Vermont
Vermont H.S. sports scores for Friday, Sept. 13: See how your favorite team fared
The 2024 Vermont high school fall season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from soccer, field hockey, volleyball, golf and cross-country running.
To report scores: Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.
►Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
►Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.
FRIDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Football
See Week 3 scoreboard for schedule, results
Field hockey
Games at 4 p.m. unless noted
Milton at Lyndon
North Country at Harwood
St. Johnsbury at Burr and Burton
Bellows Falls at Brattleboro, 4:15 p.m.
Stowe at Montpelier, 6 p.m.
Girls soccer
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Champlain Valley at St. Johnsbury
South Burlington at Burlington, 7 p.m.
BFA-Fairfax def. Richford via forfeit
Boys soccer
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Richford at Caledonia United
Burlington at Rice
Middlebury at Hartford
U-32 11, Hazen 0
U: Braden O’Donnell 1G, 1A. Maddox Heise 3G, 3A. Noah Kopsco 1G, 1A. Zack Parton 1G, 1A. Shiloh Weiss 1G, 1A. Caedin Bodach-Turner 1G. Charlie Pikel 1G. Riley Cadorette 1A. Duncan Schrader 1G, 1A. Alden Bond 1G. Chase Pikel 1A. Cadorette and Cole Pittsley combined for 2 saves.
H: Grayson McNaughten 14 saves.
Note: Charlie Pikel, Schrader and Bond each scored their first varsity goals.
Oxbow 3, Paine Mountain 1
Peoples 3, Lake Region 1
Thetford 4, Lyndon 0
Stowe at North Country
Boys volleyball
Games at 6 p.m. unless noted
Champlain Valley at Montpelier, 4:30 p.m.
Rice at South Burlington, 5 p.m.
Essex at Mount Mansfield
Burlington at BFA-St. Albans
Girls volleyball
Games at 6 p.m. unless noted
Mid Vermont Christian at Tabernacle Christian, 4 p.m.
Randolph at Hartford, 5 p.m.
Mount Anthony at Champlain Valley
Middlebury at Vermont Commons
St. Johnsbury at Burlington, 7:30 p.m.
SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES
Men’s soccer
Fairfield at Vermont, 6 p.m.
SATURDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Football
See Week 3 scoreboard for schedule, results
Field hockey
Games at 11 a.m. unless noted
Spaulding at Missisquoi, 10 a.m.
U-32 at Mount Mansfield
Springfield at Fair Haven
Windsor at Otter Valley
Girls soccer
Games at 11 a.m. unless noted
Spaulding at Middlebury, 10 a.m.
Rutland at Mount Mansfield
Hazen at Winooski
Lamoille at Thetford
Oxbow at Missisquoi
Lake Region at Montpelier, 1 p.m.
Randolph at Rivendell, 1:30 p.m.
Lyndon at Vergennes, 2 p.m.
BFA-St. Albans at Milton, 6 p.m.
Stowe at Colchester
Boys soccer
Games at 11 a.m. unless noted
BFA-St. Albans at Mount Mansfield, 10 a.m.
Rutland at South Burlington
Missisquoi at Enosburg
Fair Haven at Vergennes
Springfield at Randolph
Mount Abraham at Colchester, 1 p.m.
Spaulding at Montpelier, 5 p.m.
Girls volleyball
Games at 1 p.m.
Montpelier at Harwood
Missisquoi at Mount Mansfield
SUNDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES
Women’s soccer
Vermont at Stonehill, 1 p.m.
Field hockey
Wagner at Vermont, noon
(Subject to change)
Vermont
Smilin’ Steves closes three Vermont pharmacies, including at Woodstock clinic – Valley News
WOODSTOCK — The pharmacy inside Ottauquechee Health Center on Pleasant Street is closed as of Friday, along with two other Vermont pharmacies owned by Smilin’ Steves Pharmacies.
The Vermont pharmacy chain announced in a Facebook post just after 2 p.m. Friday that the three locations would be permanently closed at the end of the day. Signs were also posted on the front doors of the stores in Woodstock, Springfield and Ludlow.
Smilin’ Steves’ Rutland pharmacy and High Mountain Home Care LTC Pharmacy, also in Rutland, will stay open.
The company urged customers to call the Rutland pharmacy at 802-775-2545 to transfer prescriptions to another pharmacy, access records or with any other questions.
“We apologize for the suddenness of this,” one of the companies’ owners, Jeff Hochberg, said in a Monday interview. “This was out of our control and we are trying to do everything we can to help correct the situation here and now and forever as long as we can.”
While the Facebook post from Smilin’ Steves Pharmacies references “unforeseen circumstances with our wholesaler,” Hochberg declined to provide specific details about the situation that he said arose last week. He described it as a “David-Goliath situation” and “where healthcare meets capitalism.”
“I really can’t speak too much to the circumstances other than that they were totally unforeseen. This was not planned and we did everything we could to try to rectify the situation as quickly as possible,” Hochberg said, adding that the situation is still unfolding and there may be “more to come.”
He also declined to explain why the Rutland pharmacy and home care pharmacy were able to continue operating.
The Ottauquechee Pharmacy opened inside the Dartmouth Health-run Ottauquechee Health Center in 2021 after the 167-year-old Woodstock Pharmacy closed its doors in 2020.
DH, which had no ownership or oversight of the pharmacy, learned about the closure on Friday, Keith Thomasset, the health network’s chief pharmacy officer, said in a Monday statement.
DH is “committed to ensuring our patients have access to the care they need, including medications,” and has started researching short-term and long-term solutions to address the pharmacy shortage in and around Woodstock, Thomasset said.
But “opening a new pharmacy is not a quick process,” he added.
Options might include “developing a proposed plan to assist with acute care needs while (continuing) to utilize other Dartmouth Health system pharmacy services, such as our own specialty pharmacy and home delivery pharmacy services,” or starting a new DH-owned pharmacy in the area, Thomasset said.
With the closure, Woodstock joins the growing list of Upper Valley towns without a pharmacy. Amid a bankruptcy case, Rite Aid closed all its locations last summer, leaving Windsor and Bethel without pharmacies.
Pharmacies around Vermont have closed over the last several years, often citing poor margins as a result of low reimbursement rates, according to reporting from VtDigger.
Woodstock residents will have to order prescriptions by mail or travel 25 minutes to pharmacies in Lebanon, including CVS, Hannaford, Price Chopper, Walmart and Walgreens or 35 minutes to Kinney Drugs in Randolph.
For its part, Springfield still has a Kinney Drugs location and the recently-opened North Star Health Pharmacy.
Hochberg encouraged Smilin’ Steves customers to contact the Rutland pharmacy with any questions, adding “the system is designed for situations like this” and customer data is still accessible.
As for the employees, Hochberg said the company reached out to other pharmacies to see if anyone was hiring immediately. He did not know exactly how many employees were impacted by the closures, but said it is more than 10.
When asked if there is any possibility of reopening the closed locations as the company works to resolve the situation, Hochberg said the “future is very uncertain.”
“There is definitely a possibility of something in the future, pharmacy is not going anywhere, it’s just got to change,” Hochberg said.
Vermont
VT Pride events mix protest, joy as LGBTQ groups see threat in new laws
Over the last few years, many states have made it harder for transgender people to access gender-affirming care, or in some cases have outright banned it for minors.
Transgender people in many states have been restricted from playing sports or using bathrooms that match their identities, and some states have censored school curricula that discuss LGBTQ+ people more broadly and limited free expression. At the federal level, the Trump administration has sought to limit people’s ability to update IDs like passports to reflect their gender.
That’s why many local LGBTQ+ organizations say celebrating Pride Month, which traditionally occurs in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, is more important than ever.
“Looking at so much of how this country is portraying queer and trans people, we need to celebrate who we are as a people,” said Essex Pride President Kris Smith Thyme. “We need to show that we’re not monsters in a closet, that we’re friends and partners, neighbors, artists and creators.”
“There’s nothing more beautiful than celebrating queerness and transness in the face of all this hatred,” Thyme said.
St. Albans Pride Corps President Scott Bushey echoed Thyme’s sentiments.
“Pride celebrations started out as the very first protests,” said Bushey, and today holding a Pride event is practicing peaceful protest.
“(We’re) standing up for the fact that we deserve the same rights that everyone else gets,” Bushey said. “That we shouldn’t have to fight to get them or to keep them. That we shouldn’t have to worry about what we’re legally able to do.
Essex Pride and St. Albans Pride Corps are two of a number of Vermont LGBTQ+ organizations preparing to host events — festivals, movie nights, arts performances and social hours — to honor people who’ve faced discrimination for their sexualities or genders around this time of year.
Essex Pride’s three-day celebration is slated to take place a few days before Pride Month, from May 29-31, St. Albans Pride Corps’ six-day celebration is set for June 7-14.
Both Thyme and Bushey said their groups’ plans include “something for everyone,” regardless of age or interests.
Essex Pride events
Essex Pride’s fourth annual Pride celebration includes a garlic bread-eating social gathering; a comedy show and dance party; a drag story hour; a festival; a families and friends happy hour; a festival afterparty, which will include a drag and burlesque show with local performers; and free movie screenings of “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” and “Paris is Burning.”
The festival will include local performances, vendors, food trucks and creative activities for all ages and abilities. There will also be a quiet indoor space for people to view the Vermont Queer Archives and a memorial to trans people who have died from violence.
“Joy is the greatest act of resistance, but we can’t ignore what’s happening to the community now,” said Thyme.
St. Albans Pride Corps events
St. Albans Pride Corps’ third annual Pride celebration includes a Pride-based church service; a film screening of and panel discussion about “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar”; Pride game and karaoke nights; its Pride in the Park festival; a drag show; a parade; and a family day and ice cream social, with free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
St. Albans Museum will also have a monthlong exhibit about Pride in Vermont through the years. Attendees can add to a storytelling quilt at the museum.
Bushey said his organization included a Pride-based church service in its lineup because religious spaces are where many LGBTQ+ people have historically faced significant discrimination. He added that St. Albans has a “very large LGBTQ church-going community.”
“It’s really important to us that we really highlight the support of these local churches,” said Bushey. “There are lots of people who go to church who don’t come out because they’re afraid of being kicked out or pushed away.”
The five churches that will share the service believe “everybody is loved by God, that everyone is welcomed in church,” Bushey said.
Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@gannett.com.
Vermont
Best Vermont high schools for athletes? According to one study, these are top 25
Vermont is the home to several notable sports legends over the decades, from Susan Dunklee to David Ball to Albert Gutterson and beyond.
And that trend continues today, with high school athletes creating storylines across the state.
Which high schools in Vermont are considered the best for athletes in 2026?
According to a study conducted by Niche, which accounts for “reviews of athletics, number of state championships, student participation in athletics, and the number of sports offered at the school”—and data from the U.S. Department of Education—these are the top 25.
25. Spaulding High School (Barre)
Total number of sports: 19
24. Bellows Free Academy (Saint Albans)
Total number of sports: 15
23. Danville School
Total number of sports: 22
22. Montpelier High School
Total number of sports: 19
21. Hazen Union School (Hardwick)
Total number of sports: 19
20. Brattleboro Union High School
Total number of sports: 19
19. Otter Valley Union High School (Brandon)
Total number of sports: 19
18. Milton Senior High School
Total number of sports: 20
17. Enosburg Falls Junior/Senior High School
Total number of sports: 20
16. Champlain Valley Union High School (Hinesburg)
Total number of sports: 23
15. Thetford Academy
Total number of sports: 10
14. Mt. Anthony Union High School (Bennington)
Total number of sports: 28
13. Vergennes Union High School
Total number of sports: 15
12. Colchester High School
Total number of sports: 22
11. Harwood Union High School (Duxbury)
Total number of sports: 17
10. Bellows Free Academy (St. Albans)
Total number of sports: 9
9. Lyndon Institute
Total number of sports: 28
8. Woodstock Union High School
Total number of sports: 26
7. Burlington Senior High School
Total number of sports: 16
6. Essex High School
Total number of sports: 18
5. South Burlington High School
Total number of sports: 25
4. U-32 Middle & High School (East Montpelier)
Total number of sports: 22
3. Burr and Burton Academy (Manchester)
Total number of sports: 35
2. Rice Memorial High School (South Burlington)
Total number of sports: 24
1. St. Johnsbury Academy
Total number of sports: 30
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