LEBANON — Brandon Little was inconspicuous at Lebanon High on Saturday, watching the Twin State all-star boys lacrosse game in a flannel shirt and a baseball cap while leaning on a chain-link fence.

The 43-year old, however, had an outsized impact during his 11 seasons as head coach at Woodstock High. That stint ended last week when Little resigned. He was at the all-star game to watch recently-graduated Wasps Lucas Piconi, Caden White, Jed Astbury and Gabe Marsicovetere play for Vermont during its 21-5 defeat of New Hampshire.

“It came down to how I was balancing stress,” said Little, a Woodstock and University of Vermont graduate who’s the longtime culinary director at the Woodstock Farmer’s Market. “I wanted more balance in my life between work, home life and lacrosse. I told the athletic director I didn’t want to be doing something when I’m not at my best.”

Little and his wife, Heather, are the parents of a 9-year-old son, Cole, and a 7-year-old daughter, Zella. He recalled with a chuckle how Heather was pregnant with Cole when he first guided the Wasps into the state semifinals on a blisteringly hot day at Champlain Union. Woodstock reached that stage in 2011, 2014 and 2018 and were 84-47 the past eight seasons under Little.

“Heather wasn’t sure I should stop coaching and pointed out that the hard part with the kids and coaching was when they were younger,” Little said. “I’ve had other coaches tell me it’s like a drug and to wait a few years and see how it stays in your mind. We’ll see.”

It’s not like Little is walking away completely. He coaches youth hockey, soccer and lacrosse, and his children are also on a summer swim team. The Farmer’s Market is opening a new store in Waterbury, however, and that’s meant more time on the job. Little said he’s comfortable walking away because Woodstock’s program is loaded with talent.

“There’s no fear that we won’t be competitive next season,” he said. “It’s so impressive that a little town with only 325 high school students can produce the athletes and lacrosse players we do.”

Saturday’s 24th annual girls game featured Hanover’s Jasmine Lou and Aiden Stone and Woodstock’s Sidney Pilot. Lou, headed to Columbia (N.Y.) University had an assist.

The 27th annual boys game featured Hanover’s Simon Roach, the Woodstock quartet and Hartford’s Reece Thompson and Nick Porter. Astbury had a goal and was one of the Green Mountain State’s faceoff men. Piconi had two goals, and White and Thompson each scored once. Marsicovetere made seven saves.

CVU, the seven-time defending Vermont Division I boys champion, sent five players to the game. Conspicuously absent were any boys players from NHIAA Division I powerhouses Bishop Guertin or Pinkerton, one of which has either won the state title or finished second every year since 2004. Those schools have played each other in the championship each of the last seven seasons.

Pinkerton and Bishop Guertin also clashed in this spring’s NHIAA Division I girls title game. Two Astros and one Cardinal competed in Saturday’s girls all-star match.

“It doesn’t seem like the Pinkerton or Bishop Guertin (boys) are enthusiastic about playing,” said William “Star” Johnson, the all-star contests’ longtime organizer. “I know some of them have club (lacrosse) obligations, but I don’t really know what’s going on other than that.”

Roach, a defenseman who plans to study sports management at Elon (N.C.) College, also played football and basketball at Hanover and was a captain in each sport. He said he was looking at the University of Texas and Wake Forest (N.C.) University for a business major before picking the smaller school.

Hanover, 7-11 a year ago, bounced back to go 11-5. The fifth-place Marauders lost to Souhegan in the NHIAA Division I quarterfinals but staged five comeback victories and four one-goal triumphs, as well as their first-ever defeat of Bedford.

“We had a young team with a lot of guys who hadn’t played together before, but we had really good chemistry,” Roach said. “We bonded well and we hit a lot in practice. We started 0-3, but we had a lot of guys who showed up 30, 40 minutes early to practice and that paid off.”

A rundown of various local lacrosse all-state honors:

Hanover’s Lou, Maddie McCorkle and Stone were first team NHIAA Division II picks. In Division III, Lebanon’s Libby Stone was a first team honoree and Anna Wolke was a second team selection.

The Marauders boys landed faceoff man Brendan Brigham on the second team NHIAA Division I list, along with Roach and Griffin Young. Kyle Rozzi made the honorable mention team, Ryan Gardner was coach of the year, and Mason Winter was one of eight New Hampshire boys players to earn academic All-American honors.

The Hartford boys contributed Thompson and Porter to the Vermont Division II first team and Dawson Nalette and Andrew Knight to the second team.

Hurricanes girls players Alice Dwyer and Zoe Pfeiffer made the Vermont Division II first team and Emi Harlow, Carolyn North and Greer McCarty on the second team. Emma Farnsworth was given an honorable mention.

The Woodstock boys team produced four members of the Vermont Division I second team all-state team: Piconi, White, Astbury and Marsicovetere. Devan Wood was honored as the assistant coach of the year.

Woodstock’s girls team placed Pilot and Sophie Leggett on the Vermont Division II first team and Kelly Gebhardt and Gina Sorrentino on the second team.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.

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