Neither the Londonderry High School boys’ basketball squad nor the Lady Lancer girls’ hoop crew was pleased with the way their 2016-17 seasons ended last month, with both dropping Division I first-round tournament decisions to lower seeds on their home court .
But both contingents had reasons to feel both pleased and proud regarding some impressive developments during the post-season period.
To the no ones surprise, record-setting Lancer boys’ star Jake Coleman was named a Division I First-Team All-Stater following his superb 2016-17 campaign, and Lady Lancers’ sophomore standout Amanda DeAngelis had her excellent winter season recognized by the D-I girls’ hoop coaches with her inclusion on the Division I Second Team.
Coleman, who stepped onto the LHS varsity boys’ hoop team as a freshman and made an impact right away before playing a pivotal role on the Lancers’ undefeated title-winning team during his sophomore campaign of 2014-15, was widely regarded as one of the top high school cagers in all of New Hampshire the past several years. And the numbers certainly bear that out.
“He is the third boy in Londonderry High School history to score 1,000 (career) points, and he’s the all-time leading scorer in boys’ program history with 1,271 points,” said proud LHS varsity hoop coach Nate Stanton, himself a 1,000-point scorer during his illustrious days at Salem High School. “He scored 388 points this season, averaging 19.2 per game along with 4.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and one block per game.”
The lanky sharp-shooter helped lead his Lancers to a 10-8 regular season and the number eight seed in Division I this winter. But he and his teammates’ hopes of another state title slid by the wayside with a surprising, 64-57 loss to ninth-seeded Bishop Guertin of Nashua in first-round tourney play.
And guard DeAngelis was one of the best parts of an extremely young LHS girls’ hoop squad this winter, coming to the fore as a real force for coach Nick Theos’ team during a campaign in which the Lady Lancers went 11-8 during their regular season – finishing as the fifth tourney seed – before suffering a 47-46 upset loss at the hands of the number 12 Dover High Green Wave in round one.
“Amanda is a long, athletic sophomore with good outside range and a strong ability to attack the rim,” said Theos. “She led the team in points, blocks, and foul shots taken and made.”
And beyond what Lady Lancer fans got to see with their eyes from DeAngelis during the 2016-17 season, coach Theos knows full well that there’s a raging competitive fire burning within the 10th grader along with an exceptional work ethic which helped make her the all-stater she became.
“She came to me at the end of last season wanting to know what she needed to do to reach this goal of making all-state,” said the coach. “We talked about many things, and to her credit she worked very hard all off-season to get to where she is. She played AAU, Granite State games, did cross-fit, and work hard on individual skills during open gyms. If she works that hard again this off-season there is no limit to where her skills could take her and how much she could contribute to the program going forward.”
DeAngelis averaged 13.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.7 steals, 2.1 blocks, and 74 percent shooting from the foul-line on the road to her successful goal of gaining state honors. And she will certainly be a go-to player for LHS as a junior.
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Caption: Senior LHS hoop standout Jake Coleman claimed Division I First-Team All-State honors following his superb 2016-17 season recently.