Three points – one three point shot – was how close the 2013-2014 VHS Boys’ Basketball team came to winning a state championship this year, as they fell to cross town rival, third seeded, Cedar Grove.

This year’s team redeemed their early exit in the first round of last year’s state tournament; however, the overall consensus in the locker room after the Cedar Grove loss was bitter disappointment.

“Our goal was to win the state championship this year, we were definitely the best team in North 1 Group, we just didn’t get it done” explained senior captain Alex Kaslander.  Verona fell just short in the semi-final of the tournament by a score of 32-29.

“Losing is an awful feeling, it is even more awful that it was Cedar Grove,” remarked senior Tommy DeNicola.  Cedar Grove redeemed themselves after a humiliating loss to the Hillbillies earlier in the season by the score of 40-21.  This game turned out to be much different as it was tight throughout with the teams trading baskets regularly.  Tickets to the game were limited and the sellout crowd and dueling student sections electrified the gym and amped up the energy of the game.

“Although we didn’t accomplish our goal of winning a state championship it is extremely hard to argue that this year was overall a failure” says head coach Eric McElroy. There were many bright sports in this season and many positives to take away from this year.  Alex Kaslander scored his 1000^th point.  The team finished second in a highly competitive conference improving from fifth the season before.  And the team won its fourth straight holiday tournament just to name a few accomplishments.

This year’s team graduates five seniors, however the future looks bright for the Hillbillies.  “Replacing some of the seniors is going to be tough, but we have three of our starting five returning for next year and a real chip on our shoulder after this year’s result” explained junior Jacob Miller.  Next year’s team will have a different identity than this year’s team as they will look to some underclassman to fill voids left by a veteran squad.  Verona seems to have a fountain of youth consisting of a plethora of underclassman including a freshman team just brought back this year.

The last time the boys basketball team captured a state sectional title was March of 2009, with a team featuring 1000-point scorer Chris Looney, and Carlo Calabrese, both multi-sport athletes who went on to have successful college football careers, Chris as a wide receiver for Colgate and Carlo as a linebacker at Notre Dame.

However, the 2013-2014 Verona Hillbillies basketball team still has a lot to be proud of as well as momentum to fuel next year’s squad.