RallyNorth.net

It's time to support Pentucket, River Rival Region

Tuesday, March, 11 By Dan Guttenplan
Sports editor

Pentucket athletic director Dan Thornton is doing his part in preparation for the big game today.

His athletic department's girls basketball team gave him a nice problem when it qualified for today's Division 3 state semifinal Saturday morning with a victory over Winthrop.

Now Pentucket is a few hours away from taking the TD Banknorth Garden parquet floor for Massachusetts' version of the Final Four. It's every athletic director's dream to sit courtside and watch his/her school's team compete in an NBA arena.

But the two days leading up to the game can be more like a nightmare.

Thornton's last 48 hours have been spent nailing down transportation from West Newbury to Boston for any interested spectators. He's been in charge of arranging ticket sales at the high school. And he's been in charge of generating enthusiasm within the high school without making the Pentucket teachers' lives more difficult due to the increased energy.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association provided Thornton with 400 tickets to sell in his high school. All 400 were sold yesterday at a discounted rate of $7 per ticket rather than the $12.50 spectators will pay at the TD Banknorth Garden gate.

As of late yesterday afternoon, Thornton had arranged for 250 more tickets to be provided by the TD Banknorth Garden. Those will also be sold at the discounted rate tomorrow in the high school's main office. That is, they'll be sold once Thornton collects them.

"I just have to drive down to Boston to get them at some point," Thornton said yesterday.

Oh, the sacrifices made by athletic directors with terrific sports teams.

Now it's up to the River Rival Region to reward Thornton for his efforts.

For teams playing in the state tournament at this time of year, it doesn't matter how many fans are willing to come to the home games. It's about how well the fanbase travels.

A trip to Boston is no small trek for the folks of Pentucket. On Saturday, however, a couple hundred fans made the commute down to The Tsongas Arena in Lowell for the sectional final. The Sachems would figure to draw many more for a state semifinal game at a venue that Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce call home.

The key to the River Rival Region fanbase's impact on this afternoon's game will be how many players, coaches and spectators from rival high schools will make the commute in support of their regular-season nemesis. The 4:30 p.m. tipoff makes it easy for Newburyport, Amesbury, Triton and Georgetown students to attend the game without missing classes.

It would certainly be nice to look around the arena and see hundreds of seats filled with Pentucket colors | green and white | less than a week before St. Patrick's Day in the home of the Boston Celtics.