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Cobras crown first-time coach

By STEVE LEE
Published September 13, 2006

HUDSON - Linda Chenard has been hired as Hudson's sixth girls basketball coach and she brings a familiar face as an assistant.

Chenard, a former Southern Maine standout coaching for the first time, will be joined by Kerri Rulison, a 1998 Hudson graduate and three-sport star who played basketball at Lynn.

"Since I moved down here I've had the bug to coach," said Chenard, a behavioral specialist at Hudson. "I just never had the opportunity."

Added Rulison, a special education teacher at Hudson Middle, "I feel like that's my home. It's going to be awesome to coach there."

Chenard replaces Flo Massaro, who coached the Cobras for one season before resigning this summer due to a knee injury.

"Chenard is real enthusiastic," said athletic director Linda McQuade, who also coached girls basketball at Hudson. "She has the playing experience. She has good communication skills.

Like Rulison, Chenard played point guard and plans to run a motion offense with quick transitions.

"First off, I'm going to stress teamwork," Chenard said. "That's what I like about the motion offense. You have to work to get open to score."

Chenard, who holds several assist records at Southern Maine, was more of a scorer in high school but at 5-foot-4 said she adapted her game in college.

"When I was playing in high school I started off scoring a lot," she said, adding at the college level her game changed to "just feed it to somebody who's open."

Rulison, an assistant at Chasco Middle last season and at Springstead two years ago, was a standout volleyball player at Hudson and the 1996 Sunshine Athletic Conference co-player of the year in basketball. She also played softball and overcame a knee injury as a senior to sign with Lynn.

Contact Steve Lee at lee@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 13, 2006, 01:10:07]