Avon Old Farms has been on quite the run.
Since 2019-20, the Winged Beavers are 92-12-5. They won the Elite 8 championship in 2023. Last spring, they made the Elite 8 semifinals before bowing out to Cushing. It's a testament to the culture having worked for so long.
"We're fair," Avon Old Farms head coach John Gardner said. "The one thing I try to do is I try to be honest with everybody and be up front. When you win, it's a hell of a lot easier to say you've got a good culture. But when you lose, that's when you know everything is being tested."
This year's team, however, has undergone major changes — and not just from the normal comings and goings of freshmen moving in while seniors move out.
"We lost a lot of really good players who've been in the program for a long time," Gardner said. "That's tough to replace."
Sixteen newcomers came into Avon Old Farms with the hope of carrying on the Winged Beavers' success (though they still have to make the team). There will still be impact players from last season, but Gardner's squad graduated a lot of talent from last winter and did the legwork to replace what was lost.
And they did it with players who look poised to make waves in the prep landscape.
