Podcast: Ben Farmer talks Williston Northampton’s strong start, raves about star trio

Ben Farmer is in his ninth season as Williston Northampton's head coach. (Williston Northampton Athletics)

Few teams in New England prep basketball have been as hot as Williston Northampton to start the season.

Though they’ve only played five games, the undefeated Wildcats have a few statement wins on their early-season resume. They took down NEPSAC Class AAA opponent Bridgton by 15, crushed Class A contender Tabor by 30 and then went on the road to defeat Class AA’s Wilbraham & Monson.

Unfortunately, a highly-anticipated matchup against defending Class A champion Phillips Exeter on Dec. 20 was cancelled due to weather and travel conditions, but make no mistake: Williston is a legit frontrunner in the Class A championship race this winter.

Ben Farmer, who’s in his ninth season as Williston’s head coach, joined the HoopWise podcast during the holiday break to talk about the Wildcats’ strong start. The discussion also touches on Williston’s electric trio of Preston Edmead, Ricardo Nieves and Ashton Reynolds, the evolution of New England prep school basketball, and Farmer tells the story of the crazy day of his team’s game against Exeter was cancelled.

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Highlights

Has anything surprised you about your strong start?

Farmer: “You never know how your guys are really going to respond. We had one scrimmage, we scrimmaged Cheshire Academy before the season started and we were at home, so you just don’t know until you get out there under the lights. We had a lot of returning guys, so I mean, I had a good feel for the majority of the group, but again, we have a freshman who’s playing significant minutes now and you never know how they’re going to respond when the lights are on, and some new players. But yeah, just really impressed with how they’ve responded to some of these moments. It’s a big stage to go out there and play in front of all you guys, recruiting services, college coaches, all the social media stuff, it’s hard to be a player these days, man. Like, anything you do, it’s going to be on camera somewhere. So I’ve been super impressed with just their approach, they’ve been mature and just their approach to these games and these environments.”

How surprising is it that Ashton Reynolds hasn’t received a number of scholarship offers yet?

Farmer: “It’s kind of just the state of college hoop right now and where recruiting, how it’s going down. I’m not worried about him. I think he’s one of those high school, prep school kids out there that 5-6 years ago, he’d probably have eight offers, committable offers right now. But the game has changed. The portal has impacted it, the COVID stuff has cleared out at this point but the transfer portal and NIL and all that stuff, so the landscape of college recruiting at that level has changed dramatically.”

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