Undefeated Enosburg serving up dunks, thrills, wins

The secret has been out for some time.

“The thing is now, walking through the hallways, everyone expects it,” Mahlik Franklin said.

“We’ve always had a ton of support, but now every game in the gym is packed, standing-room only,” Calvin Carter said. “It’s crazy.”

Not only have the Enosburg Hornets rattled off win after win — 12 straight after Friday night’s runaway victory in Danville — they do so in style, with a flair that makes them just about the hottest ticket in northern Vermont high school boys basketball.

Why all the buzz? The Hornets can throw down.

“It seems like a lot of people like that and talk about it and expect it every game. They want to know how many dunks, they want to see dunks,” coach Matt Luneau said. “It’s interesting going places — wherever you go people are talking about the team here. It’s definitely a rarity at this level.”

Most Vermont schools can count seasons between jams. For the lucky few, it might be a matter of games.

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But with Franklin and Carter, Enosburg (12-0) has a pair of players capable of getting above the rim with regularity — the three first-quarter dunks in their home opener were an apt warning shot. That makes the title-starved program’s juggernaut squad appointment viewing.

It’s the flash factor for an unselfish, experienced, motivated unit. The five starters — Carter, Franklin, Matt Perley, Wade McAllister and Caleb Laroche — all average double figures scoring.

“I was telling our guys, ‘Watch how they pass,’ because they move the ball, their positioning in their offense is in the right balance,” said Winooski coach Tom Obbagy after a game against Enosburg earlier this month. “They’ve got ball movement, they’ve got player movement and that’s a lot of fun to watch.

“Also, they play hard. That’s the other thing, how hard they play, how much they put into their defense. That’s a big factor when you get a team that’s that hungry to guard and play.”

Through 12 games, Enosburg is putting up 65.4 points per contest — and winning by an average of 27.5.

A 3/4-court trap, with the 6-foot-4 Carter as the point man, provides plenty of fuel for the Hornets’ fastbreak offense. A deep creative streak and sense for each other on the court help with the rest.

“It’s chemistry. It’s more than just basketball. We play together all summer, we all hang out all summer,” Perley said. “It’s not just the season we show up and play basketball. You’ve got to have the desire to get better.”

Said Franklin: “We have a lot of solid guys who can step up when we need it.”

Even without the high-flying antics and end-to-end, showtime flash, the Hornets figured to have drawn well this winter. They had been building for a while.

The addition of Franklin, a transfer from Richford, and Laroche as sophomores built out a young nucleus that already included Carter and Perley. Enosburg went from a 12-8 record in the 2014-15 regular season to the program’s first title game appearance since 1992.

“Once they came over I thought we could be very good very soon,” said Luneau, now in his fifth season at Enosburg after several years as an assistant coach for the Syracuse women’s team. “We made it to the Division II championship with sophomores. So I had a pretty good feeling we’d be pretty good then.”

The seventh-seeded Hornets’ run to the D-II final, where they lost 65-56 to undefeated No. 1 Woodstock, looked like a Cinderella run but wasn’t a surprise for the team, Carter said.

“Enosburg has never won a boys state championship, so the whole town was coming together, supporting us, coming to games,” said Carter, who cracked the 1,000-point mark as a junior and has evolved into one of the state’s most versatile standouts. “We knew we were better than our ranking and we could go far.”

This winter Luneau has made a point of setting goals the players and the team before every game — certain numbers of rebounds, foul shots, 3-point attempts. The idea is to keep the squad focused on improvement across the board in a season full of lopsided victories.

“They want to be creative and as long as they’re producing while being creative, then great. It makes it fun for everyone,” Luneau said.

“We’re starting to realize if you put in the effort, if the effort is there, we’re going to be in the game no matter what,” Perley said.

Unable to hide from their history, the Hornets, semifinalists a year ago, have embraced it. The 0-6 record in state finals is just fuel at this point.

The one goal above the rest this winter? Capturing the program’s first crown and the school’s first boys championship in any sport since 2006 (soccer).

“They guys, they want it,” Luneau said. “And they aren’t going to settle for anything less. I don’t know if I want to say it, but that’s the truth. We want to do it for Enosburg.”

Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eadanforth