Fall Mountain softball disqualified from Division III tournament

Christopher Detwiler, The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
·2 min read

Jun. 1—LANGDON — The Fall Mountain softball team has been disqualified from the Division III tournament, the NHIAA announced Tuesday afternoon.

The Wildcats were required to play 12 games within the division during the regular season to qualify for the postseason, and played only 11, according to Fall Mountain Athletic Director Gordon Dansereau. Fall Mountain played five games out of their division during the regular season: Two games against Stevens (D-II), two games against Hinsdale (D-IV) and a game against Brattleboro Union during the season. A 12th divisional game was never scheduled.

Fall Mountain was originally placed in the bracket as the No. 13 seed when the seedings were released by the NHIAA Tuesday morning, and was scheduled to visit No. 4 Monadnock on Wednesday. Later in the afternoon, the bracket was updated to show Fall Mountain out of the tournament. All teams seeded below the Wildcats moved up a seed, and Hillsboro-Deering re-entered the bracket after initially being eliminated.

Monadnock will now host Mascenic, which moved up to the No. 13 seed, on Wednesday.

"I feel bad," Dansereau said. "It's an unfortunate thing to happen and I hope we can learn and grow from it."

Dansereau said he got the call from the NHIAA on Tuesday afternoon. He said he asked the NHIAA if there was anything he could do to get his team into the bracket, and the NHIAA said there isn't, based on their by-laws.

"We were alerted that they were one game short," said NHIAA executive director Jeff Collins on Wednesday morning. "Unfortunately we didn't catch it before the tournament bracket was posted."

Section 4b of the NHIAA Softball Policy & Procedures handbook, listing the scheduling requirements during the season, states: "The minimum number of games will be twelve (12) in division, for ALL Divisions."

"It was the only decision that could be made based on our by-laws," Collins said. "It's my job to enforce the by-laws."

Collins added that he was alerted about the scheduling issue on Tuesday afternoon.

After getting the call from the NHIAA, Dansereau shared the news with head coach Kevin Hicks, who then had to tell his team.

"I feel bad for the girls," Hicks said. "They worked hard all year. They improved all year. ... We had a pretty good game plan. Monadnock's a good team but we weren't going to go down without a fight. Now we are.

"It puts a black cloud over a really successful season," Hicks added. "Really feel bad for the seniors and everyone who contributed this year."

Fall Mountain's season now abruptly ends at 7-9.

Editor's note: This story was updated to include comment from the NHIAA.

Chris Detwiler can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1411, or cdetwiler@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Detwiler.