Coaches hopeful to keep out-of-state girls basketball matchups on future schedules

Over the last two years, the girls basketball teams from Bishop Guertin and Bedford high schools have played five times.

This season, they were scheduled for at least two more games, including what would have been the season-opener for the Cardinals on Dec. 12, and the second game of the year for the Bulldogs. With the teams among the favorites in Division I this year, a third meeting in the postseason - for the third year in a row - wasn't out of the question.

So instead of an early-season matchup, Bishop Guertin coach Brad Kreick decided to reach out to Sue Thomas, his counterpart at Bedford, to gauge her interest in make a change to the schedule.

"What we’ve been trying to do consistently is find as high a level of competition as we can," Kreick said. "We had an opportunity to chat with Sue over the offseason and I think she feels the same way. We were initially scheduled to play Bedford twice. We agreed wouldn’t it be a good idea for us to play once and each of us found a competitive out-of-state game."

Last season, Kreick's second as the Cardinals' head coach, he scheduled out-of-state games against LaSalle Academy, of Providence, R.I., and Norwich (Conn.) Free Academy. Although the later game was canceled due to snow, Bishop Guertin traveled to LaSalle, and the Rams were planning to make a return trip to Nashua this season.

Kreick reached out to LaSalle coach Sean Reddy to see if he knew of another team from Rhode Island that would want to travel to New Hampshire and play Bedford. Reddy was able to get Johnston, R.I., to come up to take on the Bulldogs.

"We play them so much, it’s just nice to see someone completely different," Thomas said. "Brad put this together, it was fun for us and I’m glad he did. It would have been really early in the season for both teams. Now (the regular-season game with Bishop Guertin) will be in Bedford in January, so that’s still going to be a great game. We’re talking about different things (for the future), just trying to do something."

The game against LaSalle was one of four against out-of-state competition for Bishop Guertin this year, not including any teams the Cardinals might play at the Commonwealth Christmas Classic during the holiday break. The team will also play at Conrad High School, in West Hartford, and Bishop Feehan High School, of Attleboro, Mass., along with a home game against Mercy High School, from Middletown, Conn.

"I think it would be great for the girls basketball scene around here, no question about it," Kreick said. "We’ll have to figure that out. It’s a long way away, but I’d love to do this kind of thing on a consistent basis."

While LaSalle won't likely be one of those teams traveling to Nashua next season, Reddy said there was an idea in the works for a four-team competition at a neutral site.

"Our goal next year is to get LaSalle, Bishop Guertin, Bishop Feehan and Mercy to play at Brown University next year," he said. "The top Catholic schools in New England, one from each state, that’s our goal for next year. It’s good basketball, the kids play hard, and we want to grow the game. This is the best way to get kids more interested in playing."