By Michael Letendre
WEST HARTFORD — There was absolutely nothing easy about the trek the Bristol Central boys basketball squad – the defending 2021-22 CIAC Division II champions — took this year.
Head coach Tim Barrette was a competitor as a player and that fire and drive was in full effect during this season’s run to the Division I tournament.
Central never ducked a challenge and endured a very tough nine-game losing streak along the way, going 6-14 heading into first round play.
And what was the Rams reward for such a tough campaign, competing against some of the top teams in the state?
Earning a postseason rematch against Northwest Catholic, a squad ranked second in Division I.
While the 79-40 loss wasn’t the way Barrette wanted his senior crew of Mike Allan, Tre Blair, Mason Stokes and Jayeson VanBeveren — along with Julius Powell still recovering from an injury — to go out, the squad came to West Hartford and battled the full 32 minutes.
Central put together a run midway through the fourth, an 11-4 jaunt, which was ended by all four seniors on the floor touching the ball and Stokes (team-high 11 points) burying a three off a tremendous sequence.
And soon after that, Barrette pulled his senior core off the hardwood for one final time.
“I told them what a great possession for them to end” on said Barrette. “Mason makes that three. I think all five guys touched the ball in that possession. There’s no better thing as a senior [to do that] and I said, ‘let’s end it there.’ All five guys got a touch on that possession. Jay kicked it out and Mason knocked it down.”
“It was a good way to end.”
VanBeveren, a huge part of Central’s title run last season, ended the year with a 12.4 points-per-game scoring average.
The senior big canned over 20 three-pointers this year and did his best as one of the featured players of the program this year.
Mike Allan (4.4 ppg) missed all but one game in 2022-23.
And the missed contest was due to a heroic effort in Central’s final boys soccer game as Allan attempted to stop a goal from scoring that got him into a little hot water.
Talk about taking one for the team. Sacrifice from a senior leader goes a long way for a scholastic program.
His defense was tremendous over the season while Mason Stokes (4.2 ppg) scored 22 points over his final two scholastic games – averaging 11.0 ppg to help the Rams go 1-1 during their final two games.
Tre Blair saw action in 19 games and finished his final contest with four points as his track & field season is about to commence.
And finally, Powell only got on the court once — at Bristol Eastern for an opening game lay-up (leading to a blistering 17-0 run) — due to his knee injury and certainly would have been a difference maker in close games like the contests at Xavier and Berlin.
But with games against both East and Northwest Catholic, Windsor, Farmington, Platt, Middletown and Conard this season, that senior crew never relented.
Talent just simply won out on the flip side against Central.
“It was obviously a tough schedule this year for them,” said Barrette. “They gave me all the effort without a question.”
An imprint was made by the seniors from the state title team last season.
And it was the junior class that had a front row seat for it, with some minutes sprinkled here or there during that championship run due to foul trouble and rest.
But the example that VanBeveren, Allan, Blair, Stokes and Powell left are also of a championship caliber.
“Game time effort was never a question,” said Barrette. “I appreciate everything. They’ve had a pretty successful career [and] don’t let this season judge what they did. They were part of that run last year.”
“We don’t get there without them.”
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