In 1988, New Hampton had returned home after beating Fork Union – one of the powers of prep basketball – to win a tournament. The next day, inside their tiny locker room downstairs underneath the gym, the players were getting ready for practice.
Little did they know the shocking reality check they were about to get.
They were, appropriately, feeling good about themselves. Then, New Hampton was a relatively unproven program led by young head coach Whit Lesure. It was, at that point, arguably the biggest win in program history, and the victory came with a trophy.
Well, for a day. Lesure used it to make a statement.
“He shattered that damn thing in a million pieces against the wall,” said Jay Tilton, who was a member of the team.
Tilton and his teammates sat in silence. They were stunned.
“It didn’t matter. He didn’t want us to be satisfied,” Tilton said. “He didn’t give a crap. It was all about the next one.”
Decades later, Tilton said the dent in the wall is still there. He joked that pieces of the concrete might have been lodged in players’ skin. But then they had a heck of a practice, because that’s what Lesure demanded.
Lesure, one of the greatest coaches in New England prep history, tragically died on Jan. 5. Since then, the stories, memories and lessons he left behind have flooded the region. He won hundreds of games and four NEPSAC Class AAA championships between his time at New Hampton and then Bridgton, but that only began to describe his impact. A pioneer of NEPSAC basketball, Lesure was revered as a relentless competitor, fiercely loyal to his players, deeply passionate about teaching the game and a straight shooter, some would say almost to a fault.
“I always considered Whit one of the NEPSAC Mount Rushmore guys,” Tilton said.
“He was a guy who helped usher in NEPSAC basketball,” added St. Andrew’s coach Mike Hart.
You always knew where you stood with Lesure.
Tilton – who played at New Hampton under Lesure and his father Mark, who was an assistant, in the 1980s – remembers going into Lesure’s office as a junior and asking him what he needed to do to get more playing time. Tilton was a Division 3 recruit who was playing behind Div. 1 guys.
“I remember him saying, ‘We ain't beating Fork Union with Jay Tilton. But we need you in practice and give us everything you got if we want a chance to win,’” Tilton recalled.
“He was never going to sugarcoat anything and that’s what I loved about him.”
“At the same time, Whit would give you the shirt on his back.”
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Tilton said Lesure was instrumental in his college decision – like hundreds of players over the years – and even helped him with financial aid. Tilton went on to have a long, successful coaching career at Phillips Exeter and had regular battles with Lesure’s Bridgton teams, which were a giant, and they remained close. In 2022, Tilton’s father died and three days later, almost poetically, Exeter beat New Hampton. Lesure reached out with a heartfelt text.
“I’ll hold on to that text for as long as I’ll have my phone,” Tilton said.
When Lesure was an assistant at New Hampshire, he introduced himself to Hart. They got to know each other better in the late 90s, when Lesure would frequently help Hart with advice on recruiting and creating coaching relationships. He was always looking out for his peers.
Cory McClure had similar memories. Now the head coach at Kimball Union, he was a young Division 3 coach trying to break in – maybe even using recruiting as an excuse to network – when he connected with Lesure in the early 2000s. When other coaches were dismissive of him, Lesure always made time.
“He always appreciated anyone who was going to work,” McClure said. “If you were driving up to Bridgton, you had his respect. And then could you hold a real basketball conversation with him? And I think that’s where we hit it off.”
The conversations lasted decades. Open gym trips to Bridgton would often produce hours-long talks courtside or in his office. In 2013, McClure had the opportunity to work as a coach with Lesure at Bridgton for three years. When he left, the chats continued with monthly phone calls.
“In my 30-year journey, it was the most substantive basketball experience,” McClure said. “I probably apply what I learned, absorbed, observed from Whit Lesure more than anything that I do, in this particular job.”
“That was the basis for our regular calls. He and I shared the same birthday, his wife took a liking to my children and would even babysit them. It was a real family connection. I was with Whit so much. … It was just a real unique connection that we had.”
Ed Cooley, now the head coach at Georgetown, played for Lesure at New Hampton as a postgraduate in 1988-89. That season instilled some important lessons in a young Cooley.
“I think some of what I am today with respect to coaching toughness derived from Whit,” Cooley said. “If you were not mentally, emotionally and physically tough for him, it was a struggle. But I think the side a lot of people didn’t see was his compassion, his empathy for people. I think Whit was really good with those who came from disadvantaged backgrounds. I think he understood the heartache of a hard upbringing. I really appreciate that. Some 20, 30 years later, I purposely put my son at Bridgton Academy under Whit’s leadership. I think that says all of how I feel about him, is to trust him with my own baby.”
Lesure’s legacy at Bridgton can’t be mistaken. The program was a relative unknown in NEPSAC basketball before he took the job in 1998. He led them to four NEPSAC Class AAA titles, including a dominant stretch of three consecutive championships from 2005-07.
“He really put it on the map,” Tilton said.
The difficulty of the job Lesure did was very high. For most of his tenure, he built his teams with primarily postgraduate players, which meant that he was essentially bringing in a brand new team every season. It took a unique individual to do that with the level of success he created.
“I admire anybody who has 15 new players every year,” Hart said. “I don’t know how he did it, but he did it well.”
McClure saw it firsthand.
“He only had those guys for one year, and those guys just had such a reverence for Whit,” McClure said. “He just connected so well, effortlessly, with each of those guys. It’s hard to describe. He’s a bleeding heart at his core. Super passionate, just had a way of pulling more out of kids than what they (thought). …
“He wasn’t begging anyone to go there. There was a certain humility but confidence that I’m gonna get the right guys, I’m gonna get the right characters.”
Bridgton’s home gym – which became known as the Wolverdome – was one of the most difficult places to play in NEPSAC. Hart recalled a great memory in 2019 – the year St. Andrew’s won the Class AA championship – and played against a good Bridgton team in the championship game of Bridgton’s annual Winter Classic.
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In a tied game, St. Andrew’s was inbounding the ball with three seconds left. But the referee called a questionable five-second violation – Hart said only two seconds passed – to give Bridgton the ball. The Wolverines proceeded to make a game-winning buzzer-beater.
“I was so pissed off, but then I saw Whit, 60-something years old, dancing around the court, and I just started laughing my ass off,” Hart said. “I couldn’t be upset. Just to see his reaction. Here’s a guy, there forever, and he’s still that excited about a buzzer-beater.”
Legendary St. Thomas More coach Jere Quinn became a competitive rival with Lesure in Class AAA. But there was always a genuine respect for the job he was doing at Bridgton.
“Bridgton Academy really helps explain Whit Lesure,” Quinn said. “It was the PG concept. We were total postgraduates. … Guys like Whit and I, our schools were isolated, all male, structure, discipline. Old-school schools and old-school basketball programs. He just fit that mold and he fit those kids. He fought for those kids. …
“You can’t fake what it is. You’re going to come up here, there’s going to be snow on the ground from November 1st to April 1st. If you don’t want to be in the gym, don’t come. He always got a tough kid.”
For as competitive as Lesure was, he never forgot the purpose of what he was doing: college placement. Quinn said they would often recommend each other’s players to colleges. And Lesure always did it the right way. Tilton said for Lesure to be as successful as he was for so long at a place like Bridgton, his integrity was critical.
“If you’re phony about it, or you mislead coaches, it’s gonna backfire,” Tilton said. “You can’t last in the business as long as he has unless you did it the right way. Whit never took a shortcut. …
“He was always willing to take a chance on kids and was able to really relate to such a diverse group of kids on a team. Just a really unique ability to do it. It was probably because he was such a straight shooter. He treated everyone exactly the same.”
Added Quinn: “You knew his team was going to be really well coached and play hard and play the right way, but when the game ended, he understood the game ended. … He understood at the end of the year, there’s going to be one winner but at the end of the year, it's going to be based on the 100 kids playing, and let’s make them all winners.”
