-For the returning players, it's the desire to flush away the pain of an 0-8 season in 2024. The look on the faces of the players as they walked off Natowich Field last October after losing the season finale 41-21 to Mount Anthony said it all.
The motivation for the new players is not pain, but promise - the chance to start creating their own gridiron legacy.
Brattleboro lost a fair amount of last season's starters to graduation - wide receiver/defensive back Jack Cady, running back/defensive back Alex Papadimitriou, running back/linebacker Zach Corbeil, tight end/linebacker Dylan Jenks, and linemen Kaden Colberg, Seth Corbeil, Zach DiZolglio, Justin Packard, and Evan Velez.
But about 30 players from last year's team are back, and they are joined by 10 freshmen. Brattleboro head coach Chad Pacheco said that is an encouraging sign for this season, and the future.
Among the returnees are seniors Alasdair Jenks, Anthony Doell, and John Harrison; juniors Kmar Hall, Tucker Jenks, and Hunter Roth, and sophomore Carson Kelley. They will likely be in the mix for the Bears' starting receiving corps, along with juniors Luke DiZoglio and Charlie O'Connell, who will likely play at tight end.
Seniors Donnevhan Hall and Colby Bristol, sophomore Logan Casey, and Harrison will likely see action as running backs. Senior Sean Cozza returns at quarterback, with Casey as his backup.
The success of these players will depend on the success of the offensive line, and it is the one area that was hit the hardest by graduation. Seniors Lucas Speno, Cooper LaFlam, and Jayson Tirrell are back, along with juniors Jesse Johnson and Connor Emery, to help provide some stability in what looks like a work in progress. As was the case last season, the Bears will have a lot of two-way players on defense, with Bristol expected to anchor the defense at middle linebacker.
With so many two-way players, conditioning will be key. After watching Pacheco and his staff put the Bears through their paces at an afternoon practice last week at dry and dusty Fort Dummer Field, the team looks like they are ready to accept the challenge of playing one of the toughest schedules in Division I.
Brattleboro opens the regular season on Friday, Sept. 5, at St. Johnsbury, and returns home to Natowich Field the following Friday for a Sept. 12 game at 7 p.m. against Middlebury. The rest of the schedule is just as tough, with Hartford, Division II champs Fair Haven, Burr & Burton, Rutland, Mount Anthony, and North Country all on the docket.
Of course, the Mount Anthony game on Oct. 17 in Bennington is the one that the Bears have circled on the calendar. Avenging the bitter end to the 2024 season and taking back the Elwell Trophy is high on the to-do list.
For Pacheco, the most important thing he says he wants to see is the team putting in the effort to get better with every practice and every game. If they can do that, who knows what might happen?
The heart of the matter
• At The Commons, we get lots of emailed news releases every day from public relations firms. Their favorite type of release is using various lists based on various surveys to show where Vermont ranks in just about any category you can think of.
One of this kind of email landed in our mailbox a few weeks ago. Gambling 'N Go, a website that calls itself "your ultimate gambling resource hub," did a survey to identify "the towns in each U.S. state that best embody the spirit of baseball." Based on their online survey of nearly 5,000 baseball fans around the country, Burlington was voted as "the heart and soul of baseball in Vermont."
Burlington, being Vermont's largest city, almost always tops any list of the PR firms on any topic. For baseball, the most obvious reason would be Centennial Field, one of the oldest active ballparks in America. The support for the Vermont Lake Monsters, a former minor league team that reinvented itself as a collegiate summer league team is another reason, as is the strength of the youth and high school baseball programs in Chittenden County. However, they failed to mention that the University of Vermont dropped baseball and softball in 2009.
Montpelier was ranked second, mainly on the basis of the fan support for the Vermont Mountaineers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. They have a nice municipal ballpark, Montpelier Recreation Field. Like Tenney Field in Brattleboro, it was built by the Works Progress Administration during the waning years of the Great Depression.
Recreation Field opened in 1940 and has a covered grandstand behind home plate. Another thing it has in common with Tenney Field is that it was part of the old semi-pro Northern League of the 1940s. Rec Field hosted the Montpelier Senators and the Twin City Trojans, the team that Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts played for in 1946 and 1947.
In third place was Brattleboro and the Gambling 'N Go folks got some of their facts wrong. While they correctly pointed out that "baseball in Brattleboro is all about community," they were a bit off in saying that "the town has proudly hosted one of the country's oldest summer youth tournaments - where generations have played under the same lights."
While Brattleboro's South Main Street Field has hosted the state Little League tournament on a rotating basis, it doesn't have lights. They may be confusing it with Tenney Field, which didn't get lights until the early 1990s and hasn't hosted a youth baseball tournament in years.
Brattleboro doesn't have a collegiate summer league team like Burlington or Montpelier, or like our neighbor to the east, Keene, New Hampshire. We do, however, have strong youth programs that stretch from T-ball to American Legion baseball.
Tenney Field - formerly named Stolte Field after Brattleboro High School's first great coaching legend - is also rich in history as the home of the Brattleboro Maples of the old Northern League and as the diamond where Ernie Johnson, the Brattleboro native who had a long career with the Braves as a pitcher and broadcaster, got his start.
The crowds that turned out for the Brattleboro Little Leaguers for the playoffs this summer, and the strong attendance for the Post 5 baseball teams at Tenney Field show that Brattleboro is still a baseball town. Burlington and Montpelier may be bigger, but I think you can make a strong argument that the heart and soul of baseball is in the southeast corner of Vermont, in a town where the game is still rooted in Brattleboro's community identity.
West River Trail reopens at Jamaica State Park
• Nearly two years after a landslide closed a section of the West River Trail at Jamaica State Park, the trail is once again open to public use. While the trail is passable, park staff advise visitors to be aware of their surroundings because the slope is still adjusting and conditions may change, especially during or after heavy rain.
Flooding in the upper West River Valley in July 2023, caused by more than five inches of rain over a two-day period, led to runoff that overwhelmed the steep, rocky soil along the West River. This in turn led to a landslide at the park that took out a portion of the 3.1-mile trail.
Since then, the site has remained under close observation by the Vermont Geological Survey (VGS) and Vermont State Parks staff. VGS first visited the landslide just days after the event, and found waterlogged soils and an unstable slope. Since then, the trail has remained closed to the public as the landslide area continued to move and settle.
In May 2025, VGS returned to the site after a particularly wet spring and found that, aside from minor shifting, the landslide zone had not significantly changed since 2023.
"We're pleased to be able to welcome visitors back to the full length of the West River Trail," said Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR) Commissioner Danielle Fitzko in a news release. "While the slide area is passable, we ask everyone to stay alert, especially during wet weather."
The reopened trail restores the primary access route to the Hamilton Falls Natural Area. Hikers should be prepared as the landslide zone is slightly steeper than the rest of the trail. Debris from the slide has been left in place to avoid destabilizing the slope, and the trail pitch and surfacing mean the path is not considered universally accessible beyond the first mile from Jamaica State Park.
Trail maintenance is ongoing, and FPR staff continue to monitor the slope. Visitors are encouraged to check the Jamaica State Park webpage at vtstateparks.com/parks/jamaica for trail updates.
Pickleball, tennis courts closed for construction
• The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department says the Nelson Withington tennis and pickleball courts are closed for construction beginning this week, and will remain closed until the completion of the new pickleball court project that is scheduled to begin Sept. 8.
Also, the indoor pickleball courts at the Gibson-Aiken Center on Main Street will be closed from Sept. 1 through Sept. 12 for resurfacing. They are expected to reopen on Sept. 15.
Senior tennis for players 55 and older will continue to be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Brattleboro Union High School tennis courts. This is a freelance program with no instruction and no officials. There is no set fee to be a member or to participate in the program, but donations are accepted. Participants must have their own equipment. All abilities are welcome. For more information, contact Sarah Clark at the Brattleboro Senior Center at 802-257-7570 or [email protected].
Senior bowling roundup
• The next to last week of the spring/summer season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on Aug. 21 saw Team 7 (57-28) have a 4-1 week to stay in first place. Slo Movers (52.5-32.5) had a 1-4 week, but held on to second place. Cyclones (48.5-36.5) also went 1-4, but they remain in third place, followed by Dims (47-38). Leftovers (46-40), Wayne's World (41-44), Having Fun (38-47), I.D. Care (37-48), 4 Queens (33.5-51.5), and Strikers (25.5-59.5).
Carol Gloski had the women's high handicap game (243) and series (685), while Pete Cross had the men's high handicap game (255) and series (711). 4 Queens had the high team handicap game (866) and series (2,448).
Kevin Napaver had the men's high scratch series (589), with games of 236 and 195, while Rich Pietro had a 551 series and Cross had a 546 series with a 200 game. Gary Montgomery had a 535 series with a 221 game, Stan Kolpa had a 523 series, Robert Rigby had a 521 series, and Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 504 series with a 191 game. Fred Ashworth had a 193 game.
Gloski had the women's high scratch series (526) and game (190); she also rolled a 169 and a 167. Diane Cook had a 170 game and Candida Wall and Nancy Dalzell each had a 154 game.
Randolph T. Holhut, deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at [email protected].
This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.