• Sports Facts

  • The Woodsville High School baseball team was born in 1897, when Headmaster Robertson came to school with a baseball and a bat one day.​ 

  • In 1903, participation for the baseball team was so low that Headmaster Robertson had to become a player in order to have enough participants to qualify as a team. 

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An early WHS baseball team photo. As Headmaster Robertson is sitting in the first row, 

this picture must have been taken before his 1905 retirement.

(Photo courtesy of James Hobbs)

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• • Baseball games were initially held on the school's playground, on King's Plain by 1914, and then on the Community Field by the 1940's. 

  • The boy's basketball team was born in 1917. 

  • Basketball games were held on the second floor of the 1914 schoolhouse, but as attendance grew​, games had to be moved to the Wells River Village Hall. Only with the construction of the Community Building in 1937 were games moved back to Woodsville. 

  • In 1992, Woodsville High School basketball games were moved again, this time to the newly-constructed Haverhill Cooperative Middle School building. The middle school, with its larger gymnasium and more seating options, seemed like the perfect location for games, and all of the championship banners were moved there as well. Despite the grand size, Katharine Blaisdell wrote in her book Haverhill in the Twentieth Century that public outcry against the move made all games resume at the Woodsville Community Building in 1998. 

  • Briefly during 1942, interscholastic basketball was banned due to nation-wide gas rationing during the Second World War. Games were still held, but no major transportation was allowed. 

  • Football at WHS began in the late 1920's, but it was discontinued in 1939. 

  • Girl's field hockey began in 1930 as the female fall sport. This was discontinued in the mid 1980's, as the emergence of soccer began in other local schools.

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At left is the 1933 football team; center is the 1931 girls' field hockey team; at right is the 1932 boys' basketball team.

(All photos courtesy of James Hobbs)

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• • The original school colors of Woodsville High were green and orange, and our school teams were called the "Woodsvilleites." This was changed in the 1940's, as our school adopted the Dartmouth College colors of green and white, and we changed our name to the "Engineers" to honor our railroad-town roots.

    • Popular today, it was in 1924 that the tradition of handing out letters became a school-wide thing. Sports-related ones were green in color, while orchestra and debate-related ones were orange.​

• Sports With Dr. Bagonzi​

  • Between the years 1959 and 1977, Dr. Bagonzi coached various Woodsville teams to thirteen championships and seven runner-ups.

  • In baseball, his passion, he oversaw seven state titles, 261 victories, and even achieved a 35-game winning streak. 

  • In basketball, he oversaw five championships, 361 victories, and achieved a 62-game winning streak.

  • Dr. Bagonzi also coached the girls' cross country team to a title in 1988 as well. 

  • In an act of gratitude for Dr. Bagonzi, in 1991, the Woodsville Community Building was renamed the Dr. John Bagonzi Building. Fitting, for this is the building that housed so many of the basketball games and baseball practices that Dr. Bagonzi managed.