Hudson Catholic hires new coach to lead girls basketball team
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Hudson - Summer is considered the slow season in high school athletics, but July was a busy month for the Hudson Catholic High School (HC) sports program.

Green Wave Athletic Director Bob Raymond announced that he has hired Mike Dube to be HC's next girls basketball coach, while a current member of Raymond's staff , baseball coach Lonnie Quirion, was named to guide the Marlborough American Legion baseball program.

Dube, who replaces Lou Petrovic, comes to Hudson Catholic from Worcester State, where he has been for three years, serving as an assistant coach of the women's basketball team, which won the 2006 Massachusetts Colleges Athletic Conference championship.

"It was a difficult decision to leave Worcester State, but I wanted to return to coaching at the high school level and I wanted to run my own program," Dube said. "I saw this position as a great opportunity to accomplish both."

Prior to that, Dube spent a year as the coach of the Hudson High freshman basketball team and he has also coached basketball at the Bromfield School in Harvard.

"The fact that Mike coached at the collegiate level at Worcester State was certainly instrumental in our decision to hire him," Raymond said. "He a very positive, very enthusiastic young man, which we believe will be a huge plus as well."

Under Petrovic last season the Green Wave went 12-6 in the regular season, which qualified them for the Central Mass. Division 3 Tourna- ment. HC lost its first-round tournament game.

"Hudson Catholic has traditionally done well in the regular season," Dube said. "I'd like to see if we can take the program to the next level now, and maybe win a game or two in the district tournament."

Dube, who now resides in Sterling, grew up in Worcester and played his high school basketball at St. Mary's.

American Legion baseball

Quirion, 29, has his work cut out for him as he takes over for legendary coach Art Bennett at Marlborough Post 132. The team was 4-17 this summer and ended the season on a 16-game losing streak, after having started quickly by winning four of its first five games.

Quirion, who played at Hudson Catholic and Tufts, is a former member of the Post 132 team, where he was coached by Bennett.

Bennett was frustrated this season by what he believed was a lack of desire by the Marlborough players. He believes in Quirion he has found a person for whom the kids will play.

"Lonnie's a guy that will be able to get the most out of these guys," Bennett said. "I was a coach for more than 40 years. All the kids know me as is an old man in the dugout yelling at them. Even if they don't remember Lonnie's playing career, they can see every day, at every practice, that the kid was a good one, that he knows what he's talking about, and that he's not asking them to do anything he didn't do when he was their age playing for this team."

Quirion's HC teams have qualified for the Central Mass. Division 3 Tournament in each of the last two seasons.