Lacrosse is a family affair for the Bassetts.
Amelia was a senior captain for the undefeated, Division III champion Hopkinton girls’ lacrosse team this spring. She was playing for her father/coach, Tim, and her mother, Amy, was keeping track of her 77 goals and 27 assists while doing the book for the Hawks. Amelia finished with a school-record 280 goals for her varsity career, which began when she was a freshman and her older sister/teammate, Hannah, was a senior.
“We talk about lacrosse all the time at our house, all the time,” Amelia said. “My dad being the coach and my mom doing the stats, so we’re always talking about games, future games, past games. It’s constant.”
The family feeling spread into the Hopkinton team this year, which helped the Hawks claim their first title in program history.
“Our team has never been closer. We were all like a family off the field and that definitely helped on the field,” Bassett said. “We definitely connected and you could just tell the way we moved the ball up the field that we were really comfortable with each other.”
Considering the household she grew up in, it should come as no surprise that Bassett was a driving force behind the team’s family atmosphere.
“She’s always a kind person on the field and she’s always helping everybody. She was a huge part of the team all four years in high school,” said Amelia Thomas, another senior on Hopkinton’s team this spring. “She’s the most unselfish player and she wants to make sure that everybody has a chance to score and do everything that they can.”
Thomas, Bassett and Lyndon Flanagan all represented the Hawks in the Byrne Cup Twin State All-Star Lacrosse Game at Lebanon High School on June 22. Even playing with some of the best seniors from New Hampshire, and against some of the best seniors from Vermont, the chemistry between Bassett and Flanagan, who both play attack, was obvious.
They looked for each other in transition and in the offensive third. They moved to create passing space between themselves. Flanagan scored the game’s first goal and finished with a team-high six points (two goals, four assists), Bassett scored the game’s second goal and finished with five points (three goals, two assists) and New Hampshire won, 23-8.
Since Thomas plays defense, she was on the opposite end of the field from Bassett and Flanagan, so the on-field chemistry wasn’t as obvious. There was also one other Hopkinton senior who the three Hawks wished they could have played with one last time – Ellie Morrall.
“If they had voted for the (Twin State All-Star team) after the playoffs, Ellie would have been the first one picked to be here. And she definitely would have done well if she was,” Bassett said.
That comment was a display of Bassett’s Hopkinton family loyalty, but it’s also the truth. With the Hawks down two players (including Flanagan) for most of the second half of the D-III final against Derryfield, Morrall, normally a defensive-minded midfielder, rose to the occasion and scored a game-high five goals, including two in the final two minutes to lead the Hawks to a stunning 12-11 win on June 4.
“We wanted that first girls’ lacrosse banner for Hopkinton and we wanted that undefeated season. It’s an amazing ending. It’s the best feeling in the world,” Bassett said at the time.
A few weeks later, after the Twin State game, she was still feeling it.
“That was crazy,” Bassett said of the D-III final. “We deserved it so much, we worked so hard for it. Finally getting it was the best feeling ever.”
Bassett had been preparing for that moment for most of her life. She started playing organized lacrosse in third grade, but her fascination with the game began before that.
“Because my sister played and my dad coached, I was always holding a stick, playing around with it, and I was always interested in it,” she said.
Despite the interest and family ties, Bassett said she didn’t really start excelling at lacrosse until she started playing with the Granite State Elite club teams and practicing year-round. It also helped to have an older sister to shadow.
“Hannah was always my role model on the field,” said Amelia, who was a three-time D-III First Team selection for the Hawks.
Claiming that first girls’ lacrosse banner for Hopkinton was a crowning moment, but it’s not the end of Bassett’s lacrosse career. She’ll be playing at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., next year. Skidmore went 12-6 last season and reached the Liberty League semifinals before losing to the tournament’s top seed, and the No. 14 team in Division III, William Smith College, 12-6.
“I’m so excited about going to Skidmore. The coach is amazing, the team is amazing and it’s a beautiful location,” Bassett said. “I always wanted to play in college. At first, I wanted to go D-I. But then once you mature you figure out what the commitment is like and it’s going to be a lot, so you realize if you want to get good education, too, it’s tough. So I think Skidmore is the best of both worlds because they’re pretty competitive and it’s a great school.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)