> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Choate, Upton using friendship to help them adjust to being captains for Nashua North girls basketball - URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/choate-upton-using-friendship-help-adjust-captains-nashua-north-girls-basketball/ - Published: 2017-12-15T13:30:46.000Z - Updated: 2017-12-15T13:30:46.000Z - Description: Danielle Upton's first memories of Alana Choate were not as friends, but rather competitors. The pair first got to know each other as young basketball players participating in Nashua's Girls Jr. Biddy Basketball program, playing against one another. But then, as they were preparing to make the leap - Author: Joe Marchilena - Tags: Division I, girls basketball, Nashua North, NH High School Sports Insider, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/jmnnlongbball121217-n3l32-wm.jpg) Nashua North's Alana Choate drives to the basket during Tuesday's game against Londonderry. (Photo by NH-HighSchoolSports.com) Danielle Upton's first memories of Alana Choate were not as friends, but rather competitors. The pair first got to know each other as young basketball players participating in Nashua's Girls Jr. Biddy Basketball program, playing against one another. But then, as they were preparing to make the leap from eighth grade into high school, their paths crossed again, this time in the stands at Nashua High School North girls basketball games. "In eighth grade, we’d come to our sisters' games because they both played (at North)," Upton said. "We’d always been kind of enemies on the court, especially in middle school. We both knew coming into high school we’d be tight. We formed that friendship before we came to high school." That friendship was aided by the fact that the pair were the only freshmen on varsity the following season, and over the last four years, despite their athletic paths only crossing for a few months on the basketball court, it's continued to blossom. "When basketball started, we were the only freshmen, so we really bonded," Choate said. "Over the past four years, our friendship got a lot better. When we have time to see each other, we will. During the summer, we hang out." This season, Upton, who also plays field hockey and lacrosse, and Choate, who does volleyball and track, are interacting a lot, as they serve as co-captains for the Titans. "It’s great having a co-captain I can trust and be honest with, and she can be honest with me," Choate said. "It’s been going pretty well. Outside of basketball, we all have a pretty OK relationship with each other. We all genuinely like each other, so getting along isn’t that hard at all. They respect us as friends and as people before captains, so they would do as we said because they know we’re not out to get anybody." While it's a change for both girls to be front and center for the team, it's also been a bit different for North coach Christina Bean. In her second year as the Titans varsity coach, Bean is experiencing a different dynamic in terms of captains, as last season, there was just Isabel Dunning, the team's lone senior. Bean feels this year's captains learned a lot from watching and interacting with Dunning a season ago. "Seeing what Isabel did last year and having to be both parts of it, and seeing how exhausting it was for her to have all of that responsibility has been neat for the two of them," Bean said. "They counter one another. Danielle is that heart and soul, kind of that positive through and through. Alana is that gritty, down and dirty (player), making those plays and being that role model in that sense of work ethic." Both girls had a colorful way of describing how they've been as captains in the early part of the season. "If there is a certain skill that a player doesn’t have, Alana is going to be there to help someone," Upton said. "I’m more of ‘let’s have that positive attitude.’ We’ve been friends for so long, we know that if we each have that role, it will work well. Then it’s not both of us doing both things and having people get tired of us. We’re not exactly good cop, bad cop." But if they were, Choate knows who would be who. "If it was like a good-cop, bad-cop, she’d definitely be the good cop," Choate said with a laugh. "Not like I’m mean, sometimes you just have to nip some things in the bud. Some arguing or some other situation needs to be nipped in the bud." Seeing how both players interact, not just with each other, but with the rest of the team has Bean surprised at how easily it's happened. "They’re almost seamless," the coach said. "They don’t have another athletic interaction with each other, but they come in, step into the gym and it’s like it was just the other day. They pick up where they left off. They’re all sprinkled out through other sports. I think because we are a small program, unfortunately, it’s the same group of girls coming back each year to pick right back up. "They’re both so involved within the school. They’re both in the student athlete leadership council. They interact with each other outside of sports, too, and they both have great personalities. They’re well-liked and well-respected and I think it drives them together in that sense." After getting into the playoffs last year and reaching the quarterfinals, before falling to two-time champion Bishop Guertin, the Titans feel the expectations for this season are a little higher than they were a season ago. "Those mistakes you made as a sophomore, well you were young, you were new," Bean said. "Now it’s expected, you’ve been, you know what it looks like. "Danielle and Alana have been on a varsity team for four years. They’re older and more mature. We’ll still have our moments, not saying we won’t, but they have a higher expectation for themselves. It’s not my first year any more, so what we did last year was great and it surprised a lot of people, but the expectation is we need to get there."