A Chronicle of the 2026 NEPSAC Champions

by Mason von Jess '19

As the first signs of spring began to show across New England the weekend of March 7-8, Boys Varsity Basketball Head Coach Joe Busacca and his team had their focus firmly on completing their goal set during the teeth of winter: bringing a championship back to the Hotchkiss community. And on Sunday, March 8, they did just that. #5 Hotchkiss beat #2 Phillips Andover 66-54 to secure the NEPSAC Class A Boys Basketball Championship, adding to their season résumé after already winning a Founders League title.

Although neither Coach Busacca nor any of his players had ever competed in a NEPSAC Championship game, elements of familiarity existed for the group to lean on in the minutes leading up to the game. Their playoff journey would end on the court of Worcester Academy, where it started four days earlier in a quarterfinal contest that pitted #4 Milton Academy as the neutral site host against the Bearcats.

While their classmates and teachers cheered on from a viewing party in the new Dining Commons back in Lakeville, the team established a halftime lead that lasted into a 57-54 victory over the Mustangs.

No such stream was necessary on Saturday as Hotchkiss played host to #8 Phillips Exeter. Feeding off the energy vibrating through the MAC, the team gave their supporters lots of reason to cheer. Hotchkiss never trailed during the semifinal matchup, trouncing the Lions 69-52.

This victory earned the team one more game, one more chance to compete, and one more opportunity to collectively manifest the calling card of their coach: Be Better Than Yesterday (BBTY). A familiar message, transformed into unprecedented results—the program’s second ever NEPSAC title—and emblematic of this group’s journey to reach them.

BBTY does not mean reckless advancement—it relies upon the building and mastering of a foundation that one can trust and expand from. When asked what Coach Busacca was most proud of during this playoff run, he said, “Resilience. This group had the mental grit to lock in when we needed it most.” And it would be easy to understand why if one had followed the team from the start of the season. They ran a 5 on 0 and press breakdown drill every day to fall in love with the details.

“Usually, it can be hard to invest high school players in these types of drills, but this group wanted to be better,” Busacca said. “That’s what is so special about this group of guys. They had the individual discipline to see the long-term goal and what needed to happen every day to get there.”

However, nothing in sports is guaranteed—factors such as luck and timing and subjectivity exist—and each championship group takes their own path to conquer what is within their control. One might not be able to tell from their performances in March but this group was stumbling before the calendar changed to 2026. The team was 4-3 and lacked the identity Coach Busacca needed to see for this group to ascend. “I thought we needed to get tougher. We needed to distance ourselves from who we thought we were and fall in love with who we needed to be, which was a defensive, tough-minded group that can win in multiple ways.”

That shift certainly seemed to occur once the team returned from Winter Break, contributing to a 19-1 record in 2026 that included a 9-0 run to close out the regular season and help capture the Founders League title, the first under Busacca.

When asked what these accomplishments mean to Busacca, he said, “It means a lot to the community more than anything for me. There have been so many community members that played a pivotal role in us being successful.”

Another message embodied by this team: the essence of community and group contribution. “This was the first year that I didn’t start the season with choosing captains. The seniors on the team this year were all such good leaders in their own ways that it almost felt like choosing a captain would be a detriment to the team. Every practice and every game they set the bar and supported the younger guys along the way.”

And that is not to undermine the significance of the performances from the tournament MVP, Jordan Ghee ’26, All-Founders League players (Jordan, 1^st Team; Preston Merrick ’26, 1^st Team; Alonzo Archbold ’27, 2^nd Team), or any other player, but rather draw on the intention and collaboration that helped yield these individual recognitions along with the team’s championship.

This team built and mastered the foundation leading to trust, harmony, and grit as a group. And it allowed them to elevate their play when it mattered. “For Hotchkiss basketball, it's a stepping stone,” Busacca said. “We have won two NEPSAC titles in five years and are looking forward to continuing that success.”