By Ron P. Coderre

During her years as a student and basketball player at Pomfret School, family and friends of Megan Gaudreau had numerous opportunities to watch perform for the Lady Griffins.  Recruited by St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt., it’s become more difficult for her followers to attend her games that are more than four hours from northeastern Connecticut.

On Tuesday, November 25, Gaudreau and her Purple Knight teammates invaded the Assumption College campus in Worcester for a contest against the Lady Greyhounds of coach Kerry Phayre.  Both teams are members of the highly competitive Northest-10 Conference.  The game provided many of Gaudreau’s followers a rare opportunity to see her in collegiate action closer to home.

As her dad, Michael Gaudreau said, “We consider this a home game following all those long trips to Vermont.”

Unfortunately for the large contingent of Gaudreau followers, they left the Laska Gymnasium disappointed as Assumption walked off with a relatively easy 82-60 win over St. Mike’s.  Gaudreau, who is captain of the Purple Knights ladies, did perform admirably scoring six points, grabbing five rebounds and assisting on four baskets, which was higher than her 3.8 points, one rebound and two assists per game average following the team’s first four games.

RPC had an opportunity to sit down and chat with Gaudreau, who is in her junior year, following the disappointing loss.  When asked about the outcome she said, “We know Assumption has a good team but we didn’t perform up to the level that our team is capable of playing.  Every game in the Northeast-10 is a tough game because there are so many good teams and players in the conference.  The speed of the players and upbeat tempo of the game is much faster than I experienced at Pomfret.”

The number of good players the team faces each game is the major difference Gaudreau notes between prep school and college.  In prep school players were probably the best on their team but in college they’re teamed with many players who were the tops of their respective high school or prep teams.

Although Gaudreau doesn’t shoot the rock as much as she did at Pomfret, coach Shannon Kynoch relies on the Brooklyn native to be “solid” on both end of the court.  Her role is to be the glue on offense and defense as the team’s vocal leader.  A better than average passer, Gaudreau has become a distributor on offense and occasionally firing a trey, which she made two – of –five in the Assumption game.

Although St. Michael’s was beaten by the Lady Hounds the large contingent of Gaudreau’s faithful enjoyed watching her play.  Included in the crowd were her parents, Mike and Sharon, her uncle Scott and her good friend Bucky Lohbusch, along with another dozen of her friends and family.