Northborough – The eighth-grade Northborough White Town Travel Team won its South Central Massachusetts Youth Basketball League Divisional Championship game March 11, going undefeated at 14-0. The team competed against other town travel teams including Grafton, Hopkinton, Mendon/Upton, Marlborough, Northbridge and Sutton. It was a well-balanced team that started its winning quest in November 2011. Through hard work, dedication and an inspiring unselfish, team-like attitude, the members played better each week as the season progressed.
The team consisted of veteran and new players this year: Evan Nelson, Jason Truax, Ross Grasso, Benjamin Macchi, Sam Mahoud, Jake Poretsky, Charles Gallagher, James Junker, Billy Polymeros, Dylan Page and Colin Lambert.
The group was coached by John Macchi and Joe Grasso.
One key to the team's success was that every player played in every game, and contributed something to all 14 games. It was a group skilled in all aspects of the game – offense, defense, passing, inside game, outside shots and patience.
Macchi said he rarely sees a team that worked so hard, so well together and bought into the team philosophy that success is in the sum of its parts – not individual play.
“When our inside game was struggling, our sharp shooters stepped up; when the opponent would press the outside jumper – the “bigs” took over and our inside game prevailed,” he said.
“Rarely do you get a group of young kids that go undefeated where there seems to be a different MVP every week,” Grasso said. “This was a team in the truest sense of the word, and as a youth coach of almost 20 years in many sports, it was one of the better coaching experiences I can remember.”
