Bird, Albert Named Athletes of the Week

One high school athlete is being recognized for filling up the box score. The other? For pretty much the opposite.

 

Big numbers are nothing new for Drury High School senior Hayden Bird. But this week, he put up huge numbers on a couple of big stages.

 

On Monday and Tuesday, Bird scored 52 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and handed out six assists over two nights to lead Drury to victory in its Gene Wein Holiday Tournament. Two nights later, he helped the Blue Devils spoil a Shire City sweep at the Pittsfield Hoop Club Holiday Classic at the Boys & Girls Club, where Bird scored 37 points with nine rebounds in a win over St. Joe.

 

That’s 89 points in three games, an average of nearly 30 points per game.

 

Not only is Drury 5-0 to start the season. Bird and his mates already have checked an important item off their “to do” list.

 

“We have three objectives every year,” Bird said on Tuesday night. “To win Gene Wein, win the North [Division] and then, hopefully, go try to win Western Mass. We accomplished one of them tonight, so it’s very important for us.”

 

Mount Greylock Regional sophomore Maddie Albert did have a big assist on a Lauren Howard 3-pointer during the Mounties’ fourth-quarter comeback to beat Pittsfield on Friday night.

 

But that is not why she is being honored.

 

It was Albert’s defensive play that stood out the most in helping the Mounties beat the Generals for the first time in a very long time.

 

In Mount Greylock’s diamond-and-one defensive set, Albert was the one who had the responsibility to guard Pittsfield’s Peyton Steinman, who was held to no points in the second half as the Mounties erased a 13-point deficit and earned a 52-48 win to go to 4-0 this winter.

 

“She does a great job,” Mount Greylock senior Jenna Benzinger said of Albert. “Every time, she’s the player that we go to to put on the other team’s key player. She’s a great athlete, and she hustles everywhere. You can count on her.

 

“She did it last year against Sophie [Gatzounas] at South Hadley. We knew she could do it.”

 

The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Jiminy Peak.