the post, she gave us everything she had," said O'Neill. "We had 15 girls, and every one of them had a role to play on our team."

O'Neill said the Spartans' success was fueled by the team's defense, which in turn helped generate the offensive pressure it used to go on a five-game winning streak early in the year. It was a streak that, at the time, had turned many fans' heads and caused them to ask, "Is this the same Oakmont team from 2005-06?"

In a word, yes. Yes it was.

"I felt that there is a lot of spirit and a lot of heart in these girls. The seed was planted late last year. We had some close games and they played hard in the summer league. That was when they realized they could so something this year," O'Neill said. "We continued to so what we did last year, and everything was based on our defense.

"Our defense was our offense. We worked on shooting skills, but that wasn't the key. It was the tenacity of our defense and our fast break (in transition) that was the key."

Now that the season is over, O'Neill is preparing to reload the Spartans for that last Monday in November, when the MIAA allows basketball teams to hold official practices and tryouts.

"We're developing skills at the lower levels, but this year it was a combination of our defense and our fast break, and we want to continue that next year. The girls got a taste of (success), and they wanted it," O'Neill said. "They had to want to have fun, and we did."

Mid Wach C better lace up the track shoes in 2007-08, because the Spartans will be looking to run all over the conference.

And they are going to have a whole load of fun doing it, too.