NEW HAMPTON, N.H. — Andrew Gale was listening to Bill Simmons’ podcast episode with Doc Rivers back in June, and a part of it resonated with him. They were talking about the Celtics’ championship run, and how they had knocked on the door so many times in previous years and never broke through.
Soon after, Gale met with his New Hampton squad at the Section 7 Showcase in Arizona. The Huskies, after a terrific 30-win season, lost to Vermont Academy in the NEPSAC Class AAA championship game. There was a message from the podcast that he wanted to impart on his team.
“We weren’t ready to win last year,” Gale said.
Like the Celtics in 2024, New Hampton is hoping 2025 is its time. With seven of their top eight players – including Cincinnati commit Keyshuan Tillery, Penn State commit Mason Blackwood and Wyoming commit Nasir Meyer – the Huskies are one of the most talented teams from New England in 2024-25 and a clear favorite to break through and win this season’s Class AAA title.
It’s a story, in Gale’s words, that’s been written for three years, after Tillery and Blackwood joined his program in 2022 and together set the foundation. The Huskies know they’ll have a target on their backs this season. But they’re embracing their newfound expectations, and they’re motivated to get the job done.
“Just because maybe on paper, people are going to feel like we’re more talented than teams, that doesn’t matter,” Gale said. “When the doors are closed, it just matters about the group in there and over the next four or five months, it’s proving to ourselves and training ourselves to be prepared to win. So, nothing will be handed to us. That’s something that I’ve hammered into their head is: We have to be prepared to win.”
Here’s what to expect from New Hampton ahead of a massive 2024-25 season.
Lessons learned
Gale views the championship pursuit as something of a race to the mountaintop. Vermont got there first last season, and now everyone has to start over at the bottom. But he believes they should be in a different place than most teams.
“With the group of guys we have coming back, we should start way higher up in the climb than starting at the base,” Gale said.
There were plenty of important lessons learned from a championship run that came up one game short. While they won 30 games and certainly enjoyed a very successful season, Gale was direct: “I think we were really immature last year in our wins,” he said.
“We weren't mature enough to understand that even though we won games, stuff had to get fixed, and we would only try to fix things in a loss,” Gale said. “That’s top down, that’s me included. I would go back home and say, ‘All right, we won, so I should celebrate that,’ but there does need to be a balance of that. Like the things that we did in the first game when we beat Mount Zion, we blew a huge lead and almost lost in the National Prep Showcase, but the stuff we were doing wrong in that game is the stuff that hurt us against Vermont.”
After the Huskies spent time together this summer and early this fall at open gyms, Gale sees a much more mature group that's locked in when they need to be and communicating together. It’s also a squad that understands the weight of expectations. Last season, expectations and pressure were new to them, and Gale said they didn’t handle it well.
“The group now understands that pressure is a privilege,” Gale said. “The fact that you’ve played well enough to create expectations, like it’s good to have pressure because that means you’ve built something. Whether that’s what we want it to be or not is up to us, but we’re building something that puts pressure on us, which is a good thing. We should embrace that and learn how to manage that.”
Improved defense will be key
New Hampton’s offensive firepower is clear. Tillery is one of the best point guards not only in New England, but the country, and his ability to create is second to none. The Huskies can score in so many ways with the versatility of Blackwood and Meyer, among others. Offense will not be the obstacle to a championship.
“I think we have to get a lot better defensively,” Gale said.
Gale was quick to add that it has to be within reason. New Hampton plays a fast style and prefers to create as many possessions as possible, so naturally there will be some defensive slippage. But there are certainly areas to improve. Gale wants his team to get better in their off-ball activity and create more deflections. He acknowledges that they don’t have an elite rim protector lurking in the paint. That means the Huskies need to be even more focused and engaged on the defensive end in an effort to make it difficult on the opponent.
“It's positionally, how are we going to make it as challenging as possible and it’s individual defense on the perimeter, it’s shrinking the court and just playing with an overall intensity,” Gale said. “I think there’s a tendency with young basketball players that when you get beat, you give up on the play because you think it’s over. There’s multiple different scrambles that might come out of that situation, like it’s a chain reaction. …
“We have great off-ball defenders like Mason and Naz who have great athleticism and get up there and block shots, but it’s not like we have a physically imposing presence in the paint that scares people away from going in there.”
His leaders seem to be buying in. Asked what he thinks will be the difference for New Hampton in its championship pursuit, Tillery didn’t hesitate.
“It’s going to be our defense, for sure,” he said.
Leaping forward
With so much of last season’s team back, Gale won’t have to worry much about fitting new guys into roles; they’re a step ahead in some ways. But he’s certainly looking for those returners to make steps in their development that could help New Hampton get over the hump.
Gale pinpointed three players, all in the 2026 class, who he expects to make big jumps: guard Ty Tabales (Worcester, Mass.), forward Chad Cook and guard Jayden Harrington. Of those three, he thinks Cook could be the biggest surprise after an inconsistent sophomore season. Gale said he has impressed throughout workouts since the end of last season, and his confidence is high right now.
“His maturation process is pretty awesome,” Gale said.
Harrington is New Hampton’s best shooter, but Gale wants to see his 6-foot-5 guard be more aggressive on the offensive end, and even be a bit selfish at times. Gale hopes to see Tabales grow as a secondary facilitator. He knows opponents are going to gameplan for Tillery, so he needs guys like Tabales to alleviate that pressure.
Gale is also hopeful to see a jump from 6-foot-9 senior forward Will Goode, who alongside Cook is tasked with replacing departed big man Oscar Edelman. Ben Safran, a 2026 guard and good shooter, will also contribute.
Meyer, now in his second season at New Hampton, will hope to carry the momentum he created at the end of last season. Gale said he struggled initially in his transition as he adjusted to playing alongside other talented players, but figured it out late.
“Can he continue to evolve as that kind of player?” Gale said.
Tillery, Blackwood set the tone
Make no mistake: If New Hampton brings home a championship this winter, it’ll be on the backs of Tillery and Blackwood.
The star duo, who were also teammates with the City Rocks on the AAU circuit, started this story when they transferred to New Hampton two years ago. When Gale talks about the squad’s improved maturity going into this season, it starts with them.
“Being three-year guys that came in initially as sophomores and started basically every game, they’ve kind of gone through it,” Gale said. “They’ve had heartbreak, and they kind of set the tone. Obviously, them playing together all summer helps, but … they’ve built a culture within the team of guys who have been here, it’s almost like the guys want to win it for them as much as they want to win it for themselves.”
Gale noted that their development into high-major recruits this summer adds another layer of expectation. He wants them to live up to that, especially with their ambitions to be impact players at that level in college. He wants Tillery to improve his finishing, process the game faster and facilitate at a higher level.
But their increased recruitment hasn’t gone to their heads, and they’re not taking anything for granted. For Tillery and Blackwood, there’s only one goal before they leave high school.
“In life, you don’t really get a lot of second chances,” Blackwood said. “Especially this being the last year, senior year, like we gotta get it. It’s just another shot at it.”
