As Alvirne’s athletic programs spent the 2023-24 school year taking a step forward overall from the beginning of the school year to the end, the Broncos’ girls’ tennis team was one of few that took a major step in the wrong direction.
The biggest reason for this is a sheer lack of players. Alvirne had just eight girls on their tennis team, and this led the Broncos to go from Division II champions in girls’ tennis just two years ago to 2-7 in 2024.
While you could make an argument that the Broncos graduated a number of talented seniors, teams have to recover from graduating players constantly.
Alvirne’s girls’ tennis coach has seen this need and is looking to create a feeder program for Alvirne’s tennis program that could potentially turn the Broncos into a powerhouse in tennis for years to come.
Coach Moe Leclerc has approached the Hudson school board and is actively looking to create this feeder program, while providing both junior and adult lessons at a minimal cost.
So if Alvirne has this opportunity to better their athletics program, why not take that step? Especially in a year that the program has advanced so far to begin with.
It’s no secret in town that Alvirne hasn’t been a perennial powerhouse in the NHIAA since the days of Class LIMS subdivisions as opposed to the current Division I, II, III, IV setup that exists today and has since the 2010-11 school year when LIMS was discontinued in NH. The Broncos, however, have been presented with an opportunity to change that, in one sport at least by Coach Leclerc, and despite approval from Athletic Director Karen Bonney and initial approval from the school board, the feeder program, as well as several other clinics, have been shut down by Superintendent Dan Moulis.
Why has the program been shut down? Because of “non-compliance with requests made by the school board”. What are those “non-compliances”? A lack of signage indicating that there shall be no parking by the tennis courts and only in the main lot and the unfortunate circumstances of people outside of these programs, that ran in the spring without apparent issue, parking by the tennis courts.
According to Coach LeClerc, “they didn’t belong to any of us. A lot of them came for softball practice on the near field or to walk their dogs, but they weren’t anything to do with our programming.”
There was also an issue with a supposed list of documents that were to be submitted to the school board to revisit the issue as originally intended, but as Coach LeClerc resolved the issue repeatedly, this should be a non-factor.
The programs Coach LeClerc was looking to institute are ones that he ran last summer under a mutual understanding agreement with Karen Bonney, and the programs ran without issue. He had set out to run a program for younger kids as a basic introduction to tennis, as well as a course for those who were in late elementary through early middle school age to get slightly more in-depth training, as well as summer training for the high school aged kids, which could potentially benefit Bronco tennis for years to come. Coach LeClerc also had plans in place to run a “Cardio Tennis” course that was geared more towards the adults in Hudson and surrounding communities. He also had plans to eventually start a middle school tennis program with Tri-County Athletics that is on hold due to Dr. Moulis’ decision.
“Alvirne tennis has taken a major step back since the team won it all two years ago. I want to get us not only back to that place, but somewhere that we can compete every single year in both boys’ and girls’ tennis for state championships. This program, if given the opportunity, could get Alvirne on the map,” said Leclerc when asked where the benefit of these programs come in for the school. “I want this to be something that out-lives me. I want Alvirne tennis to be good for a very long time.”
There is no doubt that Coach LeClerc has the passion to not only make this program run and make it benefit the Hudson community, both young and old, yet he is being stopped from doing so.
Alvirne and the Hudson School District as a whole, needs more people who are willing to invest their time and effort into bettering their programs, and is trending in the right direction for sure, but to deny a coach the opportunity to better their players when doing so has little to no negative impact on the town is not a good look for the school, nor the SAU.
