Proulx guides basketball team to victory

Date: 7/26/2010

July 26, 2010

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW -- Dave Proulx recently guided the Western Massachusetts girl's basketball team to a medal at the Bay State Games for the third-straight year.

Proulx, an assistant women's basketball coach and athletic administration assistant at Western New England College (WNEC), led the West contingent of high school athletes to a silver medal. The West won every game in the tournament by double-digits until falling to the Northeast team, 73-63.

"Unfortunately, we ran into a team that was very good and a little bigger than us," Proulx said. "Overall, we played great. Our defense was very strong. We had to win some games ugly, but we won them."

Proulx, an East Longmeadow resident, was the coach of last year's gold medal winning West team and an assistant in 2008 when the West won silver.

"It's a very cool tournament," Proulx said. "It's the only tournament outside of high school that these girls can represent this part of the state against the rest of the state."

Among those on the team were Chicopee's Amber Legare and Agawam's Nicole Johnson and Jess Frawley.

Proulx admitted it isn't an easy process to get 11 girls from around the area that are used to playing against each other to all of a sudden work together.

"You only get 10 or 11 practices from the selection of the team to the tournament. And it's the summer so you've got kids on vacation and things like that," Proulx said. "There's not a lot of time to work with on the players' individual talents. You're just trying to get them on the same page. The first game of the tournament was the first time they had played together."

With the lack of experience working with one another, Proulx said the message he left his players with was to keep it simple and remember the system.

"I told them to trust in the offense and trust in each other," Proulx said. "It's easy for a group of girls that aren't used to each other to stop the ball movement and just take the shot. But they did a great job of buying into it and by the second or third game, we were moving the ball well."

Proulx said he was asked to coach the team again next year and plans to do so as long as he is welcome.

"I love the concept of the tournament. They get to represent the area and have a great opportunity to experience Boston over a four-day period," the Boston University alum said. "As long as I'm coaching at WNEC and they want me to keep coaching this team, I'm going to do it."