If you’ve noticed the lack of news about a 1,000 point basketball scorer in Franklin County the last few years, it’s because there hasn’t been one.
It’s been three years since anyone in the area has eclipsed the coveted mark. Anthony Peterson engraved his name in the banners at Turners Falls High School in Feb. 2020 while Greenfield’s Katie Haselton hit the 1,000 point mark one month earlier.
Those were the last two in the area to reach the milestone. One month after Peterson notched his 1,000th point, COVID-19 shut everything down and thus began a series of events that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to reach 1,000 points for the foreseeable future.
Following that initial COVID shutdown, there was talk of not holding a 2020-21 winter season at all. Games were in peril, but Franklin County (and a few other) schools decided to play in their own bubble – Athol, Franklin Tech, Frontier, Hopkins Academy, Greenfield, Mahar, Mohawk Trail, Pioneer and Turners competed against one another.
There was no postseason, and teams only played each other once, limiting the season to just eight games. Typically, a player needs at least four years of varsity time to reach the 1,000 point threshold. For those who were in high school during that abbreviated season, losing 10 or more games was a complete detriment to trying to get to 1,000 points.
Perhaps no player in the Recorder area has been more impacted than Franklin Tech guard Ty Sadoski. As a junior in 2021-22, he led the area with a 20 point-per-game average, totaling 340 points across 17 games.
Through 12 games this year, Sadoski has scored 239 points, averaging 19.9 PPG. The Eagles have four games left on their regular season schedule, but for this exercise, we’ll pretend that Mohawk Trail didn’t cancel its season so Franklin Tech would still hold its normal 18 game schedule. If Sadoski played to his average for those six games, he’d finish the season at 359 points. Combine that with his junior year and Sadoski’s final two seasons at Tech would put him at 699 points.
Sadoski’s father, Tom Sadoski, scored 1,064 points with the Eagles, graduating in 1988 as the first 1,000 point scorer in school history. Ty Sadoski’s combined junior and senior seasons would have had him on pace to join his dad in the 1,000 point club with the Eagles, but with his sophomore year cut to just eight games however, he most likely won’t be able to reach the mark.
In eight games as a sophomore, Sadoski scored 115 points, averaging 12.8 per game. If the season were a normal 18-game slate, and he played to his average in those extra 10 contests, he’d had finished that season with 243 points. Toss in the 43 points he scored as a freshman — a season in which he suffered a broken wrist and played just five games — and he’d be looking to finish around 985 point. He’d need some big games down the stretch to hit the 1K milestone.
Without the full sophomore season, it was just about impossible for Sadoski to get to 1,000 points. He currently sits at 737 points with four games to go.
“It’s always in the back of my mind, especially with my father’s name up there,” Ty Sadoski said. “It does suck knowing I’d be close if we had a full sophomore season and if I didn’t break my wrist as a freshman. If I got it, it’s great. If not, it’s not why I play. It would have been nice but with all the teams I’ve been on, we’ve had a great run and I’ve had fun all four years here.”
Franklin Tech coach Tim Artus figured the shortened 2020-21 season would hurt Sadoski’s chances, but never saw his captain complain about it.
“It impacted him a lot,” Artus said. “You look at what he did last year and what he’s on pace for this year and it’s going to cost him going for that honor. Ty hasn’t brought up [hitting 1,000 points] in four years. He hasn’t mentioned it at all. He’s all about the team and what he has to do to help the team. Sometimes if it’s a physical game I try to get him some rest but he wants to stay in the game. He just likes playing. He’s a good player but also a good human being.”
How rare is it to go three years without a 1,000 point scorer in the area? It’s not common. Raegan Hickey hit the mark in 2018 while fellow Green Wave star Sam Smith reached the milestone in 2019. Pioneer’s Tucker Llewelyn and Brad Hastings both hit 1,000 points, Llewelyn in 2017 and Hastings in 2016.
How long will it be until another 1,000 point scorer comes around? An educated guess would say we’re still two years away.
Pioneer’s Brayden Thayer and Greenfield’s Jon Breor and Caleb Murray were freshmen a season ago, the first full season post-COVID, and all three logged significant minutes.
Thayer led the Panthers in scoring, totaling 207 points on the year. He also had five points as an eighth grader. Breor scored 184 points and Murray had 130 points as freshmen, all getting off to strong starts in hopes of hitting the milestone.
This season, Thayer is up to 144 points in 10 games, Breor sits at 114 points through eight games played and Murray has scored 131 points in 10 games. With still just under half the season to play as well as the postseason, all three will have racked up solid point totals before their junior seasons have even begun. If they can stay healthy and continue to grow as players, each has given themselves a chance to reach the exclusive milestone.
On the girls’ side, a last name with historic ties at Pioneer has already racked up a fair number of points before even entering her freshman year.
Addison Harrington scored 58 points a season ago as a seventh grader with the Panthers, and so far this season as an eighth grader, she sits at 80 points in eight contests. She’ll likely enter her freshman year around 200 points, putting her well on her way to joining her dad, Kevin Harrington, and uncle, Adam Harrington, in Pioneer’s 1,000 point club.
As always, different names could pop up and break out at any given point. As of now however, it’s looking like the Recorder area will see at least five years pass without a 1,000 point scorer.