HADLEY — With a postseason appearance on the line, Hopkins Academy played its final-regular season game with the intensity of a playoff match.
But the game wasn’t just important to the Golden Hawks’ playoff hopes. It was senior night for Caleb Graves, the lone senior on the team. While the game was close, Pioneer Regional won, 58-53, to eliminate Hopkins.
The Golden Hawks (9-11, 3-5 Hampshire South) needed to beat the defending sectional champion Panthers (17-3, 8-0) to qualify for the playoffs.
For Graves, even though his playing days at Hopkins are over, he’ll hold with him the memories and skills he’s gathered over the past four years.
“I’ve learned so many life lessons about character building and what it is to be a team player and help everybody out,” Graves said.
Graves scored three 3-point shots, four free throws and finished with 17 points. His leadership role developed naturally over the course of the year, being the most experienced player, and it’s a testament to his successful high school career.
“I think first you reflect on and appreciate Caleb Graves because his leadership this year was outstanding,” Hopkins coach Adam Ginsburg said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be in my 27th year of coaching and he was, if not the best, in the top three in terms of his leadership and I want to reflect on that and appreciate what he brought to the table. He made huge drives for us as a player so that was encouraging, but then we return everyone else.”
After a close first half, the Hawks found themselves down by 11 points multiple times throughout the rest of the game. They never regained the lead, but always stayed within range of making a comeback.
“It was like a roller coaster,” Graves said. “I mean, at the start everything was hitting for us and it was just looking up and it was just about a game of runs and they ended up coming out with the win, which isn’t what we wanted to see.”
Entering the season with a new coach and so many new players gave the Hawks a new identity this year. Through all of the adversity they faced, the Hawks had something to play for till the very end.
“I’m really proud of our group,” Ginsburg said. “They fought all year. I think coming into the year there was a lot of doubt because so many kids had graduated and I think kids can pick up on the doubt and they weren’t sure what was going to make of the year and we just put our heads together and just worked every single day to scratch and claw and fight and prove and I’m really just proud of the group and the foundation that they have set.”
Pioneer not only won earlier in the year, but they snapped the Hawks’ three-year run as Western Massachusetts Division 4 champions last season. Although their season ended to the same school again, the future is bright for Hopkins. The Hawks rediscovered themselves and are already looking forward to next year.
“I think the kids are excited about the future and what that holds so obviously in the offseason they’ll probably play AAU and work really hard,” Ginsburg said. “Now they put themselves in a position where they’re experienced and the way I told them too is because our record was almost .500 the whole year, especially the last half of the year, they got a feel for what it’s like to play elimination basketball. We got it for about a good three to four weeks, so I’m excited that they had that experience and it was great here to have a big crowd for senior night so again they experienced what that was like.”
After having a taste of elimination basketball, the newcomers are already eager to get back to that feeling.
“First practice the fire’s going to be lit,” said freshman Andrew Ciaglo, who finished with 12 points. “Everyone’s going to be hungry and want to make the tournament next year and have a big run. Now I think everyone’s more experienced and we can make a really good run in the post season next year.”
Braeden Tudryn had 16 points in the loss.
