DURHAM, NH — Nashua South and Plymouth Regional High School will meet in the final Granite State Challenge game at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, on New Hampshire PBS.
Nashua South is captained by 12th-grader Henry Long. The team also includes 12th-graders Eric Picanco and Thanasi Miris and 10th-grader Charlie Long, with alternates Jerry Primo, a 12th-grader, and Lexie Ross, a 10th-grader. The team is coached by Social Studies teacher Lex Duval and English teacher Kelli Thornhill-Telerski. Nashua South previously won Granite State Challenge championships in 2016 and 2017.
With the final ahead, Long said the team’s experience has helped it reach this point.
“We’re an older team with a bunch of seniors, so it’s really exciting that we get to go this far in our senior year and go out with a bang,” Long said.
Thornhill-Telerski also spoke about the upcoming matchup.
“We have good competition,” she said. “I’m feeling confident in the abilities of our students, and I think that they’ll give them a good show.”
Duval said the coaches have been pleased with the team’s progress.
“We’re really proud of them,” he said. “We’re proud of how they act as a team and how individually they’ve grown and continue to make each other better.”
Plymouth Regional is led by 11th-grader Abe Hankens. The Bobcats also include 11th-graders Yuriy Paul and Ezra Amsden and 9th-grader Olivia Brayfield. Alternates are 10th-grader Leif Eisenbarth and 9th-graders Cam Cawley and Aurora Ricker. The team is coached by Drafting teacher Jay Fogarty and World Languages teacher Troy Harris.
Plymouth Regional High School enrolls 640 students in Grafton County and serves Plymouth, Ashland, Holderness, Campton, Rumney, Wentworth, Ellsworth, Waterville Valley, and Thornton. The school has won Granite State Challenge titles in 1996, 2013, and 2019, and has appeared in the final match in 2018, 2020, 2023, and 2024.
“Nashua South is really strong,” Hankens said. “All of their players have good depth, so they’ll do well. And so, we have to as well.”
Fogarty said his team plans to stick with its approach.
“We’ve got a great team to play against,” he said. “And it’s just really exciting to make it this far and then know that you have one more match. They’ve been playing exactly the way I coach them to play, so we’re not changing anything. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
The final can also be streamed on the PBS App, the NHPBS YouTube channel, or online at nhpbs.org/gsc.
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