Next year’s winter Andover/Exeter athletic competitions will will not include the Boys Varsity Basketball game. Leon Modeste, Instructor in Athletics and Boys Varsity Basketball coach, said, “In our minds, [the Andover/Exeter basketball rivalry] has ended at this point. The two programs have gone in different directions.” However, Exeter Boys Varsity Basketball coach Malcolm Wesselink disagreed with Modeste. “When Andover drops Exeter, they are giving up a rivalry. People at Andover/Exeter should be outraged,” he said. Andover and Exeter are both members of the New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC), and until this year, their basketball teams were both part of the conference’s Division A – the grouping of the most elite teams. In the past three years, Exeter has had a total of 16 PG’s on its varsity basketball team: two, six and eight in 2005-2006, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively. Andover had four last year. Division A teams include Brewster Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) and Worcester Academy. But beginning with next year, Andover Boys Varsity Basketball will be part of the Division B league – where four postgraduates per team is the suggested NEPSAC guideline, as opposed to the uncapped figure for Division A teams. Other members of Division B are Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, Hotchkiss School and Taft School. Modeste commented, “We haven’t changed and we didn’t give up a rivalry. We are not trying to chase the A-Division teams…PA feels that it is important to have a home-grown team and not one full of eight or ten PG’s.” Modeste said that the adoption of new rules for Division A also prompted Andover to re-evaluate its standing. According to Modeste next year, Division A will make a big step towards college basketball. Each half will be 20 minutes long instead of 16, and the three-point line will be moved back one foot. Modeste said that before these changes were made, Andover really enjoyed playing Division A teams, such as Worcester Academy and NMH. After the guidelines changed, these two teams were very understanding of Andover’s desire to compete only with other Division-B teams, he said. However, Exeter’s Wesselink said that he did not comprehend Andover’s decision. “I have not been given a reason I understand. It is inconceivable that any Andover team would drop an Exeter team or vice-versa,” continued Wesselink. Wesselink said he believed that Andover should look past the numbers and instead look at the “88 years of basketball competition, 135 basketball games, more than 100 years of athletic competition and 200 plus years of a special relationship.” Luke Miller ’08, a postgraduate, said, “This year’s A/E score speaks for itself. The Exeter team had enough PG’s that they were coming off of the bench.” Menelik Washington ’09, co-captain of the basketball team next year, said, “In theory I agree [with the decision to drop Exeter], but in practice, I would have really liked to see the rivalry continue, even if it were just through an outside scrimmage.” “It was the right decision to make because Exeter doesn’t go by the same PG rules, but at the same time I want the challenge of playing them,” said Khalid McCaskill ’10. Brian Russell ’09, the other co-captain, agreed with McCaskill and Washington and said, “[Modeste] told me the story and the history goes pretty far back of Exeter having [many] PG’s and us having [a smaller number of] PG’s. Almost all the other private schools we play have limited PG’s so it makes sense that we don’t play Exeter because they won’t change their policy.” Thomas Lavin ’08, a postgraduate, said, “I don’t think it was the right decision to drop Exeter. We pretty much held our own the second-half of Andover/Exeter and we didn’t lose too too badly.” Lavin added, “In the next few years, our team should have a good shot of beating Exeter. We had a lot of good underclassmen and with the right coaching from [Modeste], we could have a really good team.” Washington said that he believes the absence of the Boys Varsity Basketball game next winter at Andover/Exeter will change the rivalry a bit. He said it would put a much heavier focus on the hockey teams. Exeter’s basketball team fared well during the season in comparison to Andover’s team. Exeter finished with a record of 17 wins and five losses, playing mostly Division B teams. Andover’s team recorded four wins and 17 losses.
