Who would make your Mount Rushmore of NEPSAC basketball coaches?

The growth of NEPSAC basketball has been stewarded by its elite coaches. Much like in college sports, coaches in prep and high school are often the figureheads of their respective programs, and a select few have cultivated long runs of success.

But who are the true best of the best?

Ethan Fuller and Steve Hewitt set out to make their "Mount Rushmores" of four NEPSAC coaches apiece in boys and girls basketball. They debated eras and criteria, and they compared the legacies of several prominent names that have made New England prep hoops what it is today.

Ethan and Steve discussed their picks and thought processes below.

Ethan: For me, the challenge with NEPSAC is that the competitive landscape in girls basketball has grown exponentially in such a short amount of time. It feels unfair to gloss over some of the great early NEPSAC runs, like Northfield Mount Hermon in the 1980s and Phillips Andover in the 1990s. But also, the talent depth was much more shallow, and singular stars made a huge difference.

You can have the same dilemma looking at various classes. If we're only choosing four coaches here, how do we weigh success in Class B or C versus success in the higher classes? And do you measure success only in championships and wins, or by the caliber of player coaches developed during their tenure?

I tended to skew more recent and towards the higher classes with my top girls candidates. I'd be interested in how you approached this with boys basketball having elite talent that dates back longer.

Steve: Exactly, Ethan. The boys side dates back about 30 years longer than the girls, and I'm admittedly still learning about some of the great coaches that defined NEPSAC's early days. The quality depth of NEPSAC coaching legends is unbelievable. I could theoretically make four or five Mount Rushmores of them. There's a strong argument that the collection of boys coaches in New England history is the best of any region in the country.

I think picking the top four has to start with on-court success — NEPSAC championships, national prep championships and games won. And I'd have to agree that winning higher class championships carry more weight because of the level of competition. But on the boys side, that only narrows the list so far. I think on-court success generally translates to high college placement and development, which is ultimately the end goal at the prep level, so that matters a lot. If you're winning, you're typically placing your kids consistently. The formula works. And a further separator for me is longevity. The coaches who made my Mount Rushmore sustained success at a high level for decades.

Ethan: That makes a lot of sense, and I think we're on similar tracks. I'll start with my locks on the girls side.

Alex Gallagher is an easy choice. He's won more than 520 games at Nobles (and more than 600 total) with a win rate above 82 percent. He's led the Bulldogs to 10 NEPSAC championships, including a 2023-24 team that might be the best NEPSAC has ever seen (unless you want to argue for the 2022-23 iteration). He's developed too many high recruits and college stars to list here, plus a WNBA player-turned-NBA G League general manager in Katie Benzan.

PODCAST: Gallagher talks evolution of NEPSAC girls basketball and more

My next two locks are Will Becker, longtime head coach and current assistant at Tabor, and Tara Brisson at Tilton. Becker has been the bedrock of NEPSAC girls basketball's rise, going 623-119 (84 percent win rate) across 32 years as a head coach before stepping aside in 2025. He never posted a losing season and won nine NEPSAC class titles, overseeing a wave of elite basketball talent highlighted by 2025 McDonald's All-American Kaelyn Carroll.

Nobles and Tabor have both historically been in the upper classes of NEPSAC, but Brisson took over Tilton when it was a Class C program in 2009. Since then, she has led the Rams to a 2011 Class C title, four Class B championships between 2013 and 2017, a 2020 Class A championship, and finally, the first Class AAA title in NEPSAC girls basketball in 2025. That ascendancy, coupled with a 374-73 record, includes the development of prospects like current Miami guard Ahnay Adams.

PODCAST: Brisson talks about coaching today's young athletes and more

Those are three ironclad coaching careers. They also take three out of my four slots... so give me time to think.

Steve: Can't argue with any of those picks. They're also more on the recent side. I think we're naturally going to have a bit of a recency bias, but the girls history is relatively short anyway. Is there anyone from the early days who can crack the list? You mentioned those NMH and Andover teams. Is there someone else who had a defining effect on the start of NEPSAC girls basketball?

Ethan: It's tricky because of how limited NEPSAC girls basketball was in the 20th century. Since its inaugural season in 1976, only one class existed through the 1988 season. I would give Karen Kennedy a shoutout for that run of four straight championships from 1991-94 at Phillips Andover, part of a lasting multi-sport legacy at the school. That included the dominance of Becky Dowling Calder, the program's leading scorer at the time, who went on to play at Navy and even become the first female Top Gun naval program graduate.

You could go with some more trailblazers like Dennis Kinne, who won five NEPSAC titles during a 197-17 decade run with the Suffield girls beginning in 1991. Still, consider that NEPSAC's first girls basketball Gatorade Player of the Year didn't come until 2003, according to the organization's historical records. NEPSAC players won just three GPOY awards before 2010 compared to 23 awards since.

Another coach who was woven into that 2000s and 2010s evolution of NEPSAC: Sherry Levin. Across two stints at Worcester Academy, Levin won more than 260 games and four NEPSAC titles: 2004 and 2006 in Class A, and then two AA titles in 2018 and 2019. In between, Levin led Beaver Country Day to a Class C championship. She also coached Aliyah Boston, who has the greatest post-prep resume in NEPSAC girls basketball history, and another potential future WNBA player in Oluchi Okananwa. Levin retired in 2023.

I think she has to be the final member of my Mount Rushmore. That means Adrian Stewart is a difficult omission. The Loomis Chaffee coach belongs in this same tier; Stewart took over the girls program in 2008 and built it into four consecutive Class A titles from 2022-2025, plus a runner-up run this past winter.

I'll lock in Gallagher, Becker, Brisson and Levin as my Mount Rushmore, with Kennedy, Kinne and Stewart as the leading honorable mentions. After them, the pool starts to widen. Was making your boys picks any easier?

Steve: Yes and no. I have two stone-cold locks to start my Mount Rushmore: Jere Quinn and Jason Smith.

If you're reading this, you know Quinn. The longtime St. Thomas More coach has, I believe, more than 1,200 career wins now, five NEPSAC championships, and has made the finals 16 other times, and also one national prep championship. He's a member of the New England Hall of Fame and has been nominated to the Naismith Hall of Fame. My favorite Quinn stat: His St. Thomas More teams have finished with a winning record in all 48 seasons he's coached since 1978. That's insane! He's also placed more than 500 players into college basketball, including a handful that ultimately made the NBA. That list includes Andre Drummond. I could keep going, but Quinn's place here can't be debated.

My other lock is Smith, who is currently in transition to lead the new Masters Academy International program after his legendary career at Brewster Academy. Of course, Brewster was a member of the Nike EYBL Scholastic the last three seasons. But it was his tenure at Brewster that got them there. His NEPSAC credentials: Seven NEPSAC championships — two when the top class was still Class A, then five at the Class AAA level, including four in five years from 2014-18 — and seven national prep championships, plus more than 700 victories. He's also developed 25 players who made the NBA, more than any coach in New England.

Rounding out my Mount Rushmore was difficult. So many legendary names. I considered at least 10 more.

Ethan: Beyond the wins and NEPSAC titles, those track records of developing college and pro talent are astounding. I also didn't realize how long and prolific Smith's Brewster career was even before the move to Nike EYBL Scholastic.

OK, so a bunch of names to choose from and you can only pick two. How did you decide?

Steve: We're going with the late, great Whit Lesure. Over a 38-year NEPSAC coaching career — New Hampton from 1982-91, then Bridgton from 1997-2026 — he won six NEPSAC championships, two at New Hampton and four at Bridgton, and is credited with putting both schools on the map. He was inducted into the New England Hall of Fame is 2009 and is widely considered a pioneer of NEPSAC basketball. I believe he amassed more than 1,000 career wins, too. What's unique about Lesure: At Bridgton, his teams were primarily made up of postgraduates, which meant that every year, he essentially had to build a brand new team. To sustain that level of success for that long while assembling a new roster every year — and let's be honest, Bridgton is not the easiest place to recruit to — is extraordinary difficult. That requires a truly special coach, and that was Lesure.

The last head on my Mount Rushmore is John Carroll. For 21 years, from 2001-22, he made Northfield Mount Hermon one of the best prep programs in the country between on-court success and college placement. Under his leadership, NMH won four NEPSAC Class AAA championships, one national prep title and made five more national finals. More than 160 players went on to play college basketball, including 50 to the Ivy League. It's hard to compete with those credentials. I also think it's worth noting that after leaving NMH, he went to become the director at Newman, where he helped the program win two Class AAA titles and one national prep championship. He wasn't technically the coach, but I think that cements Carroll's NEPSAC legacy even more.

So, that's my Mount Rushmore: Quinn, Smith, Lesure and Carroll.

There are a handful of painful omissions. You can't go wrong picking Tom Blackburn, who won seven Class A championships and 403 games over his 26-year career at Worcester Academy. In 32 years at St. Andrew's, Mike Hart has won more than 600 games and seven NEPSAC championships wile coaching future pros Michael Carter-Williams and Cole Swider. He's also a member of the New England Hall of Fame. Max Good, the former coach at Maine Central Institute, had an incredible 10-year run from 1989-99 that included five NEPSAC titles. Others that deserve acknowledgement: Michael Byrnes, who won three NEPSAC championships at Winchendon; Marcus O'Neil, who has won six NEPSAC championships and one national prep title at Tilton; Jay Tilton, who won five NEPSAC titles at Phillips Exeter.

There are more. Mark Tilton (Jay's father) at New Hampton. John McVeigh at Brooks. Kevin Wiercinski at Lawrence Academy. The list goes on. That's what makes NEPSAC so great. Maybe we need to do a Top 20 list next. But even that might not be enough!