Of the teams outside the Elite 8 last season, New Hampton had a case to lead the pack.
The Huskies captured their second straight Small School title in their third straight trip to the championship, beating Groton for the second year in a row. It capped off a 16-6-6 season for New Hampton, boasting one of the NEPSAC's most potent offenses.
After graduating just four seniors, the Huskies bring back nine of their top 10 leading scorers. Such a deep core will be a difference-maker for coach Craig Churchill.
"It's huge," Churchill said. "One of the biggest things as a coach is building culture, right? As I've been here now for 15 years, that culture is pretty solidified, so we know what we want, we have our principles and we have our habits as a team. When you have that many kids returning, you have less of that work to do, which is awesome. You can actually focus on the other stuff, like team building, skill development and habit development.
"We have such a great core group. Our seniors have been to the Small School championship three years in a row. So, they know what it takes to win. They know what it takes to be unselfish, to be a part of a team, to make sacrifices for the greater good. Having that group back is incredible."
The next step for New Hampton is the Elite 8. They have the firepower to compete in the upper echelon, but Churchill knows his group can't fixate on a singular outcome.
"We're very process-oriented," he said. "We set goals for ourselves, but the problem with goals is it inevitably allows you to become ore results focused, and we try to stay away from that. Obviously the goal when you start the season is to win at the highest level possible, so for us that's the Elite 8. That's always the goal, but that's not the focus. The focus is, what can we do as a group to become better this year than we were last year? If we can continue to get better, the results will fall into place."
