By Jack Healey
Here are my Top 13 Baker’s Dozen Local Sports Stories Of The Decade. These are mine and are related to the Rutland area in most cases so if you are from above the “Middlebury-Dixon Line” or other parts of the state this list is not for you.

13. Rutland’s Drake Hull winning three straight Vermont Mens Amateur Golf titles in 2017,2018 and 2019.
12. Killington hosting multiple womens skiing World Cups and the dominance of Burke Mountain Academy’s Mikaela Shiffrin
11. Rutland High School Cheerleaders winning five straight Division 1 state titles and two straight New England championships plus winning the National Championship at the “Reach For the Beach” competition in Ocean City, Maryland in 2017 and Mill River winning two straight Division 2 state championships.
10. Vermont defeating New Hampshire in the 2016 Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Game 50-2 after 16 straight losses going back to 2000. Coach Brian Grady then of MSJ coaching Vermont to victory in the 2000 game and then as the head coach at Fair Haven coaching Vermont to victory in the 2016 game.
9. The Proctor girls soccer team winning four straight Division 4 state championships in 2013,2014,2015 and 2016.
8. The MSJ girls basketball team winning four straight Division 4 state championships in 2015,2016,2017 and 2018.
7. West Rutland’s Eric Maxham setting the state boys soccer career scoring record with 116 goals in 2018.
6. Proctor’s Abby McKearin setting the state girls soccer career scoring record with 168 goals and being named the Vermont Girls Soccer Gatorade Player of The year in 2015.
5. Wallingford’s Bethany Bosch swimming the English Channel in 2014. Only 400 plus women have ever accomplished the feat.
4. North Clarendon’s Jonathan Wilbur rolling a perfect series 900 in 2019 becoming just the 35th bowler in the world to accomplish that feat.
3. Rutland High winning its first girls hockey Division 1 state championship in 2017.
2. The Rutland High boys basketball team winning its 2nd straight Division 1 state championship and finishing with a perfect season in 2018 with coach Mike Wood’s 200th victory as Raider coach. Rutland went on to win 43 straight games with the streak ending in December of 2018.
1. Rutland High’s first Division 1 state championship in boys basketball since 1967, breaking a 50 year curse in 2017. Yes this will stand as the #1 local sports story of the decade. It will be remembered in Rutland forever!

It was quite a decade! What will the new decade bring? It should be exciting!
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HAPPY NEW DECADE!!!