The BKW MasterMinds team had a banner year in 2020-21, despite the pandemic, and the inability of the program to hold in-person meets. The team finished 8-4, tied for first in their league with Berlin, and qualified for Sectionals for their fourth straight season.
Congratulations to MasterMinds team members:
Varsity: Aaron Carr (10th grade), Paul Larrabee (11th grade), Stavros Lefkaditis (11th grade), Luciano LoBalbo (10th grade); part-time: Faith Coates (9th grade)
JV: Faith Coates (9th grade); Kathryn Joslin (9th grade); Chelsea Santandrea (9th grade); part-time: Luciano LoBalbo (11th grade)
The 2021 team was led by Paul Larrabee, whose 875 points led the league, and placed third in Section II. Paul led the league in correct answers with 86, answers attempted with 118, and points per half at 36.5. Paul’s lead over the next closest scorer was an astonishing 265 points.
Stavros Lefkaditis was also a significant contributor, finishing 20th in the league with 50 points.
JV was led by 9th graders Kathryn Joslin (200 points), and Faith Coates (105 points). Faith also played with the varsity, scoring points, and in Sectionals.
5th season for Paul Larrabee
Paul has just finished his fifth season of BKW MasterMinds. Last year as a sophomore, he was a league All-Star, finishing second in scoring with 535 points, and 26.8 per half. His teammate, Bryan Doolin, was the #10 scorer in the league. Although the team qualified for Sectionals, the closing of schools in mid-March 2020 ended the season, and Sectionals were not held.
In Paul’s freshman season, he achieved the first of his three All-Star nods, finishing second in the league in scoring with 370 points, and 16.1 per half. He was joined by seniors Nicole Carr (#10 in scoring), and Caiden Larsen (#11), and helped lead the Bulldogs to a 280-50 Sectional win over Coxsackie-Athens. That year, BKW students Aaron Carr (130 points as an 8th grader), and Logan Evans (100 as a 7th grader) led the JV team.
In the 2017-18 season, the team had so many seniors, including the #9, 10, 11, and 16 scorers in the league, that Paul played the entire regular season on JV, finishing second in scoring in the league with 295 points, more than 12 per half, as an 8th grader! He then moved up to varsity and helped the team achieve a 140-90 win over Watervliet in Sectionals, where they lost their two matches to huge schools (Albany and Burnt Hills) by a total of 20 points.
Paul first came out for MasterMinds as a 7th grader; he showed promise right away, finishing fourth on a team of 9th and 10th graders (and 12th in the league), scoring 50 points. He even played varsity, and answered the one question he attempted playing for varsity.
Congratulations to Paul and all of the MasterMinds team members on a successful 2020-21 season, and competitive career.